Provides that any increases in compensation to district attorneys after January first, two thousand sixteen, resulting from actions of the New York state commission on legislative, judicial and executive compensation shall be reimbursed to the county by the office of court administration and shall be paid on or before the last day of each calendar year in which such increase shall have been paid.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A10432
SPONSOR: Hawley (MS)
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the judiciary law, in relation to compensation for
district attorneys
 
PURPOSE:
This bill will require the Office of Court Administration to reimburse
from its budget each county for any cost to the county as the result of
increases in annual compensation required to be paid to the district
attorney (DA) of the county as the result of the actions of the New York
State Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 - amends section 183-a of the Judiciary Law to add a provision
that any increase in compensation to district attorneys after January 1,
2016 resulting from actions of the New York State Commission on Legisla-
tive, Judicial and Executive Compensation, shall be reimbursed to the
county by the Office of Court Administration and shall be paid on or
before the last day of each calendar year in which such increase shall
have been paid.
Section 2 - provides that this act shall take effect immediately.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
On December 24, 2015, the New York State Commission on Legislative,
Judicial, and Executive Compensation voted to recommend increasing all
state judge salaries in 2016 and 2018. As a result, Supreme Court judg-
es' salaries were raised to $193,000 in 2016 and $203,000.00 in
2018.Compensation for County Court Judges are set at 95% of a Supreme
Court Justice's salary. These recommendations were approved by the state
on April 1, 2016.
State Judicial Law 183-a provides that DA salaries are linked with judi-
cial salaries, requiring DA's salaries to be equal to or higher than
either the County Court Judge or Supreme Court Judge in a county,
depending on full or part-time status.
Historically, the state has paid for DA salary increases mandated on
counties, usually through the state budget. Unfortunately, the budget
adopted for SFY 2016-17 did not include funds to cover the DA salary
increases.
It is estimated that the mandate to increase DA salaries will initially
cost each county approximately $30,000.00, a cost that was not antic-
ipated in the county budgets for 2016. Even going forward, it will be
difficult for counties to bear the increased costs associated with these
raises because of the caps that have been placed upon their budgets. If
the Legislative Commission and the State believe that the Judicial
system will be benefitted by increasing DA salaries, then it should be
incumbent upon the Judicial system to fund these costs. 'This legis-
lation will provide relief to counties for this burden placed upon coun-
ties and shift it to its proper responsible party.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10432
IN ASSEMBLY
May 27, 2016
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HAWLEY, BARCLAY, FRIEND, BUTLER, GIGLIO, CROUCH,
LAWRENCE, DUPREY, McDONOUGH, OAKS -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A.
TENNEY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to compensation for
district attorneys
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 183-a of the judiciary law, as amended by chapter
2 1049 of the laws of 1974, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 183-a. Compensation of certain district attorneys. Notwithstanding
4 any other provision of law, the district attorney of each county having
5 a population of more than five hundred thousand according to the last
6 federal census, exclusive of the counties of New York, Bronx, Kings,
7 Queens and Richmond, shall receive an annual salary equivalent to that
8 of a justice of the state supreme court together with such additional
9 compensation as the legislative body of such county may provide by local
10 law. Further, that the district attorney of each county having a popu-
11 lation of more than one hundred thousand and less than five hundred
12 thousand according to the last federal census, exclusive of the county
13 of Richmond, and the district attorney of any county, the board of
14 supervisors of which has designated such office as a full-time position
15 pursuant to subdivision eight of section seven hundred of the county
16 law, shall receive an annual salary equivalent to that of county judge
17 in the county in which the district attorney is elected or appointed,
18 together with such additional compensation as the legislative body of
19 such county may provide by local law. Any increases in compensation to
20 district attorneys after January first, two thousand sixteen, resulting
21 from actions of the New York state commission on legislative, judicial
22 and executive compensation shall be reimbursed to the county by the
23 office of court administration and shall be paid on or before the last
24 day of each calendar year in which such increase shall have been paid.
25 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15135-01-6