A 2008-09 Bar budget that projects total revenues of about $38.5 million and a slight surplus has been approved by the Bar Board of Governors. For the eighth year in a row, the budget does not call for an increase in the Bar’s annual membership fees of $265 for active members and $175 for inactive members.
President-elect Designate Jesse Diner, a member of the Budget Committee, presented the budget to the board at its March 28 meeting.
Diner said the budget anticipates no new programs for the Bar.
Diner also said the Bar estimated that between 250 and 300 paralegals would sign up for the new Florida Registered Paralegal program, which began March 1, in its first year. But already in the first month, he reported, 268 paralegals have applied.
The board will consider any members’ comments on the spending plan at its May 30 meeting, after which the budget will be submitted to the Supreme Court. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
According to numbers presented to the board, the largest source of Bar revenues will continue to be annual membership fees, which are projected to bring in $22.2 million, compared to $21.8 million for the current fiscal year and $20.9 million for 2006-07.
Sales of products and services — which include such things as CLE courses and legal handbooks — are expected to earn around $6.3 million, while advertising for the Bar News, Journal, and Journal directory issue is expected to bring in nearly $2.3 million. Those revenue items are slightly less than the expected income in the current year for the sales of products and services but slightly more for advertising.
The largest expenditure will be the regulation of the practice of law, which is budgeted at $14.9 million this year and $16.5 million next year and includes the discipline system, Membership Records, ethics and advertising, and the Bar’s professionalism programs.
The lion’s share of that expenditure goes to the grievance system, which will get $11.6 million next year for its operations, plus another $1.4 million for the Attorney-Client Assistance Program, which screens all lawyer complaints and attempts to mediate minor issues before they turn into formal complaints.
The Bar will spend $741,306 on its ethics operations, which includes the popular ethics hotline, while its advertising regulation program will bring it $451,106 but cost $838,245, or a net cost of $387,139. Professionalism operations will cost $554,846.
The Bar’s Unlicensed Practice of Law Department (which is not part of the regulation of the practice operations) is budgeted at almost $1.6 million next year, up about $50,000 from the current year.
Other budget items include:
• Public information and Journal and News operations are forecast to cost $4.4 million, up from $4.2 million in 2007-08. Those expenses will be offset by advertising revenues for the Journal and News plus another $84,287 from communications activities.
• The new Florida Registered Paralegal program is estimated in its first full year to bring in around $225,000 in revenues, with expenses of almost $50,000.
• The Bar expects to have revenues of $3.9 million from CLE programs, offset by $3.6 million of expenses.
— Courtesy Florida Bar News