Judges’ Elective Salary Deductions
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As a result of the state’s economic crisis and reductions to the budget for the courts, a majority of the judges in California have voluntarily elected to have 4.62 percent of their salaries reduced in order to help compensate for the deficit the courts now face. There are two options the courts may choose from to deal with the money garnered from these funds. Neither of these options will affect the judges’ various benefits in any way, including their pensions.
OPTION ONE
The first option is the state option, which is contained in legislation passed by the state. The judges may choose to have the 4.62 percent reduction taken directly out of their paychecks before they receive them. It would adjust their gross income accordingly, and their W-2’s received at the end of the year would so reflect that reduction in income. The money collected would go back into the trial courts budget in order to help offset budget decreases, but it will not necessarily go back to the respective courts where the money came from.
OPTION TWO
The second option is one chosen by the bench officers in Los Angeles Superior Court. They have elected to have their paychecks deducted by the 4.62 percent, and it will be designated as a charitable deduction. Their W-2’s will not reflect a decrease in their gross income. This money is designated specifically for Los Angeles Superior Court’s budget deficit and will not go to the trial courts budget. The stated reason for doing it in this fashion is to ensure that it will directly help Los Angeles Superior Court and help reduce layoffs and furloughs. At this time it appears that LASC is the only court to have selected this option.
Judges’ salaries cannot be reduced by the state per legislation. As stated above, all of these voluntary contributions are a choice of the individual bench officer. Any bench officer may decline to participate in this program. For those bench officers that have chosen to participate, it is a welcome gesture of support.
Posted on August 14th, 2009 by Paige Moser
3 Comments
November 19th, 2009 at 2:28 am
I can’t believe that there are no replies to this. With their salary approaching 260K (By far the highest salary for any Judge in the country) and considering the state of our courts, this is the least they can do…
December 13th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
True. True. They also stand to benefit (less stress, get work done) by having staff readily available, as opposed to waiting for a court reporter to free up from a master calendar. That is waste of court resources and annoying!
December 14th, 2009 at 8:38 am
As of approximately two weeks ago, Los Angeles Superior Court has enacted its CARE program (the money collected from the judges’ voluntary contributions on the furlough days), which allows all employees affected by the furlough to choose eitherto be paid for one day of lost wages or to add a day off on the books for each quarter of the year of furloughs. So that adds up to four days of pay for the year or four days off, the employee’s choice.
Because of the dire state of the upcoming budget some employees believe that money should be saved to curtail expected layoffs for next year.