Federal judges wrong not to pay county tax
A U.S. District Court judge gets paid $145,100 a year. A U.S. magistrate earns $133,492 a year.
Yet, most of the federal judges and magistrates who work in Jefferson County are refusing to pay the county's half-percent
occupational tax. Their clerks, bailiffs and secretaries - who earn a fraction of the judges' salaries - are paying
the tax, county tax officials say. Other workers and professionals, even those previously exempted from the tax,
are paying it now, with the money being held in escrow until the state Supreme Court finally rules whether the
tax is constitutional.
Not so for most of the highly paid federal judges, though. While they have allowed District Judges William Acker
Jr. and U.W. Clemon to take the heat for them publicly (Acker and Clemon have headed the effort in court, arguing
that the county's one half percent tax is an attempt to license or regulate them), 10 other current or retired
federal judges or magistrates aren't paying the tax either.
This arrogance is disturbing, especially in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that the county tax is essentially
an income tax, not an attempt to regulate judges, and that the judges should pay it.
