Metro

Sandy sinks pol pay hike

Hurricane Sandy has claimed another victim — but this time, there won’t be many tears.

Gov. Cuomo, preoccupied with the widespread damage caused by the fearsome storm, has decided not to call the much-anticipated special postelection session of the Legislature at which the salaries of state lawmakers — frozen since 1999 — were expected to be raised, The Post has learned.

“It’s not going to happen; there’s not going to be a special session before the end of the year,’’ said a source with direct knowledge of Cuomo’s thinking.

“The governor’s focus is on the flood. He doesn’t have the time now to focus on the other complex issues that would be on the table for a special session, including pay raises for the Legislature,’’ the source continued.

Pre-Sandy public-opinion polls showed about 80 percent of New Yorkers opposed to raising lawmakers’ salaries. With damage from the storm likely to impose hundreds of millions and possibly billions of dollars in additional costs and lost revenues on the state, opposition to the pay hike is likely to grow even more.

The state Constitution bars lawmakers from raising their pay during their two-year terms in office. Since the terms of all senators and assemblymen end Dec. 31, Cuomo’s decision not to hold a special session before the end of the year means that lawmakers’ salaries won’t be increased until 2015, at the earliest.

Cuomo had strongly hinted that he would favor raising the current “base’’ annual salary of the lawmakers, $79,500, if the Legislature would agree to hike the pay of top state commissioners and other senior gubernatorial appointees, who have also been without a raise for the past 13 years.

While Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has publicly pushed for a legislative pay raise, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) has done so only behind closed doors. And Skelos’ interest in a pay raise all but vanished in the aftermath of the Republicans’ unexpected setbacks in the Nov. 6 balloting, which could lead to Democrats taking back control of the Senate.

“There’s no question that the fight over control of the Senate has diminished the interest of the Republicans in coming back for a special session,’’ said a source close to the situation.

Among other issues Cuomo had been expected to focus on at a special session were controversial plans to hike the minimum wage and introduce a limited system of publicly financed elections.

Cuomo is expected to press both issues when the new legislative session begins in January, although the fate of the issues will likely depend on which party controls the Senate.

The Senate’s current GOP majority has opposed a minimum-wage hike as harmful to a struggling economy, and called publicly financed campaigns a tax hike likely to benefit Democratic candidates.

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Widespread rumors that Senate Republicans were close to sealing a deal with the four-member Independent Democratic Conference to lock up control of the Senate for the next two years were being denied over the weekend by sources close to the situation.

“If the IDC is going to play a pivotal role it’s not likely to come until all the votes are counted,’’ said a Senate source who was referring to the on-going recounts in two close Senate races in the Poughkeepsie and the Schenectady/Albany/Ulster County areas. Those recounts aren’t expected to be completed until close to Christmas.

Meanwhile, further proof that Senate Democrats remain the same faction-riven and dysfunctional group that they turned out to be during their time in the majority in 2009-2010 comes from their continuing failure to agree on who their leader will be come Jan. 1.

While Sen. John Sampson of Brooklyn currently serves as minority leader, at least five other Democrats have encouraged speculation that they could be elected

the new majority leader if their party takes back control of the Senate in January.

fdicker@nypost.com