ALBANY – Gov. Paterson has secretly granted raises of as much as 46 percent to more than a dozen staffers at a time when he has asked 130,000 state workers to give up 3 percent pay hikes because of the state’s fiscal crisis, The Post has learned.
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The startling pay hikes, costing about $250,000 annually, were granted after the governor’s “emergency” declaration in August of a looming fiscal crisis that required the state to cut spending and impose a “hard” hiring freeze.
One raise was approved as recently as last month – when Paterson claimed the budget deficit had reached an unprecedented $15.5 billion.
The raises, which have stunned the few state workers who know about them, are outlined in data obtained from the office of state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, prepared at The Post’s request.
Two of the raises were tied to publicly proclaimed promotions – granted despite the supposed hiring freeze – of some of Paterson’s most important appointees, although the announcements didn’t include disclosure of the pay hikes.
The remaining 14 raises appear to have gone to individuals who remained in their same positions, despite claims by a spokesman for Paterson that they had been promoted.
“These are not raises for old positions, rather new salaries for new positions,” Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield insisted.
But a DiNapoli spokesman, Dennis Thompkins, said flatly, “These are individuals who stayed in their same position and received a salary increase.”
Paterson’s top aide, William Cunningham, a one-time law partner of the governor’s father, Basil, saw his pay jump 5 percent to $178,500 – just $500 less than Paterson himself – from $170,000 on Nov. 7, after he was promoted from a temporary “acting” secretary to permanent.
Charlotte Hitchcock, one of Cunningham’s deputies and a personal friend of the governor’s, received an $18,000, or 11.25 percent, raise on Dec. 22. While a press release said she was promoted from deputy secretary to “chief of staff” and “director of financial regulation,” it made no mention of a higher salary.
Cassie Prugh, a confidential assistant, was given a 46 percent pay hike in late November, raising her annual salary to $125,000 from $85,721, while Gaurav Vasisht, an assistant counsel, received a 6 percent, $7,427 increase in December, bringing his salary to $130,279.
Brendan Fitzgerald, a special office assistant, received a 21 percent, or $15,737, pay hike only last month, bringing his salary to $90,000, while Michael Deloach, another confidential assistant, saw his pay leap 29 percent, or $18,200, to $80,000 in August.
Lauren Passalacqua, a confidential secretary, saw her salary jump $12,000, or 31.5 percent, to $50,000, while the salary of another confidential aide, Chardee Mendoza, was hiked $10,000, or 28.5 percent, to $45,000.
Disclosure of the secret pay hikes comes as Paterson is under attack for spending well over $20,000 in state funds on a four-day stay for himself and several aides during President Obama’s inaugural last month, and for planning a state-funded junket to Davos, Switzerland, which he canceled only after his plans became public.
Paterson, in his budget proposal outlined in December, demanded that state workers who belong to the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employee Federation forgo negotiated, 3 percent pay hikes that would kick in April 1 or face massive layoffs.