Albany Democrats led by Meeting Speaker Carl Heastie, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Majority Chief Andrea Stewart-Cousins are mulling a December session to hike lawmakers' pay.
Douglas Healey for New York Submit
For months, state lawmakers have refused to go again to Albany for a particular session to deal with the well-documented flaws in current criminal-justice reforms. However now, with elections safely over, they’re speaking about dashing up for a “particular” to … vote themselves a pay hike.
Meeting Speaker Carl Heastie even has the chutzpah to assert legislators deserve a elevate. And Gov. Kathy Hochul has given the thought her blessing.
The lawmakers’ gripe: Any pay hike couldn’t take impact till at the very least January 2027 until they vote earlier than Jan. 1 this 12 months. Plus, court docket rulings sidelined the elevate they anticipated (after a 2018 pay elevate fee supplied it) from the present $110,000 base pay to $130,000.
However these rulings additionally derailed limits on legislators’ exterior earnings. Plus, we’re simply previous two years when, due to the pandemic, most of them primarily labored remotely.
Whereas Hochul and most legislative incumbents held on, this 12 months’s elections confirmed appreciable voter anger over Albany’s refusal to behave on crime. Is the Legislature actually going to reply by nonetheless ignoring that fury even because it traces members’ pockets?
If something, taxpayers deserve a refund. On the very least, Hochul ought to insist legislators do one thing within the public curiosity as her value for really signing a pay elevate: How about lifting the constitution cap, gov? Or possibly letting judges really lock up harmful felony suspects?
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