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Chief justice asks for help to increase judicial salaries

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//November 16, 2016//

Chief justice asks for help to increase judicial salaries

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//November 16, 2016//

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack says she has met with the governor to stress the need for higher judicial salaries and is now calling on circuit-court judges to help her make her case.

Delivering the annual State of the Judiciary Address on Wednesday before the Judicial Conference at the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Roggensack gave those in attendance the latest on her attempts to secure higher salaries for people working in the state’s judicial system.

According to a recent report by the National Center of State Courts, Wisconsin trial court salaries are 41st-lowest in the country. Also, the state’s court of appeals judges’ salaries are ranked 33 out of those paid in the 40 states that have appeals courts.

Roggensack said Wednesday that she has met with Gov. Scott Walker and asked him for an increase in judicial salaries. Her specific request, if approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor, would put Wisconsin judicial salaries back to where they were in 2000 — 21st in the country.

“We haven’t asked for the moon,” she said.  “We’ve just asked to be brought back to the middle of the pack.”

One way to help persuade the governor of the need for higher judicial salaries, Roggensack said Wednesday, would be to get local business people to attest to why it’s important for them to know that legal cases will be handled by experienced and well-trained judges.

“You should reach out to the members of the business community,” she said. “They have a different relationship with the governor than we do.”

She noted that the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court was able to get a 20 percent increase in judicial salaries in her state by having the business community talk to Gov. John Kasich about the judiciary’s importance. Roggensack emphasized that she alone cannot convince Walker that higher salaries are needed, saying she needs judges’ help.

“If (Walker) does not support us, it will be almost impossible to get the increase we need through the legislature,” she said.

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