Senate Bill 293 | Effective: See below |
Senate Author: Huffman et al. | Senate Committee: Finance |
House Sponsor: Leach | House Committee: Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence |
Senate Bill 293 amends the Government Code to revise provisions relating to the discipline of judges by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC), the reporting of judicial transparency information, and judicial compensation and retirement benefits. With respect to the discipline of judges, the bill does the following:
- replaces the authorization for appellate courts to participate in oral argument through the use of teleconferencing technology with a requirement for such courts to do so from a courtroom or other facility provided by the state unless exigent circumstances require otherwise;
- sets out procedures under which the business court, district courts, and statutory county courts must hear or consider a motion for summary judgment by the 45th day after the response to the motion was filed and provide a written ruling on the motion by the 90th day after the motion was argued or considered, including procedures for the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to prepare an annual report on court compliance with those procedures;
- expands the conduct that constitutes wilful or persistent conduct that is clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of a judge's duties for purposes of Texas Constitution provisions authorizing the discipline of a judge;
- provides for the submission of additional documentation to support a complaint after the complaint is filed with the SCJC;
- establishes a seven-year statute of limitations with respect to complaints filed with the SCJC but provides for certain exceptions to the statute of limitations;
- authorizes the SCJC to impose administrative sanctions, including an administrative penalty, against a person who knowingly files a false complaint with the SCJC and establishes that an SCJC order imposing such sanctions is a public record;
- revises the process by which the SCJC finalizes an investigation report and takes action on recommendations in that report;
- replaces the provision giving the SCJC, once notified by any law enforcement agency investigating an action for which a complaint has been filed with the SCJC, the discretion to continue an investigation that would not jeopardize a law enforcement investigation with a provision that instead requires the SCJC to continue such an investigation and authorizes the SCJC to issue a censure or sanction based on the complaint;
- revises procedures relating to preliminary investigations conducted by the SCJC regarding the circumstances surrounding an allegation or appearance of misconduct or disability of a judge;
- revises the process by which the SCJC may order a judge to submit to a physical or mental examination by a qualified physician or psychologist;
- revises the provision entitling a judge who receives from the SCJC a sanction or censure issued by the SCJC under the discretionary authority granted to the SCJC by the Texas Constitution or any other type of sanction to a review of the SCJC's decision by a special court of review appointed by the chief justice of the supreme court;
- requires the SCJC, if it issues a public reprimand of a judge based on the judge's persistent or wilful violation of the rules established by the Code of Criminal Procedure for setting the amount of bail and any conditions of bail, to send notice of the reprimand to specified entities; and
- further requires the SCJC to recommend that a judge be suspended from office based on the judge's persistent and wilful violation of such rules regarding bail and includes such a violation as a cause for removal from office by address on the grounds of incompetency.
The bill also requires OCA to establish a judicial directory that contains the contact information for each judge in Texas and to provide the SCJC with access to the directory for the purpose of providing a written notice to a judge under provisions relating to the SCJC.
With respect to the reporting of judicial transparency information, Senate Bill 293 sets out requirements for each district court judge to submit certain information relating to the performance of the judge's duties, for the presiding judge of each administrative judicial region to submit that information to OCA, and for OCA to prepare and submit an annual report to certain entities.
With respect to judicial compensation and retirement benefits, Senate Bill 293 does the following:
- increases the annual state base salary to which a district court judge or a business court judge is entitled as set by the General Appropriations Act from at least $140,000 to at least $175,000;
- revises the compensation to which the chief justice or presiding judge of an appellate court is entitled by entitling such a chief justice or presiding judge to the annual state base salary that applies to other justices or judges of the applicable court and additional compensation from the state in the amount equal to seven percent of that base salary;
- revises the annual state base salary to which a local administrative district judge is entitled by entitling a district court judge who serves as a local administrative district judge to the annual state base salary applicable to a district court judge and an additional annual amount ranging from three to seven percent of that base salary, depending on the number of district courts in the county in which the judge serves;
- sets the base amount used in the calculation of the standard service retirement annuity for a member of the elected class of the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS), excluding a district or criminal district attorney whose effective date of retirement is on or after September 1, 2019, at $175,000;
- requires the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC), beginning August 31, 2030, and every fifth anniversary of that date, to consider an equitable increase in the dollar amount on which the standard service retirement annuity for such a member is based and to increase the dollar amount as the TEC considers appropriate;
- changes the base amount on which the accumulated account balance for cash balance benefits under ERS is calculated for a member of the legislature to the dollar amount on which the standard service retirement annuity for a member of the elected class of ERS, excluding certain district attorneys, is based, subject to the TEC adjustment;
- provides for the applicability of increases in the annual state base salary to the service retirement annuity computed under the Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan One (JRS-1) for a retiree or beneficiary who retired before September 1, 2025;
- changes the provisions applicable to the manner by which a Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan Two (JRS-2) retiree who resumes service as a judicial officer, other than by assignment as a visiting judge in an administrative judicial region and inapplicable to a retiree receiving a cash balance annuity, receives service credit in JRS-2 for the resumed service and by which such a retiree's annuity is recomputed on the person's subsequent retirement from the resumed service;
- requires such a JRS-2 retiree to resume making member contributions at the rate of 9.5 percent of the retiree's state compensation; and
- increases the rate of contributions to JRS-2 from six percent to 9.5 percent for certain judicial officers who accrue 20 years of service credit or have attained the rule of 70.
Except as otherwise provided by the bill, the bill takes effect September 1, 2025.