The judiciary budget proposal—with funding for the first judicial pay raises in 13 years and $25 million to expand civil legal services—took a significant step forward with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s apparent endorsement of the $2.7 billion spending plan.
In his annual budget address on Jan. 17 in Albany, Mr. Cuomo publicly thanked Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman for presenting a no-growth budget, submitted a budget message to the Legislature that had nothing but praise for the Judiciary’s plan and, in encountering the chief judge on the floor of the auditorium where the address was delivered, said to Judge Lippman, “You are a gentleman.”
