FRANKFORT – With no revenue to create new judgeships, the state Senate approved a
measure today to “redeploy” judges to regions seeing population growth.
House Bill 348, as amended by the Senate, would add family court judges to both the
judicial circuit serving Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties and judicial
circuit serving Boone and Gallatin counties. Those new judgeships would be filled
during the general election in November so the new family courts could be
operational by Jan. 7 of next year.
“The current family judge for Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties is currently
doing the work of almost three judges,” said Sen. Rick Girdler, R-Somerset. “That in
and of itself is almost criminal.”
The new judgeships would be paid for by the elimination of a circuit judge in Floyd
County and a district judge in far West Kentucky by 2023. The change in far West
Kentucky would be handled by combining two district judgeships – one in Fulton and
Hickman counties and one in Carlisle and Ballard counties – into one district
judgeship. The circuit judgeship for those counties is already combined.
HB 348 would also convert a district court judge to a family court judge in Bullitt
County.
Girdler said HB 348 is not the statewide judicial plan the Kentucky Court of Justice
spent more than two years researching and developing and that the Senate passed last
session.
“We are simply reallocating existing resources to address an emergency situation,”
he said, adding the judges are being removed from areas seeing a decline in
population.
Another provision of HB 348 would require the Kentucky Court of Justice to resubmit
a new judicial redistricting plan to the General Assembly before Dec. 31, 2020, for
consideration in the non-budget session in 2021.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said HB 348 was just a
first step in ensuring residents of the growing regions of the state have access to
justice.
“This bill is a compromise on that judicial redistricting plan,” he said. “I know
after a long time in this chamber that you don’t give up the good for the sake of
the perfect and sometimes you take half of a loaf instead of the whole loaf.”
Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, said taking away judges from areas projected to lose
population becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“This bill has a negative impact on us in the mountains,” he said. “We continue to
see this attempt to shift some of the judges out of the mountain region.”
He said rural areas hit by the loss of coal jobs need more, not less, support from
the state.
Senate President Robert Stivers II, R-Manchester, stood in support of the bill.
“Should we have gone further? Without a doubt,” he said, “but at least we got a
start on having policy and process to determine how we create or decertify
judgeships in the future.”
HB 348 now goes back the House for consideration of the Senate change.