Sheldon Silver is lining his pockets with gold.
The powerful Assembly speaker nearly doubled his salary at the Manhattan law firm that keeps him on its payroll, according to legislative ethics filings released Wednesday.
Silver mined between $650,000 and $750,000 last year from legal powerhouse Weitz & Luxenberg for providing “of counsel” services, according to state records.
He collected at least $300,000 more from the firm than he did in 2012, when he reported earning between $350,000 and $450,000.
Assembly spokesman Michael Whyland said Silver’s salary fluctuates each year depending on the disposition of his cases.
But Silver’s assets also grew thanks to careful investing and lucrative loans.
He reported owning between $976,000 and $2.36 million in nearly 80 stocks including Facebook, Anheuser-Busch, Disney, ExxonMobil, Haliburton, JP Morgan Chase, American Express, General Electric, United Technologies, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Citigroup and Pfizer.
He and his wife also received between $100,000 and $150,000 in principal interest from Counsel Financial, a company founded by his firm’s law partners that issues loans to other law firms. The company still owes him between $350,000 and $450,000.
And that’s all on top of the $122,000 salary he earned as the leader of the state Assembly, which is a six-month gig.
Legislative opponents gaped at his disclosures.
“I don’t know how much time he has, I know how little time I have to work in my outside job,” said Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, an upstate Republican. “How much does he actually work as an attorney for that law firm or is he just a rainmaker for them?”
Pro-business groups have chafed at Silver’s link to Weitz & Luxenberg. They have long complained that the speaker has fought efforts to curb runaway litigation costs and said his employment with Weitz poses potential conflicts.
Silver is by far the wealthiest of all the Legislature’s leaders.
Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County) was paid between $150,000 and $250,000 by his law firm and Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) hauled in between $75,000 and $100,000 from his firm.
This was the second year that legislators were required to report their outside income and assets to the state.