Fredric U. Dicker

Fredric U. Dicker

US News

Talks under way to give NY legislators a pay raise

Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders have begun “serious talks” for a lame-duck session of the Legislature to hike the pay of New York’s 213 lawmakers, as well as other state officials who haven’t had a raise in 15 years, The Post has learned.

The talks, involving senior staff, have only dealt so far with the “outlines of a pay-raise agreement” and have not reached the point of discussing how much legislative salaries, which start at $79,500 a year, should be increased, sources said.

A widely accepted figure for a new legislative pay scale, however, is “in excess” of the $112,500-a-year base salary paid members of the New York City Council.

Cuomo and legislative leaders planned to discuss the salary hikes last week, but the talks never occurred because of the deadly snowstorm that engulfed Western New York and drew the governor’s presence.

“Serious talks on a pay raise are under way. It’s staff so far. The governor was away in Buffalo,’’ said a senior official with knowledge of the situation.

The state Constitution bars lawmakers from raising their salaries during their two-year terms, so a pay raise must be approved before the end of the year to cover the new Legislature that takes office in January.

While Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) have strongly endorsed a pay hike, Cuomo — at least publicly — has not.

The governor, who has repeatedly said that relatively low salaries have prevented him from recruiting top-flight talent to work in state government, was described by an administration insider as “fearful’’ of a strong public backlash if he supports higher pay for the Legislature.

“The Legislature is scandal-scarred and generally hated by the public, and the governor isn’t sure how he can back a pay raise for them and not be damaged in the process,’’ said the source.

Also weighing on Cuomo is a small but growing number of newspaper editorials opposing a pay hike.

The latest came from the normally Cuomo-friendly Buffalo News, which headlined an editorial on Friday, “Greedy state legislators should give up the idea of voting themselves a pay raise.’’

Said a longtime Cuomo associate, “Cuomo isn’t comfortable with tough decisions unless he has some cover from prominent newspapers, as he did from The New York Times with gay marriage and the SAFE Act on gun control.

“Unless he can get something similar, strong backing from respectable quarters, regarding a legislative pay raise, I don’t see him doing it,’’ the associate continued.

Gov. George Pataki approved a pay hike for lawmakers in 1998 in exchange for legalizing charter schools, an effort at budget reform and salary hikes for himself and other executive branch officials.

What if any sorts of reforms Cuomo would attempt to extract from lawmakers in exchange for a pay hike remains unclear, although advocacy groups have called for linking pay raises to ending the widely abused system of “per diem” expense reimbursements for lawmakers and a higher minimum wage.

New York lawmakers are the third-highest paid in the nation, trailing only members of the California ($90,526) and Pennsylvania ($84,012) state houses in base annual pay, according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But Empire State pols are No. 1 among states that allow lawmakers to make money in jobs separate from Albany, topping closest rival Illinois ($67,836).