Judges look to grant own raises
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- April
- 9
Jay Gallagher in our Albany bureau reports today:
ALBANY  In a move that could set up a collision among the state’s three branches of government, the state’s chief judge said today she plans to ask the state comptroller and attorney general whether they think the courts can grant judges a pay raise on their own.
“I am loathe to take that step unless we have no place else to go,� Chief Judge Judith Kaye said at a press conference today.
Kaye’s statement came in reaction to the Legislature and Gov. Eliot Spitzer failing to adopt as part of this year’s budget pay raises for judges, who haven’t had an increase since 1999. State Supreme Court judges make $136,000 a year.
“It is nothing short of disgraceful that we have been brought to his point, that for more than eight years …New York State judges, for no reason other than Albany politics, have been denied even a cost-of-living adjustment to their salaries,â€? she said.
She said the lack of a raise “has been totally, wholly demoralizing to the New York judiciary.�
Gov. Eliot Spitzer included $111 million for judicial pay raises in his budget, retroactive to 2005. But lawmakers cut them out. The pay of legislators has been tied by political tradition to that of judges in New York for decades, and lawmakers have decided against taking the politically risky step of raising their own pay.
The base pay for lawmakers is $79,500 a year. Every senator and about three-quarters of the members of the Assembly also get “leadership� stipends that raises the average annual pay to more than $90,000.
Kaye, who has been lobbying hard for judges’ pay hikes for the last few years, also said she was taking the following steps:
—Asking the four legislative leaders for permission to address lawmakers directly to push for the raise.
—Inviting Spitzer and the legislative leaders to join in a public forum to discuss the issue.
—Making the pay-raise issue the subject of “Law Dayâ€? ceremonies at courts all over the state on April 30.
—Having the National Center for State Courts review the pay of New York judges compared to their counterparts in other states.
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on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 1:43 pm by Liz Anderson.
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CHIEF JUDGE JUDITH S. KAYE HONORS HER SACRED OATH TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION BY SERVING NOTICE UPON HER CO-EQUAL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT TO CURE THEIR FOUL BREACH OF THEIR SACRED OATH THAT NEW YORK SHALL HAVE AN INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY OR FACE A LAWSUIT THAT CONSTITUTIONALLY REPLENISHES JUDICIAL SALARY
The noble judiciary, state and federal, elective and appointive, our Founding Fathers decided needed to have a political birth, so as to avoid extreme judicial activism. But they mandated a mechanism for an independent judiciary post-birth, either with life tenure, as with the federal Article III judges, or with long terms, as in New York and a salary that cannot be diminished.
The functioning of the judiciary is predicated upon their independence from politics as well as from their co-equal branches of government so that our separation of powers regime may work, and each judge in the appropriate case feels free to say “no� to power without fear or seeking favor. Eight long years without even a cost of living increase has caused the1999 salary to be ravaged by corrosive inflation and to illegally pierce the Constitutional floor that bars salary “diminution;� salary protection is the gatekeeper to judicial independence while barring retribution by the co-equal branches of government when their laws are found unconstitutional.
In point of fact, the judiciary deserve a merit-based salary increase well beyond the number sought by the salary-frugal Chief Judge Kaye, dictated as it plainly is by the judges’ caseload shooting skyward. Chief Justice Roberts has called for the federal judges to be paid approximately $225,000 as a floor for judicial independence that life tenure was meant to insure (judges exiting to earn a living wage damages judicial independence). Surely, the cost of living in New York exceeds Ohio and New Mexico, while the talent and industry of our New York judges is renowned nationally!
Our Founding Fathers, leaving aside Governor Alfred E. Smith’s assumption of legislative budget power over 75 years ago, mandated that governance be split three-ways so that when it necessarily re-merged to govern, the people’s government would better serve the people. Self-perpetuation was barred by the separated powers regime, but respectful equal co-dependency was mandated. Here, the judiciary’s vital independence has been mugged, year after year for eight long years with a diminution in salary caused by a rising cost of living, sometimes higher than the inflation rate depending upon where the judge served in New York State.
Chief Judge Kaye has done everyday New Yorkers proud by standing up and asserting that we will continue to have an impartial and independent judiciary that fashions merit-based justice one case at a time, and in so doing, defended the Constitution and our cherished freedoms delivered everyday in courtrooms across New York State.
While no one can argue that those who toil in the executive and legislative branches of government also deserve a pay increase just to regain lost ground, but their similar condition isn’t constitutionally protected with a bar against diminution in salary as in the case of the judiciary, for they can cause gridlock to get what they want and delay budget passage past April 1 as we have experienced in the past. The judiciary’s sole constitutional protection for being independent was that they cannot be punished with a salary decrease, as has occurred here over eight years. This is a constitutional crisis that has left our noble judiciary financially bleeding, an insult that must addressed swiftly and respectfully.
The legacy of Chief Judge Kaye is enhanced in history as she valiantly does battle to protect the very honor of the judiciary: its vital independence.
Dated: 4/9/07
/s/
Ravi Batra