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Silver lining for judges

Judicial pay-raise suit could put Speaker's earnings under the spotlight

May 7, 2008

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The state's pay-raise deprived judges are turning up the heat on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).

The judges sued last month to win a raise the legislature has denied them for nine years. They want to put Silver on the stand and ask him - under oath - how much he earns in his "of counsel" role with the personal injury law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, and just what he does for the money. Good questions, though the answers may be limited somewhat by attorney-client privilege.

The Assembly has been holding the judges hostage. Legislators want a raise, too, but apparently worry that voters won't much like it if they vote to give themselves one. So they want to hide behind judges - who this page believes should get a pay hike. Lawmakers argue that, like the judges, they have gone almost a decade without a raise. Their idea is to increase the compensation for both and then, if voters howl, explain how it's only fair that judges, and by association legislators, get a cost-of-living adjustment.

There are two huge flaws in that logic. One, legislators can vote themselves a raise. Judges can't. If legislators believe they deserve it, they should summon the political courage to just do it and take the heat. Two, unlike judges, legislators are allowed to earn outside income.

That's where Weitz & Luxenberg comes in. The judges want to expose how much the firm pays Silver, to make the case that outside earnings can be substantial. Not incidentally, just saying they'll ask puts Silver on the spot. He'll either have to make sure the Assembly votes on judicial raises, decoupled from their own, or come clean about his own pay.

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