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The State Bar of California is poised to secure legislative approval for a substantial hike in the annual fee lawyers must pay the agency, but it will be paired with plans for greater oversight of the bar in the years ahead.
The legislation funding the bar in 2020 will bump the overall fee for active lawyers to $544, a 27 percent increase from the $430 in place now. (Attorneys will still be able to deduct $47 from the total if desired).
Though far lower than the $860 overall fee bar leaders suggested earlier in the year, the new amount will be the first fee hike in roughly two decades if approved by the Legislature.
The bar has said a fee increase is needed to allow the agency to address growing budget deficits and pursue necessary initiatives, such as technology upgrades.
However, bar officials had also wanted to transition to receiving fee approval from the Legislature for multiple years, rather than just one.
The state auditor backed this proposal in a report issued in recent months, saying that the bar’s “lack of consistent revenue makes implementing long‑term projects, such as replacing its aging technology systems, riskier because it has no guarantee that funding for these types of projects will continue.”
Lawmakers have not yet embraced the suggestion.
Instead, the bar legislation recently amended by the California Assembly states an intent to transition the bar to the state’s annual budget process by the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
An Assembly Judiciary Committee analysis of the bar bill, SB 176, said the current bar budget process limits legislative oversight. The bar submits its budget to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committees, which then set the annual fee amount, but the bar’s proposed expenditures are not examined closely as those put forward by other state agencies.
“This has allowed for some less than optimal oversight of some very significant decisions that impact the bar’s ability to protect the public and the fees its licensees must pay in order to fund those decisions, such as the decisions to purchase a $75 million building in Los Angeles, leave multiple floors of its San Francisco building vacant for decades, and approve expensive technology system,” the Assembly Judiciary Committee report said.
The Assembly report also highlights that the Legislative Analyst’s Office reviews all government spending as part of the annual budget process, but only reviewed the bar’s budget this year as a result of such a requirement being included in the bar’s funding legislation for 2019.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office said in a recent report that making the bar part of the state budget process “could increase legislative oversight by leveraging the expertise of the budgetary committees to evaluate State Bar funding requests in a manner similar to other state departments.”
“Additionally, requiring the State Bar to submit budgetary information in a manner similar to other state departments would enable easier comparison to ensure standardized or similar treatment across the various departments responsible for licensing professions,” the analyst’s office said.
The Assembly’s recent updates to the bar bill came a few days after the California Lawyers Association, which has roughly 100,000 members, added its voice to the debate.
In a letter to the chairs of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committees, CLA urged lawmakers to take a cautious approach to the issue of a bar fee increase.
The CLA also said any increased licensing fee for 2020 should be subject to further evaluation next year.
“Thus, if there is to be an increase in the licensing fee for 2020, there should also be some associated performance standards, measurements, or benchmarks included in this bill, along with a required accountability report from the State Bar addressing planned and actual spending,” CLA President Heather L. Rosing wrote in the letter. “This report could be used to assist in evaluating the impact of any fee increase authorized for 2020 and potentially provide justification for an adjustment to the amount of the licensing fee in 2021.”
Lyle Moran is a freelance writer in San Diego who handles both journalism and content writing projects. He previously reported for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, Associated Press, and Lowell Sun. He can be reached at lmoransun@gmail.com and found on Twitter @lylemoran.