Reviewing the proposed 2008-09 Bar budget and nominating its next public member will occupy the Bar Board of Governors when it meets March 28.
At its Feb. 1 meeting, 2008-09 Budget Committee Chair Gwynne Young said the committee would be presenting a balanced budget at the March meeting that would not increase the Bar’s annual membership fees of $265 for active members and $175 for inactive members.
That will make the eighth straight year without a raise in the membership fees. But Young cautioned the board last month that with the economic slowdown and other pressures, the board might have to consider hiking the fees in the next few years.
According to preliminary numbers, the Bar expects total revenues of about $38.5 million, of which $22.2 million will come from annual membership fees. That compares with projected revenues around $37 million for 2007-08 of which $21.8 million will come from membership fees. (The current budget year does not end until June 30, so these figures are estimates and subject to revision.) For 2006-07, the Bar had revenues of almost $37.4 million, with membership fees contributing $20.9 million.
Expenditures for next year are projected at $38.4 million, compared with an estimated $36.8 million for 2007-08 and an actual $34.4 for 2006-07.
The largest Bar expense will remain the regulation of the practice of law, which includes Lawyer Regulation, the Bar’s Attorney-Client Assistance Program, Ethics and Advertising, Professionalism, and Unlicensed Practice of Law. Those are tentatively budgeted at $16.5 million next year, compared to $15.4 million this year and $14.1 million for 2006-07.
Lawyer Regulation and the related ACAP program make up the largest portion of that, with a combined budget of about $13 million next year. That compares to a projected $11.7 million this year and an actual $11.1 million for 2006-07.
Other expenditures for 2008-09 include $1.6 million for Unlicensed Practice of Law, $4.4 million for public information and Journal and News operations, and $1.6 million for the Clients’ Security Fund.
The board will approve the budget at the March 28 meeting, and a complete explanation of the budget will be in an official notice in an upcoming News. The board will consider any comments from members at its May 29 meeting, and the budget will then be forwarded to the Supreme Court.
Besides the budget, the board will hear from a screening committee that reviewed candidates to be the board’s next public member. The board will select three finalists and forward them to the Supreme Court, which will make the final appointment.
The new public board member will replace J. Blair Culpepper of Winter Park, who has served the maximum of two, two-year terms allowed under board rules. Two of the board’s 52 members are nonlawyers.
The board will also review revisions to the Supreme Court-approved residential lease forms, submitted by the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section.
— Courtesy Florida Bar News