Pa. high court restores raises for all state judges
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HARRISBURG -- In a much awaited opinion, the state Supreme Court today reinstated the July 2005 pay raise for 1,030 state judges but allowed the repeal of the raises for state legislators and members of the executive branch to stand.
The court said the Legislature, in repealing raises for all three branches in November 2005, erred by taking away the judicial pay raises. The court said the state constitution prohibits such a repeal for judges.
The Legislature had tried to insert a "nonseverability'' clause for all three pay raises, meaning the raises for one branch of government couldn't be overturned without canceling the raises for all three branches. But the court said judges' raises can be severed from the other two, and thus restored.
The court also admonished the Legislature for trying to take its 2005 pay raise under the name of "unvouchered expenses.'' From August to November 2005, more than 100 legislators accepted higher compensation using the term unvouchered expenses rather than pay raise.
But the court said legislators are not permitted to increase their pay in the middle of a term and that unvouchered expenses was just another word for an impermissible mid-term pay raise.
More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First Published September 14, 2006 12:00 am
