The General Assembly finds that:
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(1) The goal expressed by Arkansas citizens with the adoption of Amendment 80 to the Arkansas Constitution was the creation of a three-tiered, unified court system;
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(2) The current structure of limited jurisdiction courts consists of a combination of full-time and part-time district and city court judges funded by city and county governments;
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(3) Based on availability of local resources, the cumulative effect of the creation and funding of those courts by local governments has been an unequal level of access to and an inequitable distribution of judicial services to communities;
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(4) While Amendment 80 does not require the state to fund the district court system, there is a state interest in providing a more uniform level of judicial resources to all citizens of the state;
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(5) Because the current system of limited jurisdiction courts is not uniform, it is contrary to the interest of the state to merely shift the funding of the system from local government to state government without addressing the district court system’s structure;
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(6) A way of addressing the shortage of resources for circuit courts in some areas of the state is the expansion of the jurisdiction of the district court, which will shift cases from the circuit court to the district court and reduce expenses for the state;
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(7) A state-funded district court system should include an analysis by the state that furthers the goal of a unified and equitable system for the delivery of judicial services; and
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(8) It is the intent of this subchapter to begin that analysis process by establishing a pilot program that creates a limited number of state-funded district court judgeships and a process for the study and consideration of establishing additional district courts in the future.