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Chief Justice Lobbies for Higher Pay for Judges

 

By Joe Hart

TRENTON –– New Jersey’s top judge wants higher salaries for the state’s judiciary.
New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner went before the Public Officers Salary Review Commission asking for 11 percent raises for the approximately 460 state judges.
Last year, the judiciary received a 5.7 percent increase, its first since 2000. Rabner said, however, that it wasn’t enough.
He told the panel, which meets every four years to discuss raises for public officials, that this state’s court judges should be make the same as federal judges, whose salaries had long been a “benchmark” for New Jersey’s judiciary.
A report Rabner submitted with his testimony stated that state judges earn $149,000, which is $16,200 less than federal judges even after last year’s increase. The two judicial groups have comparable duties and responsibilities, according to the report.
When taking the cost of living into account, judges in this state make the equivalent of $113,037. In addition, New Jersey is one of only two states, along with Oklahoma, that don’t allow judges to make money elsewhere, such as from public speaking appearances.
The report stated that judges are leaving the bench early in part because of the salary is-sue. Between 2002 and today, 140 state judges retired from the bench, 90 of those before the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Rabner told the salary panel that losing judges was unacceptable.
“We want to get the best and the brightest, and retain those people over the long haul,” he said.
The report also cited general population per capita increases, judges’ decreased purchasing power, and New Jersey’s poor ranking for judicial salaries as additional reasons for the in-crease request.
Judicial salaries in New Jersey are currently ranked 37th out of 50 states when adjusted for cost of living. Judges in neighboring states Delaware ($168,850) and Pennsylvania ($152,115) are among the five best paid on that list.
Recommendations from Rabner’s report included increasing the salaries of trial court judges to $165,000; assignment judges, $171,800; appellate judges, $175,600; associate justices, $185,500; and the chief justice, $192,300.
The report also called for an automatic cost-of-living increase to be established for state judges.
The salary commission will hold additional meetings prior to submitting its recommendations in December.
When the commission last met in 2003, the governor and legislature failed to enact its recommendations.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com

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