approximately $30,000 a year to $183,000, as a new state mandate has increased the minimum salary for the 57 District Attorney's throughout New York State. Leanne K. Moser, Lewis County District Attorney and Coroner, was on salary for $153,500 according to the 2016 Lewis County budget adopted in January. The county currently receives $72,189 from the state, through the DA Salary Fund Assistance Program, to help with the cost of the DA's salary. Officials throughout the state are calling on the state to fund the increased salary requirements in their entirety, as nothing was included in the current state budget to fund the mandated increase. "Our mandated tax cap, right now is approximately $37,000 dollars," Lewis County Manager Elizabeth Swearingin told us via email. "The DA raise is $30,850. In addition, the state has raised the eligibility level for indigent defense from 150% of the poverty level to 250%, thereby increasing the county’s cost of that service as well – again with no additional funding," she continued. Ms. Swearingin added that "78% of our county tax revenues go directly back to the state to pay for state mandated programs. New York State gets 15% of its revenues from counties; the other 49 states in United States of America average 0.8% of revenues from counties." "It is really easy to vote in programs for which you do not have to pay. It seems like no one in Albany is listening," Ms. Swearingin concluded. The Lewis County Board of Legislators is set to pass a resolution at the regular May meeting requesting the state to fund this mandate. The New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), on behalf of the state's 57 counties, has called on the State Legislature to pass a chapter amendment to the 2016-17 State Budget that would require the state to pay the costs with mandated district attorney pay increase, according to a release from NYSAC.
elected county official and they are making local taxpayers fund it," said NYSAC President William E. Cherry, the Schoharie County Treasurer. On December 24, 2015, the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Compensation voted to recommend increasing all state judge salaries in 2016 and 2018. The recommended increase placed Supreme Court judges' salaries at $193,000 in 2016 and $203,000.00 in 2018 and placed County Court Judges at 95% of a Supreme Court Justice's salary. On April 1st the State approved the Commission's recommendation. State Judicial Law 183-a links judicial salaries with county district attorneys' (DA's) salaries, requiring DA's salaries to be equal or higher than either the County Court Judge or Supreme Court Judge in a county, depending on full or part-time status. "This is unprecedented," said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario. "For over 50 years, the state has paid for every DA salary increase mandated on counties. It has always been a fundamental issue of fairness. The state has historically funded these salary increases through the state budget." On April 1, 2016 the State adopted a budget that is over $150 billion statewide, but did not include the approximately $1.6 million for counties to fund the DA salary increases. Interestingly, the state also did not include a general fund allocation for the judges' salaries, forcing those raises to come out of the Judiciary budget. The raise will cost each county approximately $30,000.00 in funds not allocated from their 2016 county budgets - a cost of approximately 1/3 of their total allowable property tax cap growth for all government operations in 2016. "This was an unintended consequence of the demands of meeting an on-time budget, and it can be fixed with a simple chapter amendment that can be passed when lawmakers return in May," said Cherry. Lewis County Manager Elizabeth Swearingin did not respond to our request for comment on this story. |
| State Mandate Increases Lewis County DA's Salary to $183K Per Year 04/27/16 02:30pm Updated 3:30pm |
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