BILL NUMBER:  S7515

 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