Members of the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee were staunch in their conviction the revenue model funding Florida’s clerks needs a major overhaul.

“No one would design a system like we have in the way the clerks are operated and funded,” Vice Chair David Smith, R-Winter Springs, told the committee April 11. “If you were going to start with a blank sheet of paper, the way we do it in Florida is not the way you would draw it out. It makes no sense.”

The subcommittee took up HB 977, by Rep. Adam Botana, R-Bonita Springs, which would give Florida’s court clerks access to $31.2 million that would otherwise flow to the state’s general revenue fund. It’s part of a multi-year effort to stabilize clerk funding that is now largely dependent on fines and fees.

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