Judicial Compensation in New York: A National Perspective, Report
Judicial Compensation in New York: A National Perspective, Report
Judicial Compensation in New York: A National Perspective, Report
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REPORT TO THE CHIEF JUDGE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 19<br />
• They should either be solely concerned with judicial compensation or, if other<br />
branches are covered, judicial salaries should be considered separately.<br />
• The members should be appo<strong>in</strong>ted by leaders of all three branches and <strong>in</strong>clude<br />
nonlawyers.<br />
• They should collect and analyze relevant data, and hold public hear<strong>in</strong>gs.<br />
• They should meet at least annually and issue reports at least biennially.<br />
B. INSULATING STATE JUDICIAL COMPENSATION<br />
Experience across the states suggests that better results are achieved when judicial pay<br />
issues are severed from unrelated public policy issues and/or <strong>in</strong>sulated from legislative<br />
and executive compensation. This is supported by a strong separation of powers argument.<br />
Accord<strong>in</strong>g to the ABA, “The cont<strong>in</strong>ued l<strong>in</strong>kage, formal or <strong>in</strong>formal, of judicial<br />
salaries to those of other public officials threatens the <strong>in</strong>dependence of the judicial<br />
branch and <strong>in</strong>troduces <strong>in</strong>appropriate political considerations <strong>in</strong>to the process of determ<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />
judicial compensation.” 43 Reliance on legislative and appropriation processes<br />
as the sole or primary method for sett<strong>in</strong>g judicial salaries means that judicial pay issues<br />
can easily become hostage to differences between the political branches of government<br />
on other issues, or to dissatisfaction with specific court decisions. 44<br />
C. LESSONS LEARNED<br />
The experience of the 50 state court systems over recent decades yields some important<br />
lessons on the best approaches to sett<strong>in</strong>g judicial compensation. First, states must<br />
be attentive to the need for both periodic reviews of base judicial salaries, and regular<br />
cost-of-liv<strong>in</strong>g adjustments <strong>in</strong> between those reviews, to avoid the need for large and<br />
politically difficult “catch-up” <strong>in</strong>creases. Second, judicial pay levels should be based on<br />
accepted, measurable and objective benchmarks. Third, state judicial salaries generally<br />
fare poorly when they are set through the appropriation process. Fourth, while no<br />
s<strong>in</strong>gle approach is guaranteed to yield perfect results, permanent bipartisan or nonpartisan<br />
compensation commissions that <strong>in</strong>clude members of the general public seem to<br />
be the most promis<strong>in</strong>g vehicles for review<strong>in</strong>g judicial salaries. Fifth, the recommendations<br />
of a compensation commission should carry a presumption that they will be<br />
adapted barr<strong>in</strong>g economic conditions that have slowed the growth of salaries <strong>in</strong> nonjudicial<br />
positions. 45<br />
43 The quote is from the form presented by the ABA Stand<strong>in</strong>g Committee on <strong>Judicial</strong> Independence <strong>in</strong> submitt<strong>in</strong>g the<br />
report on judicial compensation that guided the contents of the 2003 Resolution.<br />
44 The Colorado Judiciary recently tackled this problem by propos<strong>in</strong>g that the state legislature change the traditional<br />
legislative process govern<strong>in</strong>g the sett<strong>in</strong>g of judicial pay. In response to the request for a fairer process, the General<br />
Assembly passed legislation authoriz<strong>in</strong>g the Appropriations Committee rather than the full Assembly to determ<strong>in</strong>e<br />
judicial salary <strong>in</strong>creases. One positive result was greater <strong>in</strong>volvement by Jo<strong>in</strong>t Budget Committee legislative analysts,<br />
who have identified rational criteria for use <strong>in</strong> establish<strong>in</strong>g compensation levels.<br />
45 Recommendations of compensation commissions that are advisory <strong>in</strong> nature have been rout<strong>in</strong>ely ignored <strong>in</strong> some<br />
states, although there is some evidence that advisory commissions fare better when they are assigned the task of<br />
review<strong>in</strong>g compensation <strong>in</strong> all three branches. The recent example of Missouri’s revisions to its compensation commission,<br />
overwhelm<strong>in</strong>gly approved by the voters, offers a compromise approach <strong>in</strong> which that state’s legislature reta<strong>in</strong>s<br />
a f<strong>in</strong>al veto but there is a strong presumption that the commission’s recommendations will go <strong>in</strong>to effect.