MIKE MCDERMOTT AND OTHERS FIGHT HUGE PAY RAISE FOR MARYLAND’S

This part of his latest report about what happened in the House of Delegates last week is worth repeating. It looks like the judges, including Martin O’Malley’s wife, will get a pay raise of at least 10 percent and possibly even more. What do you think about that?

http://mlis.state.md.us/2012rs/bills/sj/sj0003t.pdf was one of the most egregious bills as it relates to process that many have ever seen in the House. The bill deals with proposed salary raises for judges. They would receive a $14,000.00 raise under this proposal at a time when our state is hurting, and our people are suffering. Many spoke out against these raises occurring during these economic times where budgets are dwindling. The problem with the bill is a matter of timing. The bill was held up by leadership in the Senate and the House until the last few days before the raises would become automatic. Since the Senate voted to give the raises in their bill, if we alter their bill, they stated they would have a hard time getting it passed with any alterations. If we failed to pass the bill as is, the Judicial Compensation Committee recommendations would take effect automatically. That would provide judges with a $29,000.00 raise. SJ-3 would provide a $14,000.00 raise instead. So…if the bill is voted down and sent back to the Senate, their failure to act would double the raise. If we vote the bill as presented, we consent to a significant raise as presented. We attempted to amend the bill to a 0% raise (Monday evening) and then a 1% raise this morning. Both amendments were rejected. It passed on a vote of 84-57. I voted, with many others, on principle to strike the bill down and send it back to the Senate. Our judges deserve due consideration, as do all of our employees. To separate them for a raise under these circumstances is over the top and a tough sell to the folks back home. It was intentionally brought out at the ninth hour so we would not have time to work out a compromise bill with both chambers. This was a disgraceful way to run a railroad.

PS: As you might guess, the local Democrat members – Cane and Conway – voted for the pay raise, and all of the Republicans – Otto, Eckardt, Haddaway-Riccio and McDermott were opposed to it.