Pay panel floats 2% raises for all elected officials

Justices sought 11% bump; proposal affects state posts

The commission that sets the salaries of elected state officials on Tuesday proposed granting 2 percent pay increases to all of them.

With three of the commission’s seven members absent, the Independent Citizens Commission voted to propose the raises for state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals members, circuit judges, district judges, prosecutors, state lawmakers and each of the state’s seven constitutional officers.

Supreme Court justices had sought 11 percent raises.

The commission will hold a public hearing on its proposal at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the state Capitol before taking final action.

Two years ago, the commission increased the salary of the chief justice from $161,601 to $180,000 and the salaries of the six associate justices from $149,589 to $166,500. It also raised the pay for other judges and most other state elected officials. At that time, representatives of the judges said their salaries had fallen behind because of a three-year period in which they went without cost-of-living raises while judicial salaries in comparable

states continued to rise.

Last year, the commission decided not to grant raises to any elected state officials.

Last month, Supreme Court Chief Justice Dan Kemp told the commission that the Supreme Court requested an 11 percent increase for its members and “what the judicial branch is proposing” was a 2 percent salary increase for district judges, circuit judges and Court of Appeals judges.

He asked the commission to boost the annual salary of the chief justice to $199,800. The commission’s proposed 2 percent increase would increase that salary to $183,600.

Kemp asked the commission to approve a salary of $184,815 for the six other justices. The commission proposed $169,830.

After the meeting, Kemp told reporters, “I’m glad to get an increase.

“We’ll have another opportunity … next March or April or May to present additional information, so we’ll probably plan on that,” he said.

Asked if he expected the commission to go for an 11 percent raise, Kemp said: “I thought it was an uphill fight. You have to fight for things you believe in.”

The Independent Citizens Commission was created as part of Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution. Voters approved the amendment in November 2014. Amendment 94 also extended the period of time that state lawmakers may serve, barred state officials from accepting certain gifts from lobbyists, barred corporate and union contributions to elected state officials, and extended from one year to two years the period that former legislators are required to wait before they may register as lobbyists.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Mitch Berry of Little Rock said it seems like the commission should consider granting pay raises “across the board” in line with an inflation rate of about 2 percent.

Commissioner Chuck Banks of Little Rock — an attorney who was appointed to the commission by Chief Justice Jim Hannah, now deceased — said nobody at the meeting respects judges, including the state Supreme Court, more than he does.

“I’m concerned about both 2 percent and 11 percent [raises]. I don’t know yet what is the right thing to do,” he said.

“But I’m very concerned about 11 percent. While we

do have a good economic environment, the size and the amount of that increase gives me serious pause,” Banks said.

He said he would support a 2 percent raise for the state’s elected officials.

“But I’d like to have some time to explain that to the judges, because I think that seems dramatically downward from what they are requesting. I don’t have my thoughts in my mind yet,” he said.

“If all judges are getting 2 percent, I think the commission needs to give an explanation. I could give an explanation, I suppose, at the time of the vote,” Banks said.

Commissioner Larry Ross of Sherwood said he’s always been conservative and might support less than a 2 percent raise.

“We are not representing any entities except the commission, regardless of our appointments, and we are here as a commission to make the best decisions that we can make based on the facts and circumstances,” Ross said.

“So while I was appointed by the former governor [Democrat Mike Beebe], I’m not concerned with all of the specifics. I’m looking at it from a broader standpoint of all these different groups,” he said.

The commissioners voted to approve Berry’s motion to propose 2 percent raises. Commissioners Brenda James of Little Rock, Stephen Tip-

ton of Cabot and Stuart Hill of Searcy didn’t attending Tuesday’s meeting.

Kemp’s proposal for 11 percent raises compared the $166,500 annual salaries of Arkansas’ justices with the $168,045 salaries of their peers in Louisiana, $170,544 in Iowa, $172,017 in Missouri and $182,688 in Tennessee as of Jan. 1, 2017, citing the National Center for State Courts as the source of this information. The annual pay for justices in other surrounding states is $145,914 in Oklahoma, $152,250 in Mississippi and $168,000 in Texas, according to the center’s website.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, Kemp told the commission that six of the state Court of Appeals’ dozen judges were paid more in total compensation of salary and mileage payments than the annual salary of $166,500 for the six Supreme Court associate justices in fiscal 2016, which ended June 30.

The justices, who are elected statewide, aren’t paid for their mileage, while the Court of Appeals’ judges, who are elected to represent districts, are paid for mileage.

Commissioner Barbara Graves of Little Rock said mileage is reimbursement for expenses and “is really not part of the salary.”

Kemp said attorneys in state government have received 8 percent raises and that “if the Supreme Court had that same 8 percent, that would increase the salary for the associate justices to approximately $180,000, with

the chief justice at $195,000.”

Arkansas Judicial Council President David Guthrie, who is a circuit judge from El Dorado, said he’s requesting a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment for all of the state’s elected judges and asks “that our request be favorably considered.” The judicial council includes circuit judges, Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges.

Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley of Little Rock told the commission that two years ago, the commission decided to pay Division A prosecuting attorneys a salary of 95 percent of the circuit judge salary and set Division B prosecuting attorneys’ pay at 85 percent of the Division A prosecutors.

“We’d simply like to chip in, and we think that that’s a fair process and we respect the will of the commission and would like them to be mindful of precedent,” Jegley said.

Division A prosecutors are barred from having a private law practice under state law, but Division B prosecutors are allowed to have a private law practice, the state’s prosecutor coordinator, Bob McMahan, said after the meeting.

There are 23 Division A prosecutors and five Division B prosecutors, he said.