The Mississippi Legislature has historically reserved for itself the power to dole out raises to those who work for the state or who depend on the state for the bulk of the funding that pays their salaries.
One notable exception to this rule was recently uncovered by Mississippi Today.
It reported that at the first of this year, Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph upped his pay by $15,000 and gave similar increases of close to 10% to other members of the state’s judiciary.
Randolph triggered the pay hikes — and the $2 million-a-year price tag — via a 2012 state law that was designed to keep judical pay competitive so as to attract and retain qualified jurists on the bench.
That law said that, starting in 2019, if the state Personnel Board determines — based on comparisons with the private sector as well as other states — that judicial pay has become inadequate, the chief justice has the unilateral power to implement the raises, as long as there is enough money from state appropriations and court fees to pay for the additional costs.
It doesn’t sit well for anyone in public office to be able to give himself or herself a raise, as Randolph was legally empowered to do. Even when legislative bodies approve raises for themselves, it takes a majority of the members to make that happen. No single lawmaker can authorize a raise from which he or she will personally benefit.
Of equal concern is the special treatment given to one relatively small segment of state employees over all others. If a state Personnel Board study is enough to trigger pay raises for 128 judges, and that’s considered good public policy, why would it not be just as beneficial to do the same with tens of thousands of state employees, university and community college instructors, and public school teachers? In every case, comparative studies with contiguous states would show Mississippi’s salaries are lower than most if not all of the others.
Although it’s important to have a competent judiciary, it’s also important to have competent educators and competent state employees who are not judges.
The Legislature determines for these latter categories what’s the right balance between an attractive and fair compensation package and the burden on taxpayers. Do judges really deserve a different system of consideration that makes it much easier to get raises?
Tim Kalich is editor and publisher of The Greenwood Commonwealth.
