PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Rhode Island faces a mass retirement of judges if Gov. Don Carcieri's retirement proposal is approved.
Carcieri has proposed to cut judicial pensions by the amount of Social Security benefits they're eligible for.
Judge Elaine Bucci, head of the Rhode Island Trial Judges Association, tells The Providence Journal that could prompt as many as one-third of the state's 59 judges to retire rather than lose $20,000 in Social Security payments.
Bucci says a mass retirement could force the state courts to come to a "dead stop."
She says Carcieri's proposal isn't fair because judges have been paying into the state retirement system and the Social Security system.
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Information from: The Providence Journal, http://www.projo.com/
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