Judicial Salaries and Arizona Counties: What Lawmakers Need to Know
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
70%
County Share of Arizona Court Funding
Up from 54% in FY 2000 — and still growing
$2.50
County Cost for Every $1 the State Spends on Judicial Salaries
Including salary and state retirement system costs
6 States
Require Local Government to Fund State Judicial Officer Costs
Arizona is one of only a handful nationally — making this an outlier funding structure
Arizona's judicial branch is a foundational part of the state's three-branch government structure. For lawmakers and policy staff, understanding how judicial officer salaries are funded is an important part of understanding the broader state-county fiscal relationship.
Arizona's Court System: A Quick Overview
The Superior Court is Arizona's only court of general jurisdiction, operating locally in every county. Superior Court Judges are elected or appointed and supported by other court officials, including judges pro tempore and court commissioners. Arizonans are also served by limited jurisdiction courts — most notably justice courts, presided over by Justices of the Peace.
These courts handle everything from civil disputes to criminal cases, and their officers are paid salaries set in state statute.
A Funding Structure That's Unusual by National Standards
The state and counties jointly fund the judiciary. However, according to the National Center for State Courts, Arizona is one of only 6 states that requires local government to fund the cost of state judicial officers.
The graphic below illustrates the salaries and cost-sharing responsibilities for the major categories of judicial officers, including how salary and EORP retirement costs are divided between the state and counties.
How the County Share Has Changed Over Time
Non-county funding sources for the judiciary have not kept pace with costs in the court system. The county share of total court funding grew from 54% in FY 2000 to nearly 70% in FY 2024, while the state's share declined from 31% to 18% over the same period, according to AOC Annual Reports.
A key driver of this trend is the statutory linkage between judicial salaries. Because Justice of the Peace, court commissioner, and judge pro tempore salaries are tied by formula to Superior Court judge salaries, for every $1 the state spends on judicial salaries, the local county taxpayer is required to fund almost $2.50 in salary and state retirement system costs. The visualization below breaks down how those costs fall across each judicial officer type.
CSA Resolution
In response to these cost pressures, Arizona's counties adopted a formal resolution calling on the state general fund to appropriately fund its responsibilities — including probation officer salaries — and to reduce the burden of state policy choices on local taxpayers. You can read the full resolution here.
Learn More
Courts & Criminal Justice overview: countysupervisors.org/courts
Creatures of Statute podcast: Funding Justice: Why Counties Seek State, Judicial Partnership
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