Wednesday's post notifying readers that the Michigan Senate had just passed a bill stripping health care from future judges' retirement benefits prompted this response from a member:
Both views are understandable, and not uncommon. The State Bar has a longstanding position of supporting good compensation and benefits for judges, and the following thoughts reflect that tradition but are also strictly the view of this blogger. The budget problems Michigan is facing are profound and the entire judicial budget is just an asterisk in the big picture. MIchigan's not going to solve the problems we face, or help those who are struggling to provide food and shelter, by empty or marginal gestures. The cost of health care for the entire population is undeniably a huge problem. Depending on what happens with health care reform at the national level, the problem of funding of public official/employee health care may go away (or shift to a different forum). Whether or not judges have good health care (and some of our trial judges don't have any public health care benefits today), if we place too low a value on judicial service we undermine our justice system. One can certainly argue that the work of all elected public officials should be respected and adequately compensated, but the argument for decent judicial compensation is especially compelling. Unlike other elected pubic officials, when a lawyer leaves private practice to become a judge s/he's making what is expected, and in a perfect world should be, a permanent career change. A law practice must be terminated, and client relationships ended. If we set compensation and benefits for judges too low, we will not be able to attract to the bench the successful, experienced lawyers who have traditionally served as the backbone of the bench in this state.
The State Bar's Judicial Crossroads Task Force is grappling with these issues. Stay tuned.
Submit your comments: blog@mail.michbar.org
To which another member responded: "Or make their program available to everyone...."