A new review of how judges' pay in Louisiana stacks up with others should be released in January and could build a case for asking leges for a raise.
The Advocate reported that the Legislature could be asked to raise judicial salaries next year.
According to the newspaper, the Judicial Compensation Commission has hired noted economist Loren Scott to update a report he did last year. In comparing how the state's judges stack up against others in the region and nation, Scott found Louisiana's judges make less (though the story did not indicate the extent of the gap). The newspaper noted that while the commission did not submit a recommendation to the Legislature last year because of the state budget woes, commission chairman Joe Toomy, a former state representative, said judges have received pay raises in eight of the last eleven years.
Louisiana's annual base pay is $136,544 for state district court judges, $142,447 for appeals court judges and $149,572 for Supreme Court justices, the newspaper reported.
Read The Advocate story here.