Justice cites pay inequities

Monday, March 19, 2001 | 10:34 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State Supreme Court Justice Bob Rose told a legislative committee today that many justices of the peace make a higher salary than he does because of a constitutional ban that prohibits pay increases during terms of office.

Rose said there is a "gross inequity" in the pay given members of the Supreme Court. For example, Chief Justice Bill Maupin makes $22,000 more a year than Rose.

Rose and District Judge Gene Porter of Las Vegas appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to support Senate Bill 184 that calls for raising the base pay of Supreme Court justices from $107,000 to $150,000 and District Court judges from $100,000 to $130,000.

Judges also earn a 2 percent per year increase in salary after four years in office and that stops at a maximum of 22 percent.

The Supreme Court justices are on a rotation schedule, with one-third of the court running every two years. So if this bill is passed, Rose said some of the justices would be earning $150,000 while the others would get $107,000 until they run for re-election.

That, he said, is an "absurb result." In the past, the pay was equalized by giving justices extra money for serving on the state Board of Pardons or as trustees of the law library. But that ended in 1995.

Rose said he supports the bill, even if the inequities continued.

Porter told the committee the last base pay raise was in 1995 and this was a "modest increase." He compared salaries and work loads between District Court judges in Clark County with judges in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego.

He said pay of judges in Los Angeles is $163,000. They handle an average case load of 1,244 and dispose of 943 cases a year. In Clark County, the judge has an average case load of 2,254 and disposes of 2,025 cases a year. In Phoenix and San Diego, the judges make more money and handle fewer cases, Porter said.

A committee appointed by Gov. Kenny Guinnon to study pay issues recommended the increases. The head of that committee, Bill Martin, cited an inequity for judges who get the pay raise and others who do not because of the staggered term problem. He recommended something be done to equalize the pay.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, chairman of the committee, said a vote would be taken soon on the bill.

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, suggested that judges in Clark and Washoe counties receive higher pay because they carry bigger case loads. But Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said the pressures on small county judges are just as great as in metropolitan counties.