A 72 page report offering suggestions for solving budget shortfalls in the Kansas court system was released Friday.

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss appointed a special panel to develop the suggestions. The 10-member panel was asked to find ways to close a projected $8.25 million shortfall in the judicial budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2014.

One of the suggestions in the report included delaying the filling of personnel vacancies. That means it would delay the hiring of a new Chief Clerk for the Eighth Judicial District. Alice Adams, retired as the Chief Clerk on December 6th.

Cecil Aska, District Court Administrator, said the hiring of a new Chief Clerk has already been delayed 30-45 days.

“I’m going to assume that they will allow us but the question becomes how soon they are going to let us fill that position,” Aska said. “We could be looking at an extended amount of time. I just don’t know how long that’s going to be.”

Another suggestion made by the panel included the furloughing of employees up to ten days.

Aska said that furloughs would just add to the amount of work that is already being done by staff, “The volume of work just increases because there’s ten days of processing that you wouldn’t be able to do. It just creates more stress for staff.”

Legislators and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback have promised to find necessary revenues to prevent closing courthouses and furloughing staff.