District Attorneys; revise salaries to certain amount below chancery and circuit courts.
Summary
HB 1509 amends Mississippi’s judicial salary statute to change how the salaries of full-time district attorneys are set. Beginning January 1, 2026, a district attorney’s annual salary would be set at 95% of the salary authorized for circuit and chancery court judges, rather than at a fixed dollar amount. The bill leaves in place the existing salary structure for Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges, and circuit/chancery judges, including the provisions tying those salaries to state personnel recommendations and funding from the State General Fund and the Judicial System Operation Fund.
The bill also maintains the existing salary formulas for full-time legal assistants, which are pegged to the district attorney’s salary based on years licensed to practice law. Because district attorney pay becomes a percentage of judicial pay, any future changes to circuit and chancery judge salaries would automatically affect district attorney compensation and, indirectly, legal assistant pay as well. The act takes effect July 1, 2025, but the new district attorney salary formula does not begin until January 1, 2026.
Impact
HB 1509 amends Section 25-3-35 of the Mississippi Code, changing the compensation formula for full-time district attorneys from a fixed salary to a percentage-based salary tied to circuit and chancery judges. This creates an automatic linkage between prosecutorial pay and judicial pay, and it may increase or decrease district attorney salaries in the future depending on changes to judge compensation. The bill also preserves the existing statutory pay structure for legal assistants, whose salaries are calculated as percentages of the district attorney salary, so their compensation will also be affected by the new formula.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have broad bipartisan support. It passed the House 110-1, the Senate 50-0, and both chambers later adopted the conference report by similarly lopsided margins. The voting history suggests general agreement with the salary adjustment and little organized opposition in the recorded proceedings.
Contention
The main policy issue is not whether district attorneys should be paid more, but how their salaries should be set. The bill moves away from a fixed-dollar salary to a formula tied to judicial salaries, which may be viewed as a way to keep prosecutorial pay aligned with comparable legal offices. Any concern would likely center on the budgetary effect of automatically increasing salaries when judge pay rises, and on the downstream impact on legal assistants whose salaries are also pegged to district attorney compensation. However, the recorded votes show almost no visible contention, with only one dissenting vote in the House and unanimous Senate support.