BENCH $UPPORT LACKING
The New York Post by BRENDAN SCOTT
May 20, 2008 -- ALBANY - The verdict is in: New York's judges haven't made the case for a wage hike.
More than half of registered voters oppose raising the salaries of the state's 1,300 jurists, according to a Siena College poll released yesterday. The poll found 55 percent against the judges' long-sought wage boost, compared with 39 percent in favor of it. Six percent were undecided in the statewide poll, which had a 4 percentage-point margin of error. The findings come despite the judges' full-court press on the issue in recent weeks, including an unprecedented lawsuit against the Legislature by Chief Judge Judith Kaye and a controversial effort - reported recently in The Post - by some judges to slowdown cases brought by law firms tied to legislators.
In fact, more voters - 45 percent in favor, 49 percent against - backed raises for the very lawmakers whom the judges blame for blocking the raise. Lawmakers, led by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), have refused to approve a salary bump for judges until they get one, too. Lawmakers collect a base salary of $79,500 a year. Judges make $139,000 annually, which they argue has increasingly driven perspective jurists toward more lucrative careers in private practice since the salary was set in 1999. "In the voters' minds, the more you make, the less you need a raise," Siena spokesman Steven Greenberg said. "The judges have not made the case." Sixty-five percent opposed a pay raise for the governor, who makes $179,000 a year. brendan.scott@nypost.com
The judges should only get a raise after the dead wood (read: corrupt hacks) gets discarded. When the honest judges step up to the plate and tell the truth about the corruption, then the public will step up and support a pay raise. Until then, we all wallow in the corruptive filth. amen.
ReplyDeleteAfter the corrupt get discarded, the non-corrupt, if you can call them that, because of this.....must start to work full time. A six figure plus salary for working 3-4 hrs a day, 3-4 days a week...maybe... is a tragedy in todays average workers decline in wages in AMERICA! I say no, until the JUDICIARY learns they are not the GODS politicians made them think they were, by endorsing anyone of any background or morality, and whoring them as competent with extroadinary abilities to JUDGE!
ReplyDeleteBring back the good old days, the old time mobsters. At least they only stole a piece of the pie....not the whole thing! These two-bit slobs today are a disgrace to the memory of every public official ganster that ever lived.
ReplyDeletei hope the politicians do not cave in. Thier are more voters in N.Y
ReplyDeletethan judges. These judges do not lobby to make it easier to press charges or hold themselves accountable. One question that they should ask is if people trust thier legal system in New York.
Do N.Y. trust judges and lawyers.
Just ask someone that has hired a lawyer or has been to court.
Ask someone in thier 30`s or 40`s
that has been or knows someone that has been effected by the corrupt system
Judy Kaye and all her friends should all drop dead before they get a penny. They're all a bunch of corrupt bastards.
ReplyDelete