Black Robes and Greenbacks: Judges Give Back Pay Raises...CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

Judges Give Back Pay Raises- In New York? you ask. Don't be silly, of course not in New York but in Pennsylvania. We like today's article by Peter Jackson in New York Lawyer, and we love the final quote: "It was a tainted process." Maybe some folks (law makers, judges, etc.) in New York should think outside of New York for some possible ideas.......MORE......

New York LawyerSeptember 26, 2007

By Peter JacksonThe Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- At least two state appellate court judges are giving back the pay raises that the Legislature approved in 2005, and Debra Todd wants voters to know that she's one of them.

Todd, a Superior Court judge and Democratic candidate for the Supreme Court, has made payments to the state treasury totaling $17,640, the Treasury Department confirmed Tuesday — representing the after-tax value of her raise from July 1, 2005, through June 30 of this year.

The payments, which exclude the annual cost-of-living adjustments that judges receive, will continue in the future, said campaign spokesman Alison Rudolph Hall, who was spreading the word Tuesday in response to a newspaper editorial that characterized fellow Superior Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin as the only judge in the state who had given back income from the politically charged pay raises.

Melvin, a Republican, filed a lawsuit seeking to reduce her salary to the level that prevailed when she was elected in 1997 — eliminating the need to pay taxes on the income — plus subsequent cost-of-living increases. She appealed a lower court's rejection of the suit to the Supreme Court.

Melvin, seeking a second 10-year term in an uncontested "retention" vote in November, kept the after-tax portion of her raise in escrow until last month, when she sent the Treasury Department a check for more than $14,000.

Todd has been comparatively low-key about the payments she has been making since Dec. 31.
"She did it without pomp and circumstance. She didn't sue anybody," Hall said of Todd, who she said objected to the manner in which the raises were approved.

Currently, a Superior Court judge is entitled to $165,000 a year.

The Legislature's July 2005 vote to approve the pay raises for top officials in all three branches of state government — taken in the early hours of the morning, without any hearings or floor debate — ignited a political storm.

Lawmakers repealed the raises four months later. A year ago, however, the state Supreme Court resuscitated the judicial pay raises, while allowing the repeal of raises for legislators and executive branch officials to stand.

"It was a tainted process," Hall said.