Filed Date: 5/19/1983
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
REQUESTED BY: Senator Carol McBridge Pirsch Nebraska State Legislature State Capitol Lincoln, NE 68509
Dear Senator Pirsch:
You have asked whether it is necessary for the Legislature to pass an appropriations bill to fund LB 269.
LB 269 is a bill which amends Neb.Rev.Stat. §
We adhere to the views expressed in those prior opinions. As you correctly point out, those opinions were dealing with salaries of the Commissioner of Education in case of Opinion No. 57, and in the case of Opinion No. 251 judges salaries. You attempt to draw the distinction between the fact that the Commissioner of Education salary is set by the Board of Education and the cases relied upon in our earlier opinions dealt with officers whose salary was set at a specific amount by the Constitution itself. Indeed,Weston v. Herdman,
By adopting LB 269, the Legislature has determined the amount to be paid to the Supreme Court judges. In addition, the Legislature adopted LB 111, Eighty-Seventh Legislature, First Session (1981). In that bill, the Legislature established the rates of salary for judges of the district court, the county court, the municipal court, and the workmen's compensation court. This bill established those judges salaries at a percentage of that set for the Supreme Court. Having enacted a statute which sets the level at which judges are to be paid, the Legislature thereby met the constitutional command. The reasoning of the cases cited in our earlier opinions and the Supreme court cases cited therein, make clear that once this is done then even though there is a failure of the Legislature to appropriate funds, those salaries must be paid by virtue of their constitutional status.
It is therefore our opinion that the Legislature is not required to adopt an appropriations bill before the salaries for these judges as set forth in LB 269 and LB 111 of 1981 may be paid.
Very truly yours, PAUL L. DOUGLAS Attorney General Patrick T. O'Brien Assistant Attorney General