State lawmakers will have a six-figure reason to be thankful this holiday season.
A deal to approve lawmakers’ first pay raise since 1999 calls for legislators’ base $79,500 salary to jump to more than $100,000 starting Jan. 1, sources said.
Members of Gov. Cuomo’s Cabinet will also be celebrating, as the deal calls for their first raise in 13 years.
Cuomo has long called for salary increases for his top state commissioners, nearly all of whom make less than their deputies — who get annual increases with the unionized state workforce.
Cabinet members’ salaries have to be approved by law, and the last time the Legislature was willing to go along was when lawmakers themselves also saw a bump in pay.
The deal is expected to go to a vote the week after Thanksgiving. and effects the current 212 legislators plus an extra state senator next year.
The deal is more important to some lawmakers than others. More than half the Legislature already makes more than $100,000 thanks to what’s known as “lulus’’ — special grants that they receive for supposedly extra responsibilities.