PPOD 7/13/09: The 24% Solution

I'm guessing that most New Yorkers would have to think pretty long and hard to remember the last time (the first time?) we got a 24% raise...with six months of retroactivity thrown in. But that's exactly what happened, on average, for eleven Senate staffers. According to the New York Daily News, several senior staffers got nice raises at the same time the BiCauFoF seized power and became the short-lived majority.

Among the recipients of the raises was a legislative analyst who received a 51% increase, a special assistant (I guess so!) to John Sampson who got a 46% increase, two deputy secretaries who each got over 30%, the administrative assistant to John Sampson, a 28% bump, and oh yes - the counsel for Latino and immigrant affairs, who got a mere 10% increase.

While on the whole the raises for these staffers will cost us only about $200,000 in annual salary, it's really not the money that is my Pet Peeve of the Day. It's the audacity, and it's the particularly ridiculous comment of Austin Shafran, the press secretary, who likely said this with a straight face: "... because of the budget crisis and the general fiscal uncertainty of the state, the decision was made to delay the allocation of some of the salary increases." The entire story is here in the Albany Times Union's Capitol Confidential blog.

Seems to me that things aren't much different now at the All-Star break than they were back in June when these increases went into effect. The budget crisis, the overall fiscal condition of the state - pretty much the same as they were, except we're a month later in the year and have had to deal with the foolishness of our elected officials.

Amazingly, at a time when the Senate was not able to do any of our business, they managed to take care of their own. At a time when New Yorkers are losing their jobs, and unions are taking wage and benefit concessions to keep working, our senators find a way to give someone a 51% salary increase.

This could be my PPOD any day of the week.