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View Full Version : Call/email your senators to stop the pay raises in MS!




vechorik
03-08-2012, 08:53 AM
Judicial pay raise bill passes Mississippi House
3:58 PM, Mar. 7, 2012 |
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Written by
JEFF AMY
The Associated Press

Filed Under

News
Local News
Mississippi House

JACKSON — Judges and prosecutors would get pay raises over four years, under a plan the Mississippi House passed Wednesday.

Mississippi's circuit and chancery judges currently make $104,000 a year. The bill would increase their pay in four annual steps to $136,000 a year by 2016. Pay would also increase for district attorneys, appellate judges and county court judges. Salaries of assistant district attorneys and some public defenders would rise too, because they are legally tied to district attorney salaries.

Court filing fees would go up by $40 to pay for the increases. Fines for crimes and traffic tickets would increase $10 to cover prosecutors' raises.

The bill passed the House 83-37 and now goes to the Senate.

A 2011 survey showed that Mississippi's judges were the lowest-paid state court judges in the nation. House Judiciary A Committee Chairman Mark Baker, R-Brandon, said the last raise for judges was in 2003.

Lawyers and judges have been pushing for higher salaries for years, noting that others have gotten pay increases since 2003.

"The judiciary branch has been left out of all the pay raises that have occurred since 2003," Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. said after the vote. "It was just time."

http://www.us963.com/pages/12082979.php

Email your senator TODAY and demand NO PAY RAISES! How to contact them: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm