All 285 active Maryland judges will work five extra days next year after the state’s highest court changed the leave policy to save the state more than half a million dollars.
“We’re facing an ongoing fiscal emergency in this state … that is likely to worsen in 2009,” said Chief Judge Robert Bell of the seven-member Court of Appeals, which unanimously approved a measure Tuesday to have judges work on five vacation days in 2009, reducing their leave from 27 to 22 days.
The court system saves money by reducing the number of retired judges needed to fill in vacancies, as those judges are paid about $600 a day. The judges themselves won’t see a pay cut.
Bell has said state law prohibits judges from lowering their salaries while on the bench.
Court officials say the furloughs will save about $600,000, and possibly a bit more if judges buy back their furloughed days, though a minority of judges are expected to pay out of their pockets for five days of vacation.
Administrative judges from Montgomery, Howard and Prince George’s counties and Baltimore testified Monday in Annapolis in favor of the measure and said most of their colleagues were supportive.
“We’re standing in solidarity with the judiciary employees [who are being furloughed] and to help improve morale,” Ben Clyburn, chief judge of Maryland’s District Court, said in agreement with other judges.
Such was not the case the previous time Maryland’s judges considered furloughs. Bell said in 1992, the debate was far more “contentious.”
“You all here have made this extremely easy, and this says something about Maryland judges,” Bell said.
Bell had originally decided against furloughing judges, but reversed himself this past week.
Court employees with $40,000 to $59,999 salaries will have to take off 16 hours between Jan. 14 and June 30. Those earning more than $60,000 must take off 24 hours.
But those making less than $40,000 will not have any furloughs.
Some judges proposed getting their furloughed days back in the future, but “you don’t when we’re going to get [financially] well,” said Judge Glenn Harrell, of the Court of Appeals.
While the move only reduces vacation days, trial judges will be harder hit because they work a more rigorous schedule than higher level judges, said Judge Durke Thompson, of Montgomery Circuit Court.
“I have a wedding coming in the next year, so vacation is something serious for me,” said Thompson, who supported the measure but added that judges have older children who will have marriages and graduations requiring them to take extensive time off.
He said it was wise for the judges to accept the furloughs as a way to garner favor for future pay raises, as he and other judges said Maryland’s judges are some of the lowest paid in the country.
However, he said state legislators were highly unlikely to raise pay for judges in the upcoming fiscal year.
Judges earn $127,000 for a District Court bench to $181,000 for one of the seven spots on the Court of Appeals.
In other cost-saving measures, the courts closed down Dec. 26 and will close Friday.
