ADVERTISEMENTS

 

FRANKFORT, Ky., Dec. 21, 2009 ? Chief Justice of Kentucky John D. Minton Jr. announced today that the Judicial Branch has joined the e-Transparency initiative launched by the Executive Branch earlier this year.

 

Judicial Branch expenditures and contracts are now posted on Kentucky?s OpenDoor website at www.opendoor.ky.gov. (Click on Start Your Search at OpenDoor, then on Expenditure Search and then select Judicial Branch under Expenditure Search.)

 

Visitors to the website will find a searchable database of line-item expenditures for the Judicial Branch from January 2007 to the present. They can also find contract information. Salary information will be added in coming months.

 

?I?m pleased to join the Executive Branch in providing comprehensive financial information on the OpenDoor website,? Chief Justice Minton said. ?This is part of our ongoing effort to increase the court system?s accountability to Kentucky taxpayers.?

 

The Judicial Branch is comprised of four levels of state courts ? the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, Circuit Court and District Court. The Administrative Office of the Courts supports the activities of approximately 3,800 Kentucky Court of Justice employees, including the elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks, and executes the Judicial Branch budget.

 

Kentucky?s OpenDoor seeks suggestions from the public on how to make the website even more user-friendly. Visitors can comment on the website by visiting www.opendoor.ky.gov and clicking on Contact Us.

Note:

My search for salary information produced nothing.  For example, nothing popped up for the Chief Justice, nor for any of the Senior Status Judges.  The expenditures were in the system, and you can locate those firms who have been hired by the state to do outside legal work (eg., under Legal Expenses - 1099 rpt).

It looks like you can just search on fiscal year and Judicial cabinet (it makes no difference if you go by judicial branch or judicial cabinet as the numbers were the same) and get the grand total of their budget for past years and expenses to date for the current year.  Eg., the Judicial Cabinet had a grand total of $260,708,093.00 for 2007,  $277,175,799.72 for 2008, $306,800,858.93 for 2009 fiscal year and $156,994,439.38 so far for 2010 fiscal  year.

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