602.1304 Revenues — enhanced court collections fund.

1. Except as provided in article 8 and subsection 2 of this section, all fees and other revenues collected by judicial officers and court employees shall be paid into the general fund of the state.

2. a. The enhanced court collections fund is created in the state treasury under the authority of the supreme court. The fund shall be separate from the general fund of the state and the balance in the fund shall not be considered part of the balance of the general fund of the state. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys in the fund shall not revert to the general fund, unless and to the extent the total amount of moneys deposited into the fund in a fiscal year would exceed the maximum annual deposit amount established for the collections fund by the general assembly. The initial maximum annual deposit amount for a fiscal year is four million dollars. Notwithstanding section 12C.7, subsection 2, interest or earnings on moneys in the collections fund shall remain in the collections fund and any interest and earnings shall be in addition to the maximum annual deposit amount.

b. For each fiscal year, a judicial collection estimate for that fiscal year shall be equally and proportionally divided into a quarterly amount. The judicial collection estimate shall be calculated by using the state revenue estimating conference estimate made by December 15 pursuant to section 8.22A, subsection 3, of the total amount of fines, fees, civil penalties, costs, surcharges, and other revenues collected by judicial officers and court employees for deposit into the general fund of the state. The revenue estimating conference estimate shall be reduced by the maximum amounts allocated to the Iowa prison infrastructure fund pursuant to section 602.8108A, the court technology and modernization fund pursuant to section 602.8108, subsection 9, and the road use tax fund pursuant to section 602.8108, subsection 10, and the remainder shall be the judicial collection estimate. In each quarter of a fiscal year, after revenues collected by judicial officers and court employees equal to that quarterly amount are deposited into the general fund of the state, after the required amount is deposited during the quarter into the Iowa prison infrastructure fund pursuant to section 602.8108A, into the court technology and modernization fund pursuant to section 602.8108, subsection 9, and into the road use tax fund pursuant to section 602.8108, subsection 10, the director of the department of administrative services shall deposit the remaining revenues for that quarter into the enhanced court collections fund in lieu of the general fund. However, after total deposits into the collections fund for the fiscal year are equal to the maximum deposit amount established for the collections fund, remaining revenues for that fiscal year shall be deposited into the general fund. If the revenue estimating conference agrees to a different estimate at a later meeting which projects a lesser amount of revenue than the initial estimate amount used to calculate the judicial collection estimate, the director of the department of administrative services shall recalculate the judicial collection estimate accordingly. If the revenue estimating conference agrees to a different estimate at a later meeting which projects a greater amount of revenue than the initial estimate amount used to calculate the judicial collection estimate, the director of the department of administrative services shall recalculate the judicial collection estimate accordingly but only to the extent that the greater amount is due to an increase in the fines, fees, civil penalties, costs, surcharges, or other revenues allowed by law to be collected by judicial officers and court employees.

c. Moneys in the collections fund shall be used by the judicial branch for the Iowa court information system; records management equipment, services, and projects; other technological improvements; electronic legal research equipment, systems, and projects; and the study, development, and implementation of other innovations and projects that would improve the administration of justice. The moneys in the collection fund may also be used for capital improvements necessitated by the installation of or connection with the Iowa court information system, the Iowa communications network, and other technological improvements approved by the judicial branch.

83 Acts, ch 186, §1304, 10201; 95 Acts, ch 207, §24; 96 Acts, ch 1034, §55; 96 Acts, ch 1216, §29; 97 Acts, ch 205, §23; 98 Acts, ch 1047, §47; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §286; 2005 Acts, ch 165, §3; 2005 Acts, ch 179, §137; 2006 Acts, ch 1030, §74; 2006 Acts, ch 1166, §4; 2007 Acts, ch 215, §64

Referred to in §602.1302

Use of enhanced court collections funds; 2016 Acts, ch 1136, §2;

2017 Acts, ch 166, §7