President Debra L. Raskin’s testimony on Judicial Compensation delivered at Commission on Legislative, Judicial & Executive Compensation

SUMMARY

The Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation held a public hearing on November 30th on the subject of pay increases for New York State judges. The seven-member panel of the Commission is established every four years through appointments by the governor’s office, the President Pro Tempore of the New York State Senate, the Speaker of the State Assembly, and the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, and is tasked with evaluating and making recommendations with respect to compensation and non-salary benefits for those state officials. City Bar President Debra L. Raskin, along with NYSBA President David Miranda, Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks, and other state judges and practitioners testified at the hearing, at which advocates both for and against pay increases were heard. President Raskin argued for parity between the salaries of New York’s Supreme Court justices and the higher salaries currently earned by Federal District Court judges, noting, inter alia, the complex commercial, family court, housing and debt matters handled by our state judiciary, and the fact that salaries earned by our state trial court judges rank 47th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia when adjusted for the cost-of-living.