|
Delegate Hardwicke. Could you state it
again, Delegate Hardwicke?
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: The pur-
pose here is to provide a ceiling on these
salaries, so that you cannot have in the
interim period a salary increase which
would create an undue obligation on the
part of the State.
THE CHAIRMAN: In other words, a
salary increase before the new constitution
takes effect.
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: That is
right. If you have a salary increase in
June or, say during the coming session of
the legislature, and the new constitution
would not yet be in effect, this would cut
the salaries down no matter what they
were raised to, once the constitution does
go into effect.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fornos.
DELEGATE FORNOS: Where does it
say so in section 21?
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: It says this
is what the salaries will be, regardless of
what was done on another basis.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fornos.
DELEGATE FORNOS: If the legisla-
ture did not act on the Legislative Coun-
cil's proposal to raise judicial salaries in
the coming session, then this section 21
would have the effect of raising judicial
salaries; is that correct?
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: That is
correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fornos.
DELEGATE FORNOS: If we did not
raise these salaries, the legislature could
very well raise them in this coming session
anyhow, could they not? So it is not really
necessary for the Constitutional Conven-
tion to do it in a package.
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: Not neces-
sary for the reasons you named, but neces-
sary for the reasons I named. This has the
effect of establishing a ceiling which can-
not be violated by virtue of local acts.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fornos,
maybe this comment would help clarify
it: you have two provisions under the con-
stitution which must be considered to-
gether. One is that the salary shall be
paid entirely by the State, without sup-
plementation locally. The other, and equally
important in this aspect, is that they shall
be uniform. The salaries are not now uni-
form, so that you have a problem of ac-
|
complishing at the same time payment of
all salaries at the statewide level, and at
a uniform rate. This is what creates a
problem as to which provision these sec-
tions are directed to.
Delegate Fornos.
DELEGATE FORNOS: I am aware of
both of the sections. It is a mandate to the
assembly for uniform legislation. I think
it is a legislative matter. I do not think
we ought to get bogged down. Is there any
other reason that has escaped me?
THE CHAIRMAN: I think you are still
missing the relevancy of the point.
Delegate Hardwicke has pointed out to
you that when the new constitution takes
effect, and says that all salaries shall be
uniform for the same level of the judiciary,
and when it provides that they shall be
paid entirely by the State, and when you
also consider the fact that a judicial salary
cannot be reduced, those three provisions
taken together would automatically raise
the lowest judicial salary in any tier auto-
matically to the highest salary. Do you
follow? If a judge in Prince George's
County has a salary of $30,000, and a
judge in Caroline County has a salary of
$20,000, when the constitution takes effect,
and the constitution provides that there-
after all salaries of judges of the superior
court shall be the same, shall all be paid by
the State, and no salaries shall be reduced,
you can accomplish that objective only by
increasing the Caroline County salary to
the Prince George's County salary, as
otherwise to get uniformity you would
have to reduce the Prince George's County
salary. Since you cannot do that, you
automatically increase all salaries to the
highest salary in effect.
If there were no provision in the legis-
lation, local supplementation on a tempo-
rary basis could increase salaries so that
when the new constitutional provisions
took effect, it would automatically increase
all judicial salaries to the highest level of
any of them, as supplemented at the time
the constitution took effect.
Delegate Fornos.
DELEGATE FORNOS: If that is true,
is there any judge presently being paid
more than a Court of Appeals judge?
THE CHAIRMAN: Oh, yes.
DELEGATE FORNOS: What judge in
the State of Maryland is getting more
than a Court of Appeals judge?
|
