US News

FLAP OVER POL’S BONU$ BID

A longtime state senator battling a stiff primary challenge introduced a bill to give a $52,000 bonus to lawmakers who agree to serve full time – prompting his rival to call it a “self-serving” reward for officials simply doing their elective work.

The bill, submitted by Sen. Martin Connor, a Democrat representing parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, would give legislators the pay boost if they agree to become full-time lawmakers, essentially in exchange for dropping outside sources of income.

Connor’s primary rival, Daniel Squadron, slammed the bill, saying, “While Marty Connor clearly believes he should get an additional $52,000 bonus just for doing the job he was elected to do, in these economic times, he’d be hard-pressed to find a single New Yorker who agrees.

“It’s these sorts of self-serving ideas that are exactly what’s wrong with Albany.”

Connor, who records show earned more than $350,000 in 2002 on his private election-law practice, insisted that “in a really busy year [the law work] is 100 hours.”