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Monday, July 18, 2011

The Judicial Pay-Raise Fix Is In, Make Believe Debate Continues

Commission to Set Raises for Judges in New York State Is Flooded With Suggestions
The New York Times by William Glaberson  -  July 18, 2011

What is the price of administering justice?  That may sound like an existential question. But for a state panel beginning its task of setting salaries for New York’s judges, the issue is less of soaring philosophical debate than of convoluted calculations.  Would $220,836 be the proper salary for a judge who now earns $136,700, as one argument filed with the commission suggested? What about $195,754?  The seven members of the commission indicated last week in their first meeting that they thought their summer math-immersion course would put an end to one of the longest-running arguments in Albany, where state judges, numbering more than 1,200, have been lodging complaints about their pay for years.  The panel, the Judicial Compensation Commission, was created last year after the Legislature had failed for 12 years to agree on a raise for judges. Its decision, due in August, is to have the force of law unless overturned by the Legislature and the governor.  William C. Thompson Jr., the panel’s chairman and a former New York City comptroller, told the commissioners that they should assume that their conclusion “on the level of compensation for judges is going to be the level of compensation.”  The commission will hold its first — and probably only — public hearing on Wednesday in Albany. As a result, its members, appointed by the governor, legislative leaders and the state’s chief judge, are being inundated with formulas and charts.  The suggestions include every manner of numerical calculation, with most using as a point of reference the current $136,700 salary of State Supreme Court justices, who handle a wide range of cases, including murder cases and malpractice trials, and whose pay would have risen 41 percent if they had received raises to keep pace with inflation, according to one filing.  Each interest group had its own math. The New York City Bar Association argued that given how expensive it is to live in New York City, Supreme Court justices would have to earn $212,000 to be paid in line with the salaries of other big-city judges across the country.  The New York County Lawyers’ Association did another calculation: a $60,000 raise “would increase the state budget by less than 55 one-thousandths of one percent.”  Not to be outdone, a coalition of 12 judges’ organizations put forth 50 facts justifying a big raise, including salaries in New York City’s Sanitation Department: 50 employees in the department earn more than almost all New York judges and nearly as much as the state’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman.  Judge Lippman makes $156,000; an intermediate appeals judge makes $144,000; a criminal court judge makes $125,600. The commissioners said they would keep in place the comparative differences for the various levels of the courts.  One commission member, Mark S. Mulholland, a Long Island lawyer, said in an interview that there were numbers of formulas that people were using to make their cases.  But he insisted he was not overwhelmed by numbers as lawyers sometimes are. “I actually did well in math,” he said.  Officials at the state’s Office of Court Administration presented the commissioners with their own ways of looking at the numbers, including a comparison of New York’s judicial salaries with the salaries of judges in other states. New York came in dead last.  The court administrators suggested setting the salary for a State Supreme Court justice between $192,000 and $220,000, a range seemingly intended to give the commission ample leeway to grant a big raise. If, for example, the commission chose a salary less than $192,000, it could appear fiscally responsible even as it doled out raises of 30 percent or so.  For much of the past dozen years, the discussion of judicial salaries has not drawn much passion. But with the commission tackling the issue at a time of state budget problems, the idea of increasing any state salaries is not popular.  State Senator John J. Bonacic, a Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview that a raise to $220,000 for judges “may not be consistent with the tough environment that’s going on right now.” He said that in some areas of the state “if a vacancy occurred, you would have lawyers lining up for Supreme Court at the current salary.”  In the media and on the Internet, the prospect of a big judicial raise is beginning to draw fiery comments. Judges deserve a raise, “but 62 percent in one shot?” The New York Post asked in an editorial last week after the court administration officials had filed their submission. “No way,” the paper commented.  David Bookstaver, the spokesman for the court system, said the proposal offered the commission a range of salary possibilities based on factors set forth in the law. As for the criticism, Mr. Bookstaver called it “a mischaracterization of our submission.”  During the panel’s meeting last week, three of the seven commissioners appeared ready to grant judges a large raise quickly, two did not suggest views and two said the size of any raise had to be limited by the state’s fiscal troubles. “How much can the state afford?” asked Bill Mulrow, who was appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.  In the filings, the formulas and calculations are stitched together with arguments. So far, the most ardent — and the wordiest— is the one by the judicial associations, which runs 247 pages. “When someone finds out that you are a judge,” it said, “and you have not had a raise in over 12 years, most people say, ‘That’s crazy.’ ”

11 comments:

Victim said...

SPREAD THE WORD!

Victims of judicial corruption have a powerful opportunity to vindicate their own rights and advance reform by testifying in opposition to pay raises for corrupt New York judges at a public hearing to be held by New York’s Judicial Compensation Commission on Wednesday, July 20th, at 11 a.m., in Albany -- &/or by sending the Commission statements of written opposition.

