SSB 3147 (LSB 6066XC (4) 91)

SENATE FILE _____ 

BY  (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY BILL BY CHAIRPERSON SCHULTZ)

A BILL FOR

An Act requiring the supreme court to establish a judicial officer and state court administrator compensation and benefits plan and including effective date provisions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 602.1401, subsections 1 and 5, Code 2026, are amended to read as follows:
   1.  The supreme court shall establish, and may amend, a personnel system and a pay and benefits plan for judicial officers, the state court administrator, and court employees. The personnel system shall include a designation by position title, classification, and function of each position or class of positions within the judicial branch. Reasonable efforts shall be made to accommodate the individual staffing and management practices of the respective clerks of the district court. The personnel system, in the employment of court employees, shall not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, physical disability, or political party preference. The supreme court, in establishing the personnel system, shall implement the comparable worth directives issued by the state court administrator under section 602.1204, subsection 2. The personnel system shall include the prohibitions against sexual harassment of full-time, part-time, and temporary employees set out in section 19B.12, and shall include a grievance procedure for discriminatory harassment. The personnel system shall develop and distribute at the time of hiring or orientation, a guide that describes for employees the applicable sexual harassment prohibitions and grievance, violation, and disposition procedures. This subsection does not supersede the remedies provided under chapter 216.
   5.  The pay and benefits plan shall set the compensation and benefits of judicial officers, the state court administrator, and court employees within the funds appropriated by the general assembly.
    Sec. 2.  Section 602.1502, subsection 1, Code 2026, is amended by striking the subsection.
    Sec. 3.  Section 602.9104, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code 2026, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  A judge to whom this article applies shall be paid an amount equal to the basic salary of the judge as set by the general assembly pursuant to section 602.1401 reduced by an amount designated as the judge’s required contribution to the judicial retirement fund. The amount designated as the judge’s required contribution shall be paid by the state in the manner provided in subsection 2.
    Sec. 4.  Section 602.9204, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code 2026, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  A judge who retires on or after July 1, 1994, and who is appointed a senior judge under section 602.9203 shall be paid a salary as determined by the general assembly pursuant to section 602.1401.
    Sec. 5.  REPEAL.  Section 602.1501, Code 2026, is repealed.
    Sec. 6.  JUDICIAL OFFICERS —— CURRENT SALARY RATES SUPERSEDED.  For purposes of 2025 Iowa Acts, chapter 158, section 6, subsection 1, this Act shall be deemed as the provision of salary rates for judicial officers by the general assembly for fiscal years subsequent to the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025.
    Sec. 7.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect June 19, 2026.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   Under current law, the supreme court must establish and may amend a personnel system and a pay and benefits plan for court employees. This bill requires the supreme court to also establish a pay and benefits plan for judicial officers and the state court administrator in addition to court employees. Under current law and the bill, the supreme court is required to set the salary of the state court administrator within pay grade 43 of the pay plans published by the department of administrative services (Code section 8A.461).
   The bill repeals Code section 602.1501 (judicial salaries) which provides that the general assembly will set the salary for the chief justice of the supreme court, each justice of the supreme court, the chief judge of the court of appeals, each judge of the court of appeals, the chief judge of each judicial district, each district judge, each district associate judge, each full-time associate juvenile judge, each full-time associate probate judge, and each magistrate. Under current law, salary rates for such judicial officers are set by 2025 Iowa Acts, chapter 158 (judicial branch appropriations), until otherwise provided by the general assembly. The bill specifies that the bill constitutes subsequent provision of salary rates by the general assembly for purposes of this provision.
   By operation of law, the bill may affect the salary of a full-time county attorney of a county with a population over 200,000, which is required to be between 45 percent and 100 percent of a district judge (Code section 331.752(5)).
   The bill takes effect June 19, 2026.