Pennsylvania's Top Jurist Says New State Court Judges Would Be Too Costly

HARRISBURG (CBS) - Pennsylvania's Supreme Court Chief Justice continues to wage the fight against appointing new judges to the state's courts.

Late last week Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille issued a press release decrying the cost of six new judges that have been added to Pennsylvania's court system despite what he says was an agreed-upon moratorium.

Castille says the new judges, one common pleas judge in Bucks County and one in Washington County, and four district justices,  will add $600,000 to the judiciary's multi-million dollar deficit.

Erik Arneson, spokesman for the Republican Senate majority leader, says there were actually more than a dozen common pleas vacancies:

"Chief Justice Castille is absolutely right to highlight the difficulties of the judiciary's budget right now. That's the reason that only two out of 13 judicial vacancies were filled."

As for district judges Arneson says there were at least 11 vacancies and only four were confirmed by the Senate.

Reported by: Tony Romeo, KYW Newsradio