Pol pay hikes tied to reform

ALBANY – State lawmakers will see their first pay raises in two decades, but will also be forced to restrict their outside income and eliminate most legislative stipends.

The raises and conditions were enacted Thursday by a commission that was charged with recommending whether lawmakers, who currently receive a base salary of $79,500, should get their first raises since 1999.

Under a muddy resolution approved by the four-member panel, raises for lawmakers would be phased in over three years.

Starting Jan. 1, the legislative base salary would jump to $110,000. It would grow to $120,000 in 2020 and $130,000 in 2021.

“When you talk about issues of fairness, it is not the right thing to have gone that period of time (without a raise),” said pay panel commissioner Bill Thompson, a former New York City controller. “While people may look at this as parttime employment, it is not. It is a full time thing. They are required, whether they are in Albany or down in their districts, to do the job and do it admirably.”

But in imposing the need for reforms, commission chairman Carl McCall, a former state controller, without specifically mentioning the scandals that have hit the Capitol in recent years, said that “we really have to make sure that we send signals to the public about how serious they are about doing their job and doing it well.”

Under the enacted plan, lawmakers would have until the start of 2020 to restrict outside income to a congressional model of 15% of their legislative pay. Certain jobs, including legal work with clients, would be prohibited altogether.

Doing so would eliminate even the appearance of conflicts of interest, the commission members said.

The resolution passed by the four panel members — McCall (photo), Thompson, state Controller Thomas DiNapoli and city Controller Scott Stringer — also requires the Legislature to get rid of most of the stipends paid to lawmakers who serve as committee chairs, ranking minority members, or in leadership positions.

A handful of stipends, like those paid to the Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader, would remain in place to reflect the added responsibility of those jobs, the panel said.

The commission was created as part of this year’s state budget. Some lawmakers and advocates have suggested the panel does not have the constitutional right to hike salaries. That power belongs to the governor and Legislature, they argue.

Some have also argued the panel does not have the power to impose restrictions like limits on outside income and an end to legislative stipends.

But the commission’s counsel, Alan Klinger, disputed that.

New York, under the plan, would go from having the third-highest legislative salaries behind California’s $107,240 and Pennsylvania’s $87,180, to the highest. New York City Council members, who are paid $148,500, still would make more.

The pay commission also recommended raises for the governor and lieutenant governor, who also haven’t had raises in 20 years.

But unlike with the salaries for state lawmakers, the attorney general and state controller, the panel could only recommend, not enforce, a pay raise for the state’s two highest officers, since their salaries are set not by law, but by passage of a joint resolution by the Assembly and Senate, commission members said.