Top Judge Set To Sue State on Pay

Top Judge Set To Sue State on Pay

By REUVEN BLAU

With the 2007 legislative session in Albany nearing a close, the state's Chief Judge, Judith S. Kaye, last week said that she's "preparing full-scale litigation" against the state if the Legislature fails to increase judicial pay.

JUDITH S. KAYE: Legislators try her patience. "That would be a dark day in state history," she told a group of business leaders gathered at a June 12 New York City Bar Association breakfast meeting.

An 8-Year Drought

The state's 1,300 judges have not received a pay hike or a cost-of-living adjustment in eight years. Ms. Kaye has been lobbying the State Legislature for the past several years to boost salaries for local judges.

But the issue has once again been stalled by Albany politics. Traditionally, judges' salary hikes have been paired with pay boosts for members of the Legislature and high-level officials of the executive branch of government. The Legislature, however, was not included in the proposed bill, because Governor Spitzer has said he opposes raising their salaries unless they agree to several government reforms that he's championing.

JOSEPH L. BRUNO: 'Nuts' to Spitzer's plan. Ms. Kaye has repeatedly decried the situation. "Everyone supports the merits of our cause, but the bottom line is the same," she said in a note sent to judges shortly after the state budget was announced minus the proposed judicial pay raise. "No judiciary can independently uphold the rule of law when its fate hangs on shifting political exigencies."

The deans of all of New York's law schools faxed a letter to Governor Spitzer June 15 backing Judge Kaye's call for judicial raises. "We are deeply concerned that inadequate judicial salaries will have a lasting impact on both the independence and the quality of New York's bench," the note said. "As legal educators, we seek to imbue our students with deep respect for the legal system; we want young lawyers to strive to become judges. Yet the harsh reality is that few will be able to afford the luxury of what should be the pinnacle of public service."

In January, Governor Spitzer announced that his proposed budget included a $111 million plan to give all state judges an average salary increase of 25-percent retroactive to April 1, 2005. In his budget address, the new Governor noted that the cost of living has increased by more than 20 percent since state judges last received a raise.

"I have said for quite some time that the judges in the State of New York deserve a pay raise," he told reporters at the time. "They deserve to be paid a sufficient sum not only so we can persuade lawyers in the private sector to join the ranks of our judiciary, but also to compensate those who are on the bench now for the hard work they do."

Initial Plan

Based on his proposed budget, State Supreme Court Justices would have received $168,000 and Family Court, County Court and Surrogate's Court Judges would have gotten 95 percent of that salary. Similarly, New York City Civil and Criminal Court Judges and Long Island District Court Judges would have received 93 percent of that amount as their salary.

The Governor, however, is against increasing legislators' pay until they pass bills restricting the outside work they can do to prevent conflicts of interest, reforming campaign finance laws, and establishing an independent commission to draw district lines following the next U.S. Census in 2010.

Governor Spitzer's proposed campaign finance reforms appear to be facing an uphill battle. They are being opposed by Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, as well as some of the state's largest public-employee unions.

Since the budget was passed, the judicial pay issue has been raised several times, but the State Senate and Assembly have failed to compromise on a new proposal. The impasse has also stalled contract negotiations for the state's other court employees.

Ms. Kaye has proposed a plan structured to avoid the same political problems that torpedoed raises for state judges over the past several years, and it is designed to place judicial pay on par with the salaries of U.S. District Court Judges.

Under that plan, a bipartisan panel would convene after each gubernatorial election to set salaries for the next four years for all three branches of government. The proposed Quadrennial Commission on Executive, Legislative and Judicial Compensation would be comprised of 13 unpaid appointees, mainly from outside government.

To determine appropriate raises, the panel would examine cost-of-living increases, pay hikes given to similar Federal positions, recent local union wage contracts, and private-sector salaries. The commission's proposed pay boosts would take effect immediately, but the Governor would have the ability to modify or reject the recommended increases.