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New York judges make more than enough

Albany Times Union

By RINALDO Del GALLO III

First published: Friday, May 9, 2008

Rex Smith's recent column, "Here's pith: Judges merit a salary hike," (April 12), made no mention of the putatively inadequate pay given to judges. Supreme Court judges make $136,700 a year and seek to make $165,200.

While a select few of New York's lawyers make this type of money in large law firms, most would consider the sum ample compensation that substantially exceeds their own. Moreover, attorneys making big bucks at the nation's largest law firms make a big trade-off that judges do not: They basically work insane hours and have no personal life.

What also was not clearly articulated in the column is that while the judiciary has not had a raise since 1999, state legislators have denied themselves a pay raise since then, too.

Smith grossly overstates the case that being a judge is a thankless job, fraught with difficulty. Being a judge is a dream job. The pay is much more than most people make. The job comes with immense power and prestige.

According to an Associated Press article, New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye said, "The lack of adequate pay keeps the best lawyers from entering public service." The AP also wrote that Kaye noted some judges have already left the bench for better earnings.
If there is a judge who feels he or she is somehow being cheated or under-compensated, that judge should strongly consider going back to being an attorney. Few do. That $136,700 a year provides a comfortable living and an adequate return on educational investment, and is generous enough to attract plenty of well-qualified candidates.

Judges already have problems relating to average people. They can excoriate both attorneys and parties with complete immunity, only to have their fulminations met with genuflecting supplicants fearful of upsetting the Great Wizard of Oz. Only about 8.5 percent of all complaints filed against judges in New York result in some type of action by the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct, even if it is a letter that dismisses the complaint with caution. Only 4.4 percent of all charges result in formal charges (or resignation.)
Many people have suggested putting the judge's bench at ground level in an effort to allay the God complex. Extravagant salaries will only exacerbate the problem.

Judges are losing the ability to relate to average people. Their salaries are more than twice as much as the median household income in New York. They make so much money, they do not understand what a $250 speeding ticket coupled with surcharges can do to a family's finances, how losing a third of one's after-tax income in child support can lead to poverty, or what it means to lose a primary wage earner because of a slip-and-fall injury, medical malpractice or driver's negligence.

There is something to be said for a judge who has recently clipped shopper coupons like me and you, knows the price of a gallon of milk and where to find the cheapest gas stations, and is not worrying about affording membership to an elite golf club.
As a fathers' rights activist, I have met countless New Yorkers who are prone to think the worst of judges and the judicial system. The spats over pay raises only prove grist for the cynicism mill.

Now we have the spectacle of the judicial branch suing the legislative branch and the smorgasbord of separation of powers issues that will engender.

Courts throughout the nation have ruled that while appropriating money is a task for the Legislature, they can make the Legislature pay for the bare necessity of running a court system out of respect for their own sovereignty as a branch of government. But it is hard to make a serious case that a salary of $165,200 is the type of necessity warranting the judiciary to issue injunctions against the legislative branch of government in violation of separation of powers principles. When teachers believe they are being under-compensated, they cannot simply tell the Legislature to pay them more; what makes judges different?

Rinaldo Del Gallo III is an attorney in Pittsfield, Mass., and a spokesman for the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition.