Connecticut’s chief justice wants to give $45,000 in raises to state judges, a move she says is needed because the judges have gone five years without a salary increase and because they are underpaid compared to judges in other states.
Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers proposed the increases over four years in a report to the state’s Commission on Judicial Compensation. The commission is expected to make a recommendation on her request in January. The legislature could vote on the proposal next year.
Under her recommendation, a superior court judge’s salary would increase from an average of about $147,000 annually to about $192,000, according to a report by television station WTNH. A national court organization ranks Connecticut 45th in the country for judges' pay, the report says.
Under her plan Connecticut Supreme Court judges would see their pay rise about $49,000 eacy over four years, from about $163,000 to about $212,000, according to The Day of New London.
The judicial pay raise plan, coming on the heels of more than $260,000 in controversial salary hikes that were given, and later suspended, to top officials in the state’s Department of Higher Education last week, is already drawing fire from some politicians in the state.
In January of 1998, former Governor John Rowland nominated Chief Justice Rogers for the Superior Court. Her assignments as a Superior Court Judge included serving as the presiding judge for juvenile matters in Bridgeport and being assigned to the regional Child Protection Session in Middletown. Between 2001 and 2005, she was assigned to the Complex Litigation Docket in Stamford, and from 2005 to 2006 she served as the presiding judge for civil matters in the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District. In February of 2006, Chief Justice Rogers was nominated by Governor M. Jodi Rell for the Appellate Court, and on March 15, 2006, Chief Justice Rogers was sworn in as an Appellate Court judge. In February of 2007, Governor M. Jodi Rell nominated her to be Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Former Chief Justice Ellen Ash Peters, Connecticut’s first female Chief Justice, swore in Chief Justice Rogers on April 25, 2007.
I agree with you (ack!) that this is BS!!! What is odd though is your "selective" indignation, which you seem to reserve only for fiscal misfeasance tied to Republican politicians. There’s plenty of finger pointing to go around pops. Besides, your credibility might actually rise out of the gutter if you become a more equal opportunity BS meter.