Pay Stagnant Since '99
Spitzer Budgets A Raise for Judges

By REUVEN BLAU

Governor Spitzer has incorporated more than $111 million in his executive budget to give all state judges an average salary increase of 25 percent retroactive to April 1, 2005.

JUDITH S. KAYE: Finds ally in Governor.

State Judges have not received a pay hike or a cost-of-living adjustment in eight years. Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge of the State of New York, has been lobbying the State Legislature for the past several years to boost salaries for local judges.

Seeking Federal Link

Mr. Spitzer's plan mirrors her proposal to tie the pay of State Supreme Court justices to the salaries of Federal District judges, while attaching the pay of Court of Appeals Judges to those of U.S. Supreme Court Justices.

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 later told reporters. "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."

Over the past two years, judiciary committees in both houses of the Legislature and then-Governor Pataki endorsed a pay-increase measure, but the process was complicated by Albany politics.

Traditionally, judges' pay hikes have been paired with salary 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 state legislators typically raise their wages only after an election year.

Spitzer Move Cuts Tie

Mr. Spitzer's proposals will likely circumvent that problem, as the money has already been included in his executive budget. Lawmakers would have to remove the funds from the budget, a move that would surely enrage the judiciary and other good-government groups.

Before Mr. Spitzer issued his proposed budget, on Jan. 2 four judges filed a lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court seeking to force him and the Legislature to increase state judges' salaries by as much as 30 percent.

Based on Mr. Spitzer's budget, Supreme Court justices would receive $168,000 and Family Court, County Court and Surrogate's Court judges would get 95 percent of that salary. Similarly, New York City Civil and Criminal Court judges and Long Island District Court judges would receive 93 percent of those justices' salaries.

The figures are all based on the assumption that Congress will approve the next cost-of-living increase for Federal judges.

Push for Regular COLAs

To ensure that judges finally receive raises, Mr. Spitzer also said that he supports Ms. Kaye's far-reaching proposal to guarantee that lawmakers and executive department officials receive regular cost-of-living adjustments.

That plan is structured to avoid the same political problems that have torpedoed raises for state judges over the past eight years. It calls for the creation of a bipartisan panel, which 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.

The salary issue has also become a problem for Federal judges. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts in his year-end report also strongly urged Congress to increase pay for Federal judges, calling the current situation a "constitutional crisis."

In an eight-page report dedicated entirely to the pay issue, Mr. Roberts noted that the 679 full-time U.S. District Court Judges are paid $165,200 annually, which is roughly half of what university deans and senior law professors earn at major schools. In contrast, in 1969 Federal District Judges made 21 percent more than the dean of a top law school and 43 percent more than senior law professors.

Concerning state judges, the situation looks like it will finally be resolved. "If nobody messes with our budget, then the judges will get raises," said one court official. "They'd have to directly defy the Governor."