Division of the Budget
Landon State Office Building Phone: (785) 296-2436
900 SW Jackson Street, Room 504 adam.c.proffitt@ks.gov
Topeka, KS 66612 http://budget.kansas.gov
Adam C. Proffitt, Director Laura Kelly, Governor
Division of the Budget
February 29, 2024
The Honorable Susan Humphries, Chairperson
House Committee on Judiciary
300 SW 10th Avenue, Room 582-N
Topeka, Kansas 66612
Dear Representative Humphries:
SUBJECT: Fiscal Note for HB 2780 by House Committee on Judiciary
In accordance with KSA 75-3715a, the following fiscal note concerning HB 2780 is
respectfully submitted to your committee.
HB 2780 would prohibit wrongfully convicted individuals from filing a claim against the
State of Kansas if the person’s conviction was reversed or vacated due to ineffective assistance of
counsel or if the person’s conduct contributed to the wrongful conviction. The bill would convert
the annual compensation rates for imprisonment and supervision of wrongfully convicted
individuals to daily compensation rates and establish compensation of $110 per day for house
arrest of a wrongly convicted person. It would also clarify that wrongfully convicted individuals
can only receive compensation for days of imprisonment spent in the custody of the Secretary of
Corrections or in jail awaiting post-trial transfer to the Department of Corrections. The bill would
increase the maximum amount of attorney fees that can be paid to a wrongfully convicted claimant
from $25,000 to $100,000. The bill would place a five-year limit on housing assistance paid to
wrongfully convicted claimants and limits monthly housing payments to no more than $2,000 per
month with future housing payment increases tied to inflation. The bill includes definitions for
housing assistance and counseling.
The Attorney General indicates that the bill would reduce State General Fund expenditures
from the agency’s Tort Claims Fund by an unknown amount due to the additional restrictions that
would be placed on claim eligibility. The Judiciary indicates that the bill has the potential to
decrease the number of cases filed in district courts. This may decrease agency operating
expenditures due to the reduction of time spent by district court judicial and nonjudicial personnel
in processing, researching, and hearing cases. However, the Judiciary is unable to calculate an
exact estimate of this effect. The bill has the potential to decrease the collection of docket fees, The Honorable Susan Humphries, Chairperson
Page 2—HB 2780
fines, and supervision fees, which are deposited in the State General Fund; however, the size of
this reduction is unknown. The Department of Corrections indicates that the bill would have no
fiscal effect on its operations. Any fiscal effect associated with HB 2780 is not reflected in The
FY 2025 Governor’s Budget Report.
Sincerely,
Adam C. Proffitt
Director of the Budget
cc: William Hendrix, Office of the Attorney General
Trisha Morrow, Judiciary
Jennifer King, Department of Corrections