Lawmakers question exemption of state Supreme Court employees from salary cuts

By Cy Ryan

Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY — Some legislators are unhappy that the employees of the Nevada Supreme Court were not required to take one unpaid furlough day a month as the rest of the state workers during this financial crunch.

Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, told Chief Justice Michael Douglas there is inherent value in treating all the state employees the same.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said the inequality will be examined in future meetings of the budget committees and that all state workers should be treated equally.

Members of the Legislative Budget Subcommittee noted that the Supreme Court did not cut future salaries of its employees by 5 percent in its biennial budget as is being suggested for the rest of the workers in the state.

Douglas told the subcommittee the court returned to the state money unspent equal to the savings from the furlough, which amounted to 4.6 percent. He said the court was told that was acceptable.

But he said the court may consider furloughs in the next few months because its revenue from administrative assessments is not coming in as high as predicted.

Douglas also said the court was never informed by Gov. Brian Sandoval’s administration that it should cut employee salaries by 5 percent in the next biennium.

Justices on the court earn $170,000 a year. They also get paid extra for sitting on the state Board of Pardons and the state Law Library Commission. The salary for serving on the Pardons Board, which meets four times a year, is $37,400 for the justices, as long as they have served long enough to qualify.

Justice Kristina Pickering does not have enough time in office to qualify for the extra $37,400.

When the state ran into financial trouble, former Gov. Jim Gibbons and the other executive officers all took a voluntary 4.6 percent cuts. Douglas said the justices did not.

He said there is a prohibition in the Nevada Constitution that stops the salaries of judges from being lowered during their term of office.

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected. In an earlier version, Sen. Ben Kieckhefer's name was mispelled. | (February 4, 2011)