Envious Albany lawmakers eye giving themselves raises after self-serving NYC Councils fat pay hikes

They have pay FOMO.Envious Albany lawmakers are eyeing giving themselves fat pay hikes after a similarly self-serving move by New York City Council members, insiders said.The City Council inflated their own salaries to $175,000, far more than the $142,000 that lawmakers in the state Legislature make in a year.The raise toppled New York state Assembly and state Senate members off their perch as the highest-paid lawmakers in the Empire State.“We’re not anymore, the City Council is,” one state Assembly member told The Post.The Big Apple pay raise could set up a domino effect in Albany, where lawmakers last gave themselves a bump during a special session in December 2022 that Gov.Kathy Hochul approved, insiders said.The legislature would have to come back for another winter special session to approve potential hikes for the next session — a prospect that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said isn’t yet on the radar.Heastie, however, left it open for state lawmakers to repeat their 2022 antics.“I don’t know if there’s enough money that could pay for the sacrifices that legislators make,” Heastie told Politico last week.

“Six months of the year, you’re away from your family.So, I’m always supportive of members getting paid.”Albany lawmakers’ last self-enriching raise made them the highest-compensated state legislators in the nation.While the recent City Council pay hike eclipsed the state legislature’s current salaries, it’s still chump change compared to the whopping up to $270,000 a year that Los Angeles City Council members make.Only Republicans and conservative Democrats opposed the hike in the 42-6 vote, with Council Speaker Julie Menin, a millionaire, abstaining.Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose salary would also go up to $305,800, both made a show of promising they won’t accept the bumps.

The pay level, however, would include the bump for their successors.The council bump set off waves of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses chatter in Al...