Judicial Compensation in New York: A National Perspective, Report

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14 JUDICIAL COMPENSATION IN NEW YORK: A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE “We can tell you a number of things about the effect the salary freeze has had on us as a family. We’ve both recently taken out pension loans for the purpose of paying down debt. Since expenses have risen so high and our salary has not, credit debt alone has become crushing. We are still paying off several college loans for our older children, and our youngest will be going to college in a few years — how do we do it when our other debt is mounting due to the cost of living? We do not attend many Bar Association functions we are invited to due to the expense. We have five children, four of whom are grown-up, but three of whom still require financial support from us one way or another. The raise, therefore, is absolutely imperative for us. We may have to sell our house soon if we don’t get a raise.” ••• “The most galling thing about all of this is that I could end these [financial] problems by simply resigning my judgeship and re-entering the private sector. Barring some change in our compensation, I intend to do this next year.... I doubt very much whether many attorneys with the same or superior qualifications to mine will be available to take my place.” ••• “I bring home less today than I did eight years ago due to the increased amount taken out for FICA and insurance premiums. In the past three years, we, [my family] have had many positive events, college and law school graduations, and now two upcoming weddings. Although all of these are good things, they come with expenses that parents have to incur. How does a judge plan a wedding on Long Island knowing that his salary has been eroded by inflation to the tune of 25%? He borrows. Thousands of dollars. He hopes that the promised raise from 2004, 2005, 2006 and this year, together with the retro pay, will somehow become a reality so that he can start to pay off these bills.” ••• “The biggest impact for me has been my inability to continue contributing to deferred compensation. The normal increases in property taxes, utilities, maintenance fees etc. made it impossible to do so.” •••
REPORT TO THE CHIEF JUDGE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 15 “I was elected a Surrogate Court judge. I am one of the handful of county-level judges earning just $119,800 per year. My income barely supports my stay-home wife and our three young children. I have remortgaged my real estate and borrowed on a personal line of credit just to pay operating expenses. The rising cost of living, taxes and gasoline costs have steadily eroded my family’s standard of living.” ••• “Over the years we have watched our savings being either gradually eroded or significantly reduced by large sum expenditures without any hope of being able to replenish the money or even reduce the pace of the outflow. It is like watching air leaking from a balloon knowing that there is no way to stop it or put the air back.” ••• “Eighteen years ago I made a considered decision to leave my senior position in the DA’s office for what I thought was a more prestigious and higher paid career as a judge. I knew I was passing up better earnings in a law firm, but boy did I ever miscalculate. It just never occurred to me I would go six years, and now eight years, at a time, without any COLAs at all. I find what has happened to judges in this State personally demoralizing, but more importantly, it is demeaning and disrespectful toward the institution. In theory, we’re an independent, coequal branch of government. In practice, we’re not. Enough is enough. I still love my job, but I’ve put the regrets behind me and I’m searching for new opportunities with law firms.” ••• “I have been a judge since 1998 and will tell you that my husband and I calculated that if there is no change, in approximately 13 months we will have exhausted all of our savings to pay for our monthly expenses.” ••• “This financial crisis is real, and any raise won’t give me extra money to vacation and buy toys, but will just help me to start to pay back the thousands of dollars that I borrowed just to stay on Long Island as a judge. Even though I chose public service as a way to utilize my law training, and even though I believe I’ve done a good job as a judge, I now realize I did a major disservice to my family and put an extraordinary burden on my wife to pick up the slack.” •••
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Judicial Compensation in New York: A National Perspective, Report

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