Albany Legislators Want a Raise, Despite Numerous Ethics Violations

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By Margaret Hartmann Follow @marghartmann
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0investigating various legislators, it doesn't seem like a great time for Albany lawmakers to ask for a raise. While they haven't had a pay increase in 15 years, at $79,500, their base salary is the third highest among state legislators nationwide. Nevertheless, lawmakers are trying to hold a vote by the end of the year to increase their salary before the new session. The move would have to be approved by Governor Cuomo, and they're considerably less enthusiastic about his plan to trade a pay increase for a slew of ethics reforms.

Cuomo took flak for shutting down the anticorruption Moreland Commission last year, and it appears he's trying to make up for it in his negotiations with lawmakers over the terms of their raise. The New YorkTimes reports that he's proposed many changes, including restricting their use of campaign funds, requiring lawmakers to document their expenses, broadening Freedom of Information Law disclosures, and making it easier to strip corrupt legislators of their pensions.

Sources claim that the legislators are fine with many of the reforms, but take issue with a proposal to limit the amount of money they can make at other jobs, as many of them earn sizable salaries from their work at law firms. They say the governor is piling on demands, but doesn't seem serious about reaching a deal. It's almost like he doesn't care about their salaries, and just wants to look like he's getting tough on ethics.

NYT

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/albany-wants-raise-despite-ethics-violations.html




twilight zone


Personally for me it just compounds the fact that most of the state is in utter disrepair and the state capital itself is particularly rundown.

 

[88m3]

Eyeing a Raise, Albany Lawmakers Are Negotiating Reforms With Cuomo
By SUSANNE CRAIG and THOMAS KAPLANDEC. 8, 2014

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Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is insisting on a reform package.CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

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• ethics reforms that could pave the way for a raise for state politicians.
  
  A pay increase would be the first for members of the Legislature since 1999, but if it happens — which is far from assured — it could come at a steep price. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was widely criticized for shutting down an anticorruption commission that was pressing for sweeping state ethics reforms, would have to agree to a raise and says that will not happen without “significant” new ethics measures.
  
  Among other things, the governor has told leaders of the State Senate and Assembly that he would like new restrictions on legislators’ personal use of their campaign funds and on the $172-per-day stipends they receive when they are in Albany. Mr. Cuomo is proposing that lawmakers be required to submit supporting documents for many expenses, particularly on days when the Legislature is not in session.
  
  The governor’s office has also proposed increasing the number of legislators who can be stripped of their pensions. An ethics bill passed in 2011 made the pensions of officials convicted of public corruption subject to forfeiture, but excluded lawmakers already in office. Mr. Cuomo would like to include them. This change would require a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by two successive Legislatures and then by referendum.
  
  Mr. Cuomo has even floated a proposal that would require the Legislature to subject itself to broader disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, much like what the law now requires of the executive branch.
  
  People briefed on the talks but not authorized to speak on the record said that legislators could live with many of the reforms the governor has suggested but that others were less palatable, like a limit on the amount that lawmakers can earn from outside jobs. Many legislators earn sizable paychecks working at law firms, and an agreement could become impossible if they resist such a limit, which appears likely.
  
  Some people briefed on discussions questioned Mr. Cuomo’s commitment to achieving an agreement, saying his list of demands kept growing — including some unrelated to ethics reform — with no deal in sight.
  
  “He is running down the clock,” one of the people said.
  
  Continue reading the main story
  RELATED COVERAGE
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    After Ethics Panel’s Shutdown, Loopholes Live On in Albany DEC. 8, 2014
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    Cuomo’s Office Hobbled Ethics Inquiries by Moreland CommissionJULY 23, 2014
  But a Cuomo administration official, who insisted on anonymity out of a desire to avoid negotiating in public, said legislative leaders had offered only one proposal — to reduce what they receive in travel stipends — in exchange for an increase in their salaries.
  
  Continue reading the main story
  
  Timeline: The Short Life of an Anticorruption Commission
  In a statement, Melissa DeRosa, a spokeswoman for the governor, said, “The governor will not entertain a legislative pay raise without a significant reform package, and the Legislature has refused to accept one.”
  
  The discussions for a raise began in earnest after the November election. Legislators receive a base salary of $79,500 a year.
  
  The current discussions have a sense of urgency to them: Under the State Constitution, lawmakers cannot raise their own salaries in the term in which they are elected, but they can vote for an increase for politicians heading to Albany for a new term. So, if they do not approve a raise this month, they will have to wait another two years.
  
  Leaders from the State Senate and Assembly will be in Albany on Wednesday, and a meeting with the governor could happen then.
  
  The two leaders of the State Senate both support a raise, as does the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, who faces pressure from his caucus, with its many members from the New York City area, where the current legislative salary does not go very far.
  
  “If you really want good people in government, you have to offer something of a competitive salary,” said State Senator Tony Avella, a Democrat from Queens. “If my wife wasn’t working, I’d have a tough time carrying the mortgage on my one-family house on this salary.”
  
  New York is one of a small number of states whose legislatures resemble a full-time body, with large staffs and longer sessions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only California and Pennsylvania pay their legislators a higher base salary.
  
  But legislators face a public-relations predicament in advocating a raise. When pollsters at Siena College asked likely voters in July whether they believed legislators were honest and hard-working, or self-serving and prone to being indicted, two-thirds chose the latter option.
  
  “Given all the scandals over the last several years, there is certainly no groundswell of support for the Legislature to raise its own pay,” said Steven A. Greenberg, a Siena pollster.
  
  Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said a deal on a raise had to include something substantial, like closing a loophole that lets corporations funnel donations through limited-liability companies and putting in place tougher standards forbidding the use of campaign funds on personal expenses.
  
  “It hinges entirely on the governor,” Mr. Horner said. “What does Governor Cuomo really want out of this process? If he wants meaningful reform, he has huge leverage to do it.”
  
  
• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/n...n-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

 

[the cac mamba]

fukkin greedy fakkits, let some other citizens do the job for 80 a year if it isnt enough

 

[Real N Quotes]

Pigs