REP. WRIGHT SAYS THIS IS NOT THE TIME
TO BE RAISING JUDGES’ SALARIES
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| State Rep. Chris Wright |
State Representative Chris Wright (D-Bristol) says this is not the time to be considering raising the salaries of judges and he opposes a proposal that would hike the salaries for judges by an estimated $45,000 or more over the next four years.
Rep. Wright found a news report in the Connecticut Law Tribune disturbing that said Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, in a 20-page report, called for the state’s judges and judicial magistrates to receive a pay raise of 11.3 per cent next year and 5.5 per cent for each of the following three years.
“I have nothing against our judges, but this is not the time to be raising anyone’s salaries in state employment,” Rep. Wright said. “There are thousands of state employees who are now in the second year of a salary freeze and raising the pay of judges who are already earning high salaries makes no sense.”
“We have just witnessed the fiasco of the pay raises awarded to employees of the state Department of Higher Education that has resulted in the resignation of the two top administrators and the revoking of other salary hikes,” Rep. Wright continued. “We are still facing a serious budget challenge, so let’s take pay raises off the table.”
“While there are judges who may have left the bench to join the private sector, the fact is there are lawyers in every court room in Connecticut yearning to be appointed a judge,” Rep. Wright said. “Judges probably deserve a pay raise, but there are people everywhere, both in the private and public sector, who deserve pay raises, but do not earn as much as judges.”
Rep.Wright is Vice Chair of the Housing Committee and serves on the Environment and Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committees.
