Gov slams pay-hike pols’ ‘unlimited’ gall

Don’t be greedy! Gov. Cuomo ripped into state lawmakers Friday for eyeing a 64 percent pay raise while fighting a limit on outside income.

“They want a raise without the reforms,” Cuomo said on Albany’s Capitol Pressroom radio show. “They’re getting an increase of $50,000. I don’t know how you justify that without reforms.”

Cuomo was referring to recommendations of a salary commission — created with legislative approval — that recommended raising the base salary of legislators from $79,500 to $130,000 by 2021.

The governor pointed out that the median annual income in the state is $60,000, just $9,500 more than the raise.

As part of the pay hike, the commission also called for limiting outside income to 15 percent of a legislator’s salary and eliminating legislative stipends or “lulus” for most leadership posts, such as committee chairmanships.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and others claimed the panel was only supposed to address the salary issue and didn’t have the authority to impose limitations.

Cuomo said Republicans in the state Senate want to keep their outside jobs because many work for private law firms while Assembly Democrats “don’t like losing the lulus.”

The Government Justice Center, a conservative-leaning group, filed a suit in state Supreme Court in Albany Friday to block the commission’s actions as unconstitutional, saying such a “major policy decision” could only be made by the legislature itself. Cuomo said he’s confident the courts would uphold the panel’s work.

But the governor said the only reason it was set up in the first place was that legislators didn’t want to take the political heat for voting themselves a pay hike. And he noted if the commission’s recommendations are overturned, legislators would have nothing to celebrate.

“If the lawsuit is successful, they lose the raise and everything. They’re back to zero,” Cuomo said.

Legislators haven’t had a bump in their base salary since 1999.

The governor’s comments ticked off Heastie’s office.

“It’s not rhetoric to question the legal authority of the committee! The Assembly has never said it is opposed to reforms,” said Heastie spokesman Mike Whyland in a tweet.

“Hope the Governor applauds just as loudly when proposals to reform executive agencies are being considered in light of what has happened over the last 2 years,” he added, referring to corruption scandals that rocked the Cuomo administration.