Such hearing directly results from the advocacy of the non-partisan, non-profit citizens’ organization, Center for Judicial Accountability, Inc. (CJA), whose May 23rd and June 23rd letters to the Judicial Compensation Commission called upon it to hold public hearings “to ensure that its work is informed by evidence-based facts as to the supposed quality of our state judges entitling them to increased compensation, including the quality of those judges who have complained that they are underpaid.”

CJA’s position, expressed by its May 23rd letter, is that there must be NO increases in judicial compensation:

“until mechanisms are in place and functioning to remove judges who deliberately pervert the rule of law and any semblance of justice and whose decisions are nothing short of ‘judicial perjuries’, being knowingly false and fabricated. Such judges, willfully destroying the lives of countless New Yorkers, the wellbeing of our state, and our democracy as a whole, are unworthy of their current salaries and benefits – being paid by hardworking New Yorkers.”

CJA’s website, www.judgewatch.org, posts its devastating letters and e-mails to the Judicial Compensation Commission, accessible via the top panel “Latest News”. The direct link is http://www.judgewatch.org/web-pages/judicial-compensation/nys-judicial-compensation.htm.

Contact CJA Director Elena Sassower for further details – and about what you can do to help CJA organize a Citizens’ Taxpayer Revolt Against Pay Raises for New York Judges. She can be reached at 718-708-5303 and elena@judgewatch.org.

Meantime, SPREAD THE WORD!

Victim said...

SPREAD THE WORD!

Victims of judicial corruption have a powerful opportunity to vindicate their own rights and advance reform by testifying in opposition to pay raises for corrupt New York judges at a public hearing to be held by New York’s Judicial Compensation Commission on Wednesday, July 20th, at 11 a.m., in Albany -- &/or by sending the Commission statements of written opposition.

Such hearing directly results from the advocacy of the non-partisan, non-profit citizens’ organization, Center for Judicial Accountability, Inc. (CJA), whose May 23rd and June 23rd letters to the Judicial Compensation Commission called upon it to hold public hearings “to ensure that its work is informed by evidence-based facts as to the supposed quality of our state judges entitling them to increased compensation, including the quality of those judges who have complained that they are underpaid.”

CJA’s position, expressed by its May 23rd letter, is that there must be NO increases in judicial compensation:

“until mechanisms are in place and functioning to remove judges who deliberately pervert the rule of law and any semblance of justice and whose decisions are nothing short of ‘judicial perjuries’, being knowingly false and fabricated. Such judges, willfully destroying the lives of countless New Yorkers, the wellbeing of our state, and our democracy as a whole, are unworthy of their current salaries and benefits – being paid by hardworking New Yorkers.”

CJA’s website, www.judgewatch.org, posts its devastating letters and e-mails to the Judicial Compensation Commission, accessible via the top panel “Latest News”. The direct link is http://www.judgewatch.org/web-pages/judicial-compensation/nys-judicial-compensation.htm.

Contact CJA Director Elena Sassower for further details – and about what you can do to help CJA organize a Citizens’ Taxpayer Revolt Against Pay Raises for New York Judges. She can be reached at 718-708-5303 and elena@judgewatch.org.

Meantime, SPREAD THE WORD!

Anonymous said...

The Lippman/Silver Shuffle was concluded along time ago. They are just going through the motions.

Shelly & Lippy's friends said...

FUGETABOUTIT

Sheely&Lippy'sFriends said...

FUGETABOUTIT

Anonymous said...

Watch...the more money these slugs get the more power they will exert.
They definitely will be getting raises and I belive at a nice steep level....Silver will not let his boyfirend down this time!
But...never, ever give up......fight this fight until the world ends if you must...someday..payday for us will manifest...so keep talking judicial corruption!

Anonymous said...

if they get a raise does that mean less payola?

Anonymous said...

This is a Cuomo fix. It's not Cuomo's idea; it's the consensus of the distinguished committee members, aka Cuomo/Silver/Bar Hacks. The committee report has already been prepared in Cuomo's office and Fred Dicker is polishing the puff piece about Cuomo's brilliance.

Jail4Judges said...

SAVE THE MONEY - PUT ALL OF THEM IN JAIL WHERE THEY BELONG THEN THERE MIGHT BE SOME ACCOUNTABILITY

Anonymous said...

no this is perfect, they truly do not get paid well if they are decent judges, so payola is possible, unless that raise comes with you are to disclose all income, all contributions, you will be subjected to IRS Audit, etc etc

I am a judge an hear sits a factory worker/teacher who makes close to my salary....let see maybe I will hate and destroy their case!

Anonymous said...

no this is perfect, they truly do not get paid well if they are decent judges, so payola is possible, unless that raise comes with you are to disclose all income, all contributions, you will be subjected to IRS Audit, etc etc

I am a judge an hear sits a factory worker/teacher who makes close to my salary....let see maybe I will hate and destroy their case!

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