Senator derides judicial pay raise
Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008
A state Senate leader and a member of the state’s highest court tangled Friday over a letter the senator wrote deriding a proposal for higher salaries for judges.
Justice Don Corbin said last month that his judicial career had been “an expensive hobby.” That comment, Steve Faris, DHot Springs, said, illustrates that the justice is “out of touch” with the struggles of ordinary Arkansans.
In a letter he distributed Friday, Faris told Corbin: “I would suggest you be more appreciative and mindful of the benefits and salary you are currently receiving.” Justices, who earn $ 139, 821 per year, can retire after 25 years at 80 percent of their salaries and are allowed taxpayer-funded support staffs and work space. Chief Justice Jim Hannah earns $ 151, 049.
Corbin, a former legislator who has served on the state Supreme Court since 1991, said he read only part of the letter. “It’s just the same old thing,” Corbin said. “It’s enough to make you want to throw up.” Corbin made the comments in September at the first meeting of a committee that will evaluate the compensation of Arkansas judges and decide whether to recommend that the state increase their pay. The Supreme Court justices appointed the members of the committee.
At that meeting, Corbin said he is paying for his children’s education out of his inheritance and referred to his time at the court as “an expensive hobby.” Almost any private-practice attorney would envy that job, Faris wrote in his four-page letter, a copy of which he made available to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette upon request.
The Arkansas Judicial Compensation Committee, composed of attorneys, bankers and businessmen, plans to lobby the Legislature for a pay raise in January. Members of the committee, which haven’t met since its first meeting, have released no specifics.
They haven’t set a date for the next meeting, said J. D. Gingerich, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Any proposal would include Court of Appeals judges and circuit judges. Currently, appeals court judges earn $ 135, 515 and the chief judge earns $ 137, 669. Circuit judges earn $ 131, 206.
The average per-capita income in Arkansas is $ 30, 060. The average pay for state workers is $ 35, 351, according to Faris’ letter.
At the September meeting, justices said they feared that Arkansas would lose its brightest lawyers to other states.
Corbin said last month that his concern is that the only people interested in running for a judgeship would be young lawyers who see the salary as a step up.
Faris and Corbin have a history. In 2004, Corbin, upset at the Legislature for failing to follow the court’s Lake View order that Arkansas public school funding was inadequate and inequitable, said he wanted to “stick the hook in real deep, so they’ll know at least one judge won’t put up with this again.” At the time, Faris said that Corbin’s comments were “improper and non-judicious.” In an interview on Friday, Corbin said that Faris “doesn’t like us, he’s never liked us.” He accused Faris of improperly asking the court to meet with legislators outside its chambers to craft a compromise in the landmark school-funding case.
“That’s not true and [Corbin ] knows better than that,” Faris responded.
Of his comments at the September meeting, Corbin said he regretted some of them.
“I should have kept my mouth shut,” Corbin said. “I don’t want to get in a spitting contest.” He realizes that his salary and benefits are much higher than the average Arkansan’s, he said.
“If the regular ordinary Arkansan looked to see what I’m making today, yeah, it does seem like an awful lot of money,” Corbin said.
But, Corbin stands by his belief that to compete for highly paid attorneys — “people who make up to $ 400 an hour” — the state must increase judicial salaries.
A column in Friday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette by Meredith Oakley, which “infuriated” him, unfairly characterizes that argument, Corbin said in the interview.
Oakley wrote that she couldn’t work up much sympathy for Corbin’s “plight,” noting that his wife is a lawyer and his children are grown. She wondered whether they had considered working their way through college.
“Go ahead and attack me, but leave my family out of it,” said Corbin, who described himself as a “butcher’s son” who did work his way through college. “I didn’t want my kids to have to pay for college, but they’ve given back in other ways. They’ve volunteered,” he said.
At the September meeting, he misspoke, he said, when he referred to his time on the court as an “expensive hobby.” He meant to say that about his time in the Legislature.
Senate leader Bob Johnson, D-Bigelow, an ally of Faris’, weighed in Friday.
“Good for Sen. Faris,” he said. “What he wrote is what most Arkansans are thinking and don’t have the platform to say it.” Incoming House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, hadn’t seen the letter and declined to comment.
Faris sent a copy of the letter to Wills and five other state leaders: Chief Justice Hannah, Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber, Gov. Mike Beebe, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Johnson were also included.
The “matter involves two branches of government [judicial and legislative ], and we’re the third,” Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said. “We’ll leave that to them.” His main concern, Corbin said, is a strong judiciary with talented people. He fears his comments may have hurt that effort. But when the court is asked to make important decisions on such matters as executions, he said, you need the best legal minds possible.
“You need a judge who is seasoned and can take the heat.”
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