Payback time

Last year, a special salary panel in Albany advanced a messy but fair tradeoff to clean up the dirty Capitol while bringing up the salaries of legislators, which had long languished: granting 63% base pay raises to senators and Assembly members while banning corrupting outside income and lulu payments.

Then came a lawsuit by a group of citizens, represented by the non-profit Government Justice Center, objecting to the whole thing.

The plaintiffs sought to throw out both the raises and the income ban; state Attorney General Tish James defended both. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie spent $150,000 in public money to hire lawyers to tell the court that the most important thing was preserving the pay raises. Of

course.

Heastie won, with Albany state Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba ruling to keep the raises for 2019, more than half the total boost, while tossing the outside income ban due to hit in 2020. Ryba has now clarified her June order, saying that 12.5% raises each for 2020 and 2021 are cancelled along with the outside income ban.

That lets lawmakers keep most of their new public money without have to surrender the compromising outside cash. No good.

James is appealing, as she should, to restore the outside income prohibition. This was a package deal: three years of big raises and no more external earnings. If the outside income spigot turns back on, lawmakers must refund their raises.