As you may know, yesterday the Association hosted a press conference at the Bar Center in Albany to call upon the Governor and Legislators to include a long overdue pay raise for judges as part of the final State Budget. This was the second press conference in less than a year that the Association hosted on this issue, the Governor, the Senate and the Assembly all agree that our judges deserve and need a raise but they have, to date, failed to act. We understand the need to close the state’s looming deficit and we understand the desire of the Legislature to have a raise for themselves. However, we have an obligation to our judiciary who, in the wake of nearly 10 years without even a cost of living adjustment, have essentially been handed a 26% pay cut. We ignore this disgraceful situation at our peril, as it threatens the quality and the independence of our third, co-equal branch of government.
The press conference was called by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye who brought together a wide range of groups who are calling for a judicial pay raise, including judicial associations, good government groups, business groups and civic organizations. In addition, our President-Elect Bernice K. Leber (Arent Fox LLP) attended the press conference and spoke passionately on behalf of our members, as she called on leaders in state government to take action without delay.
Today it appears that the needed pay raise for judges is not in the offing as preliminary reports regarding the agreed upon state budget indicate that the legislature will not address the issue in this budget session. As New Yorkers, we should all be ashamed. There is no other way to couch this other than to say that New York’s judges have become hostage to a dysfunctional political process that unfairly links judicial pay increases to legislative compensation. At a time when the state legislature may not be able to defend their own pay raises, it is unfair to ignore the plight of our judges. We should be embarrassed by a system in which the best and brightest on the bench are compensated at a level, when adjusted for the cost of living, ranks 49th in the country.
We say enough! Our judges deserve fair compensation now, not after the fall elections. Rest assured that this will remain at the top of our agenda, our advocacy efforts, until justice for our judges is assured.