Metro

Turncoat Smith beefs up staff

To the traitor go the spoils.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith’s staff budget has ballooned 66 percent since Jan. 2, after he defected from his fellow Democrats to join the ruling Independent Democratic Conference, payroll records show.

The Queens legislator hired five staffers paid between $1,153.85 and $1,538.47 biweekly on March 13, records show.

This comes on top of raises as high as 27 percent given to eight staff members on Jan. 16, payroll reports show.

Over the course of a year, the raises and additional staff will cost $623,081 annually, up from $373,800.

That’s more than he was spending for his staff as president pro tem of the state Senate from July 2009 to December 2010, when his staff fluctuated between nine and 10 staffers. Now he has 13.

arly $15,000 per biweekly pay period, records show.

A Smith spokesman said the Queens lawmaker needed extra staff because he is the co-chair of the Task Force on Hurricane Sandy Recovery, chairman of the Committee on Social Services and vice chair of the Finance Committee.

“Many of these staff members played an instrumental role in delivering a third consecutive on-time state budget,” a Smith spokesman said.

But Dems razzed Smith, saying, “He’s going to need all the staff he can get to hold on to his district for next election.”

Smith in December joined the IDC, along with fellow Dem defectors Jeffrey Klein, Diane Savino, David Carlucci, and David Valesky. They have formed an alliance with Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos to control the Senate.