Raises up to $50/day for jurors fuels Kane budget woes

A portion of the Kane County budget that already ran into the red for 2014 promises to fall much deeper into the red this year thanks to a change in state law regarding jury duty pay.

The cost to operate Kane County courtrooms resulted in a $72,000 deficit to close out 2014. Judges needed to employ more interpreters for Russian-, Polish- and French-speaking defendants than estimated. This year, the financial hit will come from the other side of the jury box.

A change in state law at the end of the year granted jurors their first statewide daily pay increase for service in about 40 years. Jurors will receive a minimum of $25 for their first day of service and $50 for each additional day of service. The idea was to transform jury duty into a civil good deed people wanted to perform rather than avoid.

But the initial bill had nothing to do with jury pay; it wasn't until a suggested amendment came along Nov. 25 that it did. Both houses of the General Assembly didn't agree to the amendment until Dec. 3. The county's new fiscal year began Dec. 1. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill into law Dec. 19.

"This was not budgeted," Kane County Chief Judge Judith Brawka told a county board committee. "This wasn't even on the books by the time our budget was approved. It came out of the blue. There was no advance warning."

Kane County pays jurors $10 per day plus mileage reimbursement for the drive from the juror's home to the courthouse. In 2014, a down year for jury trials, the county used 8,710 jurors at a cost of $144,568.

The state-mandated pay raise kicks in June 1. County officials expect the midyear budget will see jury costs hit about $253,000 by the end of 2015. And a full year with the raises in place will total nearly $400,000 in 2016. That's about a $255,000 increase from current costs.

The state is contributing no funds to help pay the jury costs. But the law change did eliminate mandatory mileage reimbursement. Kane County pays jurors 20 cents per mile.

Also helping is another change created by the new law that shrinks the size of all civil case juries to six members. That part also begins June 1. Right now juries are six members for cases involving damages of $50,000 or less except for when either party involved demands a jury of 12.

Brawka told county board members she will experiment with ways to reduce the number of people called for jury duty and/or the days they serve to minimize the impact to the county budget. For example, she may push the start of jury trials from Monday to Tuesday.

Board member Cristina Castro said the county will also lobby legislators for a trailer bill to either help with funding the raises or at least push back the implementation date. Brawka said even delaying the raises until 2016 would at least allow Kane and other counties to budget for the costs in advance.