GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal has hired a lobbyist group to influence legislators, hoping to increase revenue for the judicial branch.

Toal said she would pay political consulting firm J. Warren Tompkins Inc. $30,000 this year, The Greenville News reported. Toal said she would use money from bar-exam fees to pay for it.

Prosecutor Bob Ariail hired Tompkins' firm last year to help push through legislation that created a $25 surcharge on traffic tickets.

Toal said she was grateful for the 3.7 percent her office gets from the surcharge but it's not enough.

"If I cannot get some additional sources of stable revenue, we're going to be in pretty desperate shape," she said.

Legislators' reaction was mixed.

House Speaker David Wilkins said it could be beneficial, but others said they didn't think it necessary or worth it. Rep. Fletcher Smith, a Greenville attorney, said he doesn't have a problem with the hiring but figures everyone will be taking a hit from the $350 million budget deficit and that the middle class doesn't need more fees.

"You can have a sea of lobbyists," Smith said. "I don't know if that will help."

Toal said the state's filing fees are the lowest in the Southeast and that the stable revenue source would likely be in the form of a fee increase. "That's as it should be," Toal said. "The notion that the users of the system don't pay anything has gone by the boards."

Information from: The Greenville News