Missouri judges get raise despite lack of lawmaker approval

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri judges received a pay increase this year, even though lawmakers didn't set money aside for the raises.

Supreme Court, court of appeals, circuit and associate circuit judges are getting paid about 1 percent more than last fiscal year.

Court administrators did not announce the raises, but The Associated Press confirmed the increases through a review of state employee pay records and in interviews with court officials. Some lawmakers said they were not aware judges are getting paid more this year until told by a reporter.

That's because lawmakers didn't budget for the pay raise.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Beth Riggert said the high court's clerk, Bill Thompson, instead pulled money from six new, unfilled positions to pay for the raises, which total about $538,000 for the budget year that began July 1. The Supreme Court is the administrative head of the state judiciary.

The judges' salaries range from about $135,000 to $178,000 per year.

James Harris -- a Republican political consultant who has helped lead Better Courts for Missouri, which pushed for changes in the selection of judges -- called the courts' actions to give raises "highly inappropriate."

"It's not their arbitrary slush fund," Harris said.

In 2010, the Citizens' Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials, which sets pay for judges, lawmakers and other officials, recommended tying state judges' salaries to federal judges' pay. Under that plan, Supreme Court judges are to receive 69 percent, and court of appeals, circuit and associate circuit judges are to receive 73 percent of what their federal counterparts make.

Suggested pay increases for judges and other elected officials go into effect unless legislators reject the board's recommendations with a two-thirds majority vote. Legislators face pressure not to accept pay raises for themselves and in recent years have rejected such proposals.

Tying state judges' salaries to those of federal judges, who are required by law to receive cost-of-living adjustments, removes those legislative challenges.

But lawmakers and others disagree whether that 5-year-old recommendation means judges should get raises whenever federal judges do, even years down the road.

Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the Senate tried to include money for judges to receive a pay bump but the proposal didn't make it into the final budget. Some House budget leaders say they don't remember discussing judicial raises.

Schaefer said he pushed to allocate the money because he believes the state is legally required to raise judge pay every time federal judges' salaries go up.

"What they did is still in place," Schaefer said of the compensation commission's past action.

House Budget Committee vice chairman Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob, and other House members questioned that. Fitzpatrick said he wasn't aware judges received a raise after lawmakers tossed money for pay increases out of the final state spending plan.

"That's a problem," Fitzpatrick said.

Although lawmakers review more specific planned expenses for state agencies when crafting the budget every year, the Legislature in recent years has given the judiciary flexibility in how its pot of money is spent. Fitzpatrick said lawmakers have the option to add restrictions to the judiciary budget in an effort to block raises.