33rd / 424th District Courts

The frustrations from this year's budget process with the counties came full circle today. I got the final numbers from all four counties on what they did with my budget request regarding employee pay raises.

The budget process is burdensome for all district judges but is exacerbated by having to deal with four counties. I can make 16 trips on budgets during the annual budget cycle: (1) present the budget request, (2) go back again and re-explain, plead, fuss, etc, (3) meet with each county judge and the juvenile probation chief for the juvenile board hearings to adopt the budget, and (4) present that budget to the county commissioners. Times 4 counties = 16 trips. And if there are any problems on the juvenile budget -- add 4 more trips.

On my office salaries there are a lot of concerns about the pay my employees receive but in fact 2 of the 3 are closely in line with the pay grade system in Burnet County -- thus they fit in relationship to county employees. So there is always a lot of pressure on the commissioners from their employees if my requests are greater than what the county is doing in general.

There is a legal issue. The Gov't Code provides that the district judge determines the salary, subject to approval by the commissioners court. That provision ends up having no meaning when each of the four counties does something different.

This all detracts considerably from the constitutional duty of the Court to adjudicate.