Relates to compensation of district attorneys

Title of bill

An act to amend the judiciary law, in relation to compensation for district attorneys

Purpose

This bill will require the Office of Court Administration to reimburse from its budget each county for any cost to the county as the result of increases in annual compensation required to be paid to the district attorney (DA) of the county as the result of the actions of the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 - amends section 183-a of the Judiciary Law to add a provision that any increase in compensation to district attorneys after January 1, 2016 resulting from actions of the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation, shall be reimbursed to the county by the Office of Court Administration and shall be paid on or before the last day of each calendar year in which such increase shall have been paid.

Section 2 - provides that this act shall take effect immediately.

Justification

On December 24, 2015, the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Compensation voted to recommend increasing all state judge salaries in 2016 and 2018. As a result, Supreme Court judges' salaries were raised to $193,000 in 2016 and $203,000.00 in 2018. Compensation for County Court Judges are set at 95% of a Supreme Court Justice's salary. These recommendations were approved by the state on April 1, 2016.

State Judicial Law 183-a provides that DA salaries are linked with judicial salaries, requiring DA's salaries to be equal to or higher than either the County Court Judge or Supreme Court Judge in a county, depending on full or part-time status.

Historically, the state has paid for DA salary increases mandated on counties, usually through the state budget. Unfortunately, the budget adopted for SFY 2016-17 did not include funds to cover the DA salary increases.

It is estimated that the mandate to increase DA salaries will initially cost each county approximately $30,000.00, a cost that was not anticipated in the county budgets for 2016. Even going forward, it will be difficult for counties to bear the increased costs associated with these raises because of the caps that have been placed upon their budgets. If the Legislative Commission and the State believe that the Judicial system will be benefitted by increasing DA salaries, then it should be incumbent upon the Judicial system to fund these costs. This legislation will provide relief to counties for this burden placed upon counties and shift it to its proper responsible party.

Legislative history

New bill

Fiscal implications

None EFFECTIVE DATE : Immediately