Millionaires rule the Hill

WASHINGTON — The current Congress may be the least productive in history, but it’s probably the richest.

But New York lawmakers just can’t seem to hitch a ride on the gravy train.

For the first time ever, most members of Congress are millionaires, the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics found in a report released Thursday.

Of 534 current members, 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to the center.

The median net worth for members, whose exact wealth is unclear because they report a range of values for assets, was about $1.01 million, with senators having amedian worth of $2.7 million.

A couple New York representatives are full-fledged members of the millionaires club. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) at $34 million and Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) with $28 million are among the three dozen richest members of Congress.

But New Yorkers mostly are paupers compared to their princely colleagues from other states. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn), Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) and Steve Israel (D-L.I.) are among 23 lawmakers with more debts than assets. Rep. Gregory Meeks (DQueens) reported a net worth of $0.

New York’s two senators are hardly living on Easy Street. The report put Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s worth at $404,000 — in the Senate’s bottom 10%. Gillibrand sometimes shleps her 5-year old son Henry around the Senate in part to avoid a $10 per minute fee for picking him uplate from school.

Sen. Chuck Schumer has a net worth of around $702,000. But the tally excludes his Park Slope home — which he’s said he bought for $157,000in1982.

Schumer, an aide said, holds down costs by shopping at Fairway with his wife, and has for decades had his hair cut at Joseph’s barbershop in ParkSlope.

He works closely with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who lives in a Ritz-Carlton residence, but Schumer shares a modest D.C. apartmen twith two lawmakers.

He says his favorite meal is a Costco hotdog and frozen yogurt.