It doesn’t happen often but Douglas County got a pleasant surprise this week from the Kansas Legislature.

Although local officials weren’t holding out much hope that the Legislature would provide funding for another district judge for Douglas County, the House Appropriations Committee took a step in that direction Tuesday by endorsing a state judiciary budget that included the judge position. The budget would require the Supreme Court to extend temporary surcharges it imposed in 2002 on court filing fees and marriage licenses. The surcharges are due to expire on June 30, but extending them seems like a good investment if it will provide a budget that includes 3 percent wage increases and 27 new staff positions for state courts.

Among those new positions would be a new district judge for Douglas County and additional magistrate judges for Dickinson, McPherson and Reno counties. The fact that Douglas County was the only county designated to receive another district judge is a recognition of how overburdened our local judges are. According to figures considered last year by an interim legislative committee on the judiciary, the judges in Douglas County District Court averaged more than 2,500 cases apiece in Fiscal Year 2002 while some judges in the state only handled a few hundred cases.

The caseload had grown so overwhelming that the county has dipped into its own budget for the past several years to fund a judge pro-tem position to help share the load. If the state-funded district judge position is approved, the pro-tem position probably could be eliminated although Peggy Kittel, who has served in that job, deserves special consideration when nominations for the new district judge position are made.

The support of the Appropriations Committee by no means guarantees passage of the judicial budget or the addition of the Douglas County judgeship, but it indicates there is a recognition of the need to commit more funding to the state court system. For the benefit of Douglas County and others across the state, the full House and Senate also should recognize this need and support the committee’s recommendation.