August 26, 2011
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION CALLS PROPOSED RAISES
INADEQUATE AFTER A 12-YEAR FREEZE ON SALARIES OF STATE JUDGES
New York State Bar Association President Vincent E. Doyle III today
expressed concern that the Judicial Compensation Commission approved a
relatively modest salary adjustment for New York's judges whose wages
have been frozen since January 1999. The commission voted to increase
the annual salaries of state Supreme Court justices from $136,700 to
$160,000 in 2012, $167,000 in 2013 and $174,000 in 2014.
"During the past 12 years, the cost-of-living increased by 40
percent, eroding judicial salaries. Yet the commission voted to adjust
judicial salaries by only 17 percent in 2012," said Doyle (Connors &
Vilardo, LLP) of Buffalo. By 2014, the third year of the phase-in,
judges salaries will have risen 27 percent over a 15-year period, far
less than the projected inflation rate.
“A well-functioning Judiciary is critical to our system of
government. It safeguards the rights of all New Yorkers while
resolving both criminal and civil disputes in a fair and impartial
manner,” Doyle said.
“Salary stagnation is more than a personal hardship for judges.
It threatens to undermine our judiciary, making it harder to attract and
retain talented judges,” Doyle said. “New York's judiciary
has a well-regarded national and international reputation. We put that
reputation at stake if we continue to devalue our judiciary by not
adjusting judges' salaries."
Judges are leaving the bench voluntarily in record numbers, according
to a recent New York Times article. In 1999, 48 of the state’s
1,300 judges resigned. In 2011, 110 quit the bench.
“Judicial pay scales should not be so inadequate that they
encourage top judges to resign—or deter highly qualified attorneys
from seeking judgeships,” Doyle noted.
Doyle said he also was disappointed that the commission called for
phasing in the adjustment over three years.
“Judges have waited long enough," he said. "We recognize the
state's fiscal problems and that many New Yorkers have been forced to
sacrifice. For judges, the sacrifice has been particularly long
and onerous. Since 1999, in good economic times and bad, judges'
salaries have not increased even by one cent."
The Judicial Compensation Commission was created by a measure signed
into law by Governor David Paterson in 2010. The commission's
recommendations will take effect April 1, 2012 unless the Legislature
affirmatively modifies or rejects them.
In a report issued in July 2011, the State Bar Association called for
raising salaries of state Supreme Court justices from $136,700 to
$192,000, to reflect the increase in the cost-of-living since
1999.
In 1977, the state government became responsible for funding the
newly created Unified Court System. Since then, judicial pay
raises have been infrequent. "A pattern of long periods of salary
stagnation [were] interrupted by occasional 'catch-up' increases," the
Bar Association report says.
Thus, the report notes, "A judge serving since 1995 has received only
one pay increase, in 1999. A judge serving since 1988--23 years ago--has
received only two salary adjustments, in 1993 and 1999, while seeing
inflation dramatically erode his or her salary."
The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the nation. It was founded in 1976.
For further information, see www.nysba.org/newscenter.
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