RSS Feed |
|
|
|
||||||
|
Seeks More Applicants
A Recruitment Issue "In New York City, which prides itself as being one of the legal capitals of the world, this is completely unacceptable," Mayor Bloomberg said during his 1010 WINS radio address Dec. 2. Judicial raises have been repeatedly stalled by Albany politics. Traditionally, judges' salary hikes have been tied to pay boosts for members of the Legislature and high-level officials of the executive branch of government. The Mayor told listeners that appointing qualified judges is one of his most important tasks. "In fact, last week, I spent more than four hours interviewing judicial candidates to determine which individuals would be the best judges for New York City, but who knows how many excellent candidates may not have applied because the salary isn't competitive," he remarked.
Political Holdup The judicial pay issue has been further complicated by Governor Spitzer's plan to revamp state campaign finance laws - legislation he has prioritized as a condition for increasing lawmakers' salaries. With the Governor's pay-raise proposal stuck in the Albany quagmire, the Office of Court Administration last month moved to increase jurists' vacation time and educational reimbursements, and to pay up to $5,000 for job-related expenses. The "Supplemental Support Fund" was created after OCA officials met with judges who are angry over the prolonged deadlock in Albany. New York State's Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye has been lobbying the State Legislature for the past several years to boost salaries for local judges. Nearly $30,000 Behind Currently, U.S. District Court Judges are paid $165,200. Judges in the state earn a maximum of $136,700. The Governor's proposed budget announced in January included a $111-million plan to give state judges an average salary increase of 25-percent retroactive to April 1, 2005. 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. But that proposal did not survive final budget negotiations with the Legislature and was once again stalled by Albany politics. Mr. Bloomberg noted that unlike legislators who can earn outside income from law firms and other business, judges are barred from accepting outside work. "Judges work for the public full-time, all year round," he said. "For that they deserve not only our respect, but also fair and just compensation." Calls for Outside Panel Judge Kaye has proposed a plan structured to avoid the same political problems that torpedoed raises for state judges over the past several years, and is designed to place judicial pay on par with that of U.S. District 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 composed 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.
Mayor Bloomberg noted that everyone agrees that judicial
pay must be increased. "So why hasn't it happened?" he asked. "In a courtroom,
each case must be weighed on its own merits, and the facts of each case must be
carefully considered. But in the political arena, too often good legislation
gets held hostage to horse-trading." | ||||||
)
)