DES MOINES, Iowa — State leaders say a computer coding problem is preventing the accurate distribution of court fines and penalties in the Iowa court system.
The system collects more than $140 million in fines, penalties and surcharges which helps fund state programs, but not all programs have been getting the proper allocation the last several years.
The issue stems back from changes approved by the Iowa State Legislature in 2021. A bill changed how fines and penalties are supposed to be used to fund those state programs, but IT problems within the judicial branch misallocated those funds. How much has been misallocated?
The Iowa Department of Management Director Kraig Paulsen said that it’s more than $53 million. The letter highlights where some of the improper distributions went to; leaving the Victim Compensation Fund shorted by $3.7 million, the Juvenile Detention Home Fund shorted by $3.5 million, the DARE program shorted $154,000, and the Road Use Tax Fund shorted $10 million.