{"id":38841,"date":"2025-05-09T14:05:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T20:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38841"},"modified":"2025-05-09T15:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:38:01","slug":"proposal-to-increase-judges-salaries-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38841","title":{"rendered":"Proposal to increase judges\u2019 salaries advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval May 8 to a measure that would raise the salary of Nebraska judges after lowering the proposed increase.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Carolyn Bosn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB513, sponsored by Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, would increase judges\u2019 salaries by 4% annually in fiscal year 2025-26 and FY2026-27. All Nebraska judges are paid using a statutory formula based on a percentage of the salary of the chief justice.<\/p>\n

As introduced, the bill would increase the salary of the chief justice and judges of the Nebraska Supreme Court from $225,055 to $234,058 effective July 1, 2025. Effective July 1, 2026, the salary would increase to $243,420. As a result, salaries of all judges across various courts would adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n

A Judiciary Committee amendment, adopted 26-5, instead would provide a 1.5% increase. The amendment would raise Nebraska Supreme Court judges\u2019 salaries to $228,431 on July 1, 2025, and to $231,858 on July 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

Calling the measure a \u201cmodest proposal,\u201d Bosn said the raise would improve the range of diversity and experience on the state\u2019s judicial bench. The increase is less than other state employees will receive under the state budget, she said, and would bring judges\u2019 salaries closer to the level of compensation received by private practice attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important and it is relevant that we have the highest quality individuals who are interested in serving the public,\u201d Bosn said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Robert Clements of Elmwood, chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said the 1.5% was a \u201creasonable amount\u201d that would still be below the rate of inflation.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad offered an unsuccessful motion to indefinitely postpone the measure. Nebraska currently ranks in the top half of the nation for judicial compensation, she said, and has plenty of applicants for open judgeships.<\/p>\n

In addition, she said, public sector employment rarely involves a pay scale that is commensurate with the private sector \u2014 a factor known to those who choose public service.<\/p>\n

“Public service is not mandatory,” Conrad said.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha also opposed the measure, saying the state should not increase the salary of judges who already are highly paid while also making cuts and sweeping cash funds to balance the state budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not \u2026 that they don’t deserve it,\u201d Cavanaugh said. \u201cIt’s that we can’t currently afford it.”<\/p>\n

After rejecting Conrad\u2019s motion, lawmakers voted 29-6 to advance LB513 to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval May 8 to a measure that would raise the salary of Nebraska judges after lowering the proposed increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[316],"class_list":["post-38841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-caroyln-bosn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/LB513Bosn5-8-25e.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38843,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38841\/revisions\/38843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}