When former Warren County Circuit Court Judge Frank Vollor resigned his 20-year spot on the bench in 2009, he cited finances. School loan balances for his older children were higher than his mortgage, he said, his youngest daughter was about to start college, and he and other Mississippi judges, the lowest paid in the nation, had not had pay raises since 2003.

Nearly two years later, Mississippi judges are still waiting, but a bill expected to be filed during this legislative session could remedy that.

The Mississippi Judiciary has proposed incremental pay raises for all state and county judges over four years, to be funded by increased filing fees, not the state’s general fund, said Chief Justice William Waller of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

“I’m very confident we’ll get it done,” Waller said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “We have a great relationship with the Legislature. I think the members respect the independence of the Judiciary and recognize there should be a minimum level of funding.”

Waller said a similar bill filed in 2011 passed the Senate but missed House approval by just 11 votes. A three-fifths majority is needed, he said, because the pay raises would be funded by user-based fees, whereas a simple majority would be needed if the money was coming out of the budget.

State Sen. Briggs Hopson III, R-Vicksburg, chairman of the Judiciary A Committee, said he expects a bill to be filed either through his committee or the Accountability Committee in the next few weeks.

“I’m not sure if it will be exactly the same (as what Waller and others have proposed) or if there will be changes,” Hopson said Thursday, adding that state finances have hampered considerations of pay raises and judicial compensation in Mississippi appears to be “woefully” inadequate.

Waller and Vollor were among several panelists who pitched the plan to members of the Capital Area Bar Association Tuesday. Also speaking was Professor Matt Steffey of the Mississippi College School of Law.

Waller provided documentation citing high turnover among Mississippi judges — 21 new judges have taken office in the last two years — and the fact that salaries of other public officials have outpaced judicial salaries in recent years.

“The chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Commission earns $112,436 per year, and a commissioner earns $108,698 annually,” the report states. “Both of these salaries are more than the salaries of all the judges on the Court of Appeals, the court which most often reviews the Commission’s cases.”

Others cited were the Commissioner of Public Safety, paid $138,115, and the Commissioner of Corrections, paid $132,761, far more than the $104,170 paid to circuit judges who make decisions in criminal cases.

It also provides a comparison with judicial salaries in other Southeastern states, showing Mississippi below the others. Trial court judges, as Vollor was, are paid $104,170 compared to the Southeastern average of $138,901.

The proposal asks the Legislature to increase court fees and costs July 1 in order to fund raises beginning Jan. 1 and increasing annually until the total new salary takes effect Jan. 1, 2016.

Current and revised top pay are as follows:

• Supreme Court chief justice — current, $115,390; proposed, $159,000.

• Supreme Court presiding justices — $113,190; $154,833.

• Supreme Court associate justices — $112,530; $152,250.

• Court of Appeals chief judge — $108,130; $147,578.

• Court of Appeals, associate judges — $105,050; $144,827.

• Chancery and Circuit Court judges — $104,170; $136,000.

The proposal includes increasing supplements for county court judges, from just under $8,000 effective Jan. 1 up to $31,830 effective in 2016.