10-Year Judicial Freeze
Kaye Adds Urgency To Pay-Raise Plea

By REUVEN BLAU

With no end in sight to the gridlock in Albany, State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye last week once again implored lawmakers to put aside their differences and enact a judicial pay raise.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Target of judges' suit.

In a rare public appearance, Judge Kaye noted that Dec. 19 marked the official start of the 10th year that the state's 1,300 judges had not received a pay hike or a cost-of-living adjustment.

Nation's Longest Drought

"That is the longest period that any judges in the United States have gone without any increase whatever in their compensation," she told reporters gathered in her chambers in midtown Manhattan. "Just imagine, in today's economy earning precisely what you earned 10 years ago in a demanding, full-time job."

Judge Kaye has lobbied for pay increases for years and has threatened to sue for them, but last week reiterated that step would be a last resort. In September, a group of four judges filed their own lawsuit against Governor Spitzer, arguing that the lack of an increase in compensation since 1999 is a violation of their constitutional rights.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James A PAY-RAISE PLEA: State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye Dec. 19 urged the State Legislature to finally enact a salary increase for jurists. She noted that last week marked the official start of the 10th year that the state's 1,300 judges had not received a hike or cost-of-living adjustment.

"I'm studying them very carefully," Judge Kaye remarked, referring to that suit and other similar pending litigation. "But for the head of the judiciary to bring a lawsuit is quite a different matter."

In a promising development, the State Senate Dec. 12 passed legislation (S.6550) that provides for increased pay for judges and establishes a commission to determine future salary increases and cost of living adjustments.

The bill, which has been sent to the Assembly, appropriates $46 million to cover the pay raise, which would be implemented retroactively to Jan. 1, 2007.

'Get This Done'

Judge Kaye hailed that move, but noted that the Office of Court Administration was seeking "a little more retroactivity." With the end to the 2007 legislative session quickly approaching, she urged the State Legislature to reconvene and address the issue, just as it did in 1998.

"At that time it was just six years that had passed with no cost-of-living adjustment," she recalled while standing in front of a podium in the corner of her chambers. "And wonder of wonders, in the darkest days of December the Legislature suddenly reconvened in Albany and, in a snap, it was accomplished."

In a passionate plea, she stressed that there is "more than ample time" for lawmakers to reconvene and "get this done."

Judge Kaye also pointed out that Governor Spitzer and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver both fully support the package the judges are requesting.

Campaign Reform Snag

The judicial pay issue, however, has been complicated by Governor Spitzer's plan to revamp state campaign finance laws - legislation he has prioritized as a condition for increasing lawmakers' salaries.

Judge Kaye argued that linking those two issues was unfair. "The judiciary has nothing to barter, nothing to trade in a political process that continues to hold us hostage," she asserted. "Judges should not be the meat of a political struggle."

A report issued this past summer showed that local judges earn less than many public-sector employees. The document, issued by the National Center for State Courts at the request of Judge Kaye, also found that many of the state's judges are going into debt.

According to the 52-page report, there are 117 judges - roughly 10 percent of the entire judiciary - who have unpaid pension loans. "Prior to 2005, it was rare for judges to borrow against their state pensions," the document said. "Only 28 judges had outstanding pension loans at the end of 2004. That number doubled within a year, and has more than quadrupled in two years."

We're No. 49

The report also said that judicial salaries in New York rank 49th in the nation when adjusted for the state's high cost of living.

"That is not a distinction New Yorkers can, or should, take pride in," Judge Kaye told reporters last week. "With the heaviest court dockets in the nation, we need to attract, and keep, the very best, most-experienced lawyers for the bench. This clearly isn't the way to do it."

Governor Spitzer's first budget agreement with the State Legislature didn't include the $111 million he proposed in January for judicial raises, which "devastated" Judge Kaye.

Under the Senate's legislation, State Supreme Court justices would receive an annual salary of $165,200 and a cost-of-living increase effective in 2008, to ensure that parity between the Federal judiciary and the state judiciary continues.

Ready for Battle

That measure is based on Judge Kaye's proposed 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.

At the end of the press conference, Judge Kaye pointed to a small bronze sculpture of Lady Justice in the back of her office on loan from the Court of Appeals in Albany. "She has a blindfold and scales of justice, but look at what she has in her other hand - a sword," she said as she stepped away from the podium.