Pols sit & critics say: Work less, make less

ALBANY — The state Legislature is looking to reconvene early next week and tackle a host of coronavirus-related measures that have been floated over the past two months, sources told the Daily News on Tuesday.

A Senate source said the chamber is expected to return to session remotely on May 26 and 27, the first legislative work for lawmakers since approving a scaled-back state budget in early April.

Both Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (DBronx) have expressed a desire to get back to work, but the Legislature has conducted only two COVID-19-related hearings over the past eight weeks.

The lack of action in Albany prompted good-government advocates to call on lawmakers to take a pay cut.

“Why should New Yorkers pay lawmakers $110,000 — in the middle of a budget deficit — to do only half their jobs?” Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY, said in a statement. “Voters elect our representatives to legislate for six months out of the year and handle constituent services, not one or the other.

“If they are so intent on shirking their responsibilities and not resuming [the] session remotely, then their paycheck should reflect that.”

Lerner noted that the City Council has conducted 20 hearings and passed five bills using remote legislating.

A press release from Common Cause on the issue contained several quotes from state lawmakers expressing a desire to restart the stalled session. But a group of Senate Dems later sent out their own statement condemning the use of their quotes, saying they were made earlier in the year and were included without permission.

“It is extremely disturbing that an organization like Common Cause, which usually upholds principles of good government and transparency, decided to misuse our old quotes to misrepresent our views without our permission or knowledge,” the seven Democrats said.