In final act, Texas Legislature boosts judges’ pay and lawmaker pensions

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Texas lawmakers passed a bill that will give judges a long-awaited raise and boost their own pensions, after an 11th hour clash between the House and Senate.

Texas judges will get a 25% raise, with base pay increasing to $175,000. This bill was not expected to be controversial — both chambers and parties agree this pay raise, the first since 2013, is overdue and necessary to lift Texas out of the bottom for judicial pay among states.

Where it hit the skids was around legislator pensions, which are tied to judicial pay. A raise for judges should have meant a pension increase for lawmakers, but the House added an amendment decoupling them. The Senate rejected the proposal, with the disagreement spilling onto social media and pushing beyond the normal deadlines to reach a compromise.

On Sunday, the chambers finally agreed to negotiate, and just hours before they closed out the 140 day session, they reached a compromise.

Legislative pensions will rise with judicial salaries this time, but will be decoupled going forward. In 2030, the Texas Ethics Commission will take over assessing legislator pensions, as they do for the per diem and other lawmaker benefits. The bill says the commission will come up with equitable rules to determine pension amounts, taking into account possible raises for other elected officials, and reassess every five years.

The Senate approved the proposal unanimously, with Sen. Joan Huffman, the Houston Republican who carried the bill, saying it "finally gives the judges of the state of Texas a long, well-deserved raise.”

The House voted 114-26, approving the proposal over hesitation from both sides of the aisle. Democrats seemed concerned about cutting the pension benefit, while conservatives indicated they were expecting election season blowback for voting to raise their own pensions.

Texas’ part-time lawmakers earn $7,200 a year, plus a per diem for days they are in Austin. But those who serve more than eight years are eligible for a pension when they turn 60 (or when they turn 50 if they’ve served 12 years.) Rather than basing that payout on their meager legislative salary, it’s long been tied to the base salary for a district judge, a benefit that allows some of the longest-standing lawmakers to earn annual retirement payments of $140,000 a year.

“For too long, the Legislature has been unwilling to give district court judges the raises that they deserve because it’s tied to legislative pensions,” Rep. Brent Money, a conservative Republican from Greenville, said, calling it a “politically toxic” issue.

He said voting for the compromise was a choice between voting for the right thing, or the politically safe thing.

"Let's break this stalemate, support our judiciary and face the consequences together," he said.

The usual deadline for the chambers to reach a compromise would have been Saturday at midnight. As that deadline came and went without a deal, judges began barraging their legislators with phone calls and emails, demanding they reach a compromise.

On Sunday afternoon, both chambers agreed to appoint conferees, including Leach and Huffman. The deal was still being hammered out when the House and Senate gaveled in on the last day of session, usually a ceremonial day to celebrate the wins of the session.

Members from both chambers breathed a sigh of relief with the passage of the conference committee report Monday afternoon.

“I don't think I've ever worked so hard on a bill that wasn't mine,” Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said Monday. “I have never gone back and forth as much between the House and the Senate in one day as I have today."

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