Aug 3, 2005 3 min read

Like so many things emanating from Harrisburg, it takes a little numbers sleuthing to understand the real impact of the legislation that significantly raised the salary of Fayette County District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon. The easy part to figure out is that Vernon emerges the clear winner. Her salary goes from $89,586 to $141,675, an increase of nearly $52,200. That’s way better than any state legislator walked away with in that body’s recent and still-controversial money grab. The extra cash, it is reasoned, serves as compensation for the state making most district attorneys full time.

This rationale has some legitimacy, but only if you consider earning $89,586 with full health care benefits a poor salary for part-time prosecutorial work. In a poor county like Fayette, that sum seems like a king’s ransom to many, even if Vernon puts in full-time hours to get the job done.

Basically, had Vernon already been classified as a full-time district attorney, her salary already would have been $1,000 less than that of the approximate $130,000 earned by county judges. But because she was classified as part-time, her salary was pegged at 60 percent of what judges had been making – in this case $89,586, completely paid for by the county.

But thus far this year, Vernon has been paid at her old rate of $77,084. She surely will seek the extra compensation to which she’s entitled between now and the end of the year, but that’s another matter for another day.

Under the new plan, Vernon and most other part-time district attorneys are elevated to full-time status, with pay that’s 95 percent of the approximate $150,000 paid to county judges. Her salary shoots up to $141,675, with the state paying 65 percent of that total – and the county paying 35 percent, or $49,586. This results in a $40,000 savings to the county, which no longer has to pay full freight on her salary as it had before.

Although taxpayers will still end up footing the bill, two-thirds of that total will not come from state coffers, which should be of some consolation to local taxpayers. And it would be hard to argue that in a high-crime county like Fayette that any district attorney is not deserving of full-time status. Most have worked those hours for decades, even while being considered part time, because that’s the only way to get the job done.

The next logical step in this, of course, is for the full-court press to begin on boosting the salaries of the assistant district attorneys in Vernon’s office, where eight positions in the 2005 budget as of January paid between $19,109 and $38,654. The logic put forth to justify those increases will likely be the widened gap between the ADA’s and their boss.

And for any increase in that area increase local taxpayers should brace, because the state’s not likely to be quite as benevolent at puttying in those funding gaps.