Lawmakers Are Banking on a Change of Heart by Pataki on Pay Raises
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State lawmakers waiting for a change of heart from Governor Pataki on the issue of legislative pay raises are likely to be disappointed, a top aide to the governor told The New York Sun.
Mr. Pataki is set against awarding lawmakers with their first salary increase in eight years and is no mood to negotiate a deal in a special session in December, the aide, David Catalfamo, said.
“They are going to have an awfully steep hill to climb,” Mr. Catalfamo, said. “We are disinclined to do a pay raise.”
If Mr. Pataki doesn’t approve a raise before he leaves office at the end of the year, lawmakers won’t be eligible for one until January 2009, which is 10 years removed from their last pay hike. Governor-elect Spitzer has said he is against a legislative pay raise. The 212 legislators make a base salary of $79,500 a year for what is defined as part-time work. Many earn more for leadership roles.
Any negotiations would probably take place in mid-December when the Assembly is set to return to Albany to re-elect Manhattan Democrat, Sheldon Silver, as speaker and hold organizational meetings. Senate and Assembly officials say they have no plans to call a special session.
A source close to the governor said Mr. Pataki, who is considering a run for president, is concerned that giving approval for a raise would only attract negative attention at a time when he is selling himself to national Republicans as a fiscally responsible party leader.
“There isn’t enough out there they can do for us to give the most dysfunctional legislature in America a pay raise,” a source close to the governor said. “It’s not going to make it. They had their chance to get it. They had their chance to do some right things.”
The administration is skeptical that the Legislature could offer Mr. Pataki anything valuable enough to bring him to the bargaining table, the source said. In December 1998, Mr. Pataki consented to a 38% legislative pay raise after lawmakers agreed to authorize the creation of 100 publicly financed charter schools, handing the governor what turned out to be perhaps his most significant educational victory in his three terms.
While lawmakers in recent days have said privately that both houses might be open to supporting a bill that would expand the number of charter schools in the state beyond the legal limit of 100, Mr. Pataki is not interested in a repeat of the 1998 deal, a Pataki source said.
From the point of view of Mr. Pataki, the original creation of charter schools was a valuable concession from lawmakers. A simple expansion of their numbers is less significant, especially since Mr. Spitzer has expressed support for such legislation.
“Increasing them isn’t a threshold,” the Pataki source said. “It’s isn’t remotely enough.”
The source said the Pataki administration could potentially consider a pay raise if lawmakers agreed to abolish the state’s Wicks Law, a construction mandate dating to 1912 that requires state and local governments to award multiple construction contracts for virtually every public construction project.
Lawmakers have opposed Mr. Pataki’s perennial attempts to strike down the law, which is blamed for inflating construction costs by as much as 30%. Mr. Spitzer has said he would scale it back so it applies to projects costing more than $2 million in the city and $1 million elsewhere in the state.
Legislators have some leverage over the lame-duck governor. The Senate can jam up Mr. Pataki’s last remaining judicial appointments and Mr. Silver and Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno can use their power as members of the Public Authorities Control Board to derail the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards development project, which could be up for final approval next month.
If legislative salaries increased by the same percentage that they did in 1998, they would rise to about $110,000, slightly below the annual compensation of California lawmakers. In 1987, Governor Cuomo approved a 33.7% increase, which raised the base salary to $57,500. State lawmakers earned $32,960 in 1984.
Last week, City Council members in New York City voted themselves a 25% pay raise that will bring their base salaries to $112,500 a year, also for part-time work. That could increase pressure on legislative leaders in Albany to bring the salaries for state lawmakers up to par with those of city lawmakers.