Commonwealth lawmakers recently met with Chief Justice Debra Lambert to discuss funding for the judicial branch on the 2026 state budget.
Chief Justice Lambert said a topic of concern is pay as the Commonwealth ranks 48th out of the 50 states for state court judges’ salary. She said Kentucky state court judges make $30,000 less a year than the national average for the position.
“We are asking for a funding increase to support pay raises of 15-percent across the board in our branch,” Lambert said. “While we are incredibly grateful for the small increases over the last few years it does not change the fact that judicial branch salaries have not kept pace with the rising cost of living over the last 20 years. Nor have we ever caught up with our fellow state employees.”
She added Commonwealth judicial branch salaries, on average, are 17-percent lower than executive branch comparable positions and retirement benefits have also been cut in recent years.
Officials said with this comes the challenge of obtaining and retaining qualified people, as most people in the industry stand to make more money in the private sector or in another branch than a judge or clerk could.
Lambert said the justice department’s budget has not risen with annual costs since 2010. When met with financial shortfalls from this, the department has historically leaned on their restrictive funding- an internal funding that, if not spent, used to carry forward into their next budget. Lambert said with the passage of Senate Bill 25, the Justice Department has lost access to this funding roll over.
“Access to those funds now require explicit legislative appropriation. The financial flexibility we once had that allowed us to manage the shortfalls internally has been significantly reduced,” Lambert said. “We will ask that those limitations be lifted, giving access to our own funds, at least to a greater extent.”
The branch has relocated into a large office building after Frankfort flooding forced them to evacuate their previous residence, but the state Supreme Court has yet to reestablish a court room.