Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v22)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times photo

I've previously written about the prospects of a pay raise for New York's governor and legislature. In fact, that was what started me down the path of this Meanwhile, Back in Albany theme, and several of the early posts from 2016 tie to the pay raise issue.

That previous effort failed, as we learned, when the special commission to figure it all out fell short, with some abstentions on the final vote which made the raise impossible. Things were quiet for a while, except for the mumbling and grumbling, of course, about the failure to get the job done.

This year, a new commission was appointed, but instead of having a large group with varied experiences, it was made up of current and former comptrollers. This smaller group supports raises for the gov, our 213 legislators in the State Assembly and Senates, and some others in the gov's cabinet. And, they also support limits on outside income to 15% of their legislative pay, as well as getting rid of our famous lulus, the extra pay legislators get for leadership roles on committees.

So, what did the comptrollers recommend for these folks?

• paying the governor $250,000 by 2022 (currently the salary is $178,000)
• paying legislators $130,000 by 2021, up from their current $79,500 part-time pay

The legislators, we're reminded regularly, haven't had a raise in 20 years which is a long time - but finally, we've been seeing turnover and the number of folks who are still there today who were there when the last raise went in is dwindling. That's a good thing, but it also means that we'll be giving 'makeup' pay to people who are very early in their legislative careers.

Now, I get that having to go to Albany for the first five months of the year (with a daily stipend on top of the salary and lulus) for committee meetings and votes and passing often inconsequential one-house bills while waiting for the governor and the other two folks in a room to hammer out a budget which includes most of the significant legislative initiatives for the state (that's how those get passed, you know) can be tough - but the rest of the year, they're in their district, meeting and greeting and keeping their names and faces out in public. And of course, they're taking calls from constituents (and holding more fundraisers), but is that really 40-some-odd hours a week? And isn't that what they signed up for?

The Leg and governor do this pay raise thing by commission to try and keep themselves out of having to decide their own pay, particularly lately with all of the corruption we've seen from our elected officials, their families, and their big donors. All of that still leaves a bad taste in our mouths, even as we understand that, as Assembly Speaker noted, many members are facing "middle class financial concerns" including student loan debt and caring for young and aging family members.

The median income in New York is $62,909 - which makes those "middle class financial concerns" the Speaker mentioned pretty daunting, compared to what they'd be with double the salary for a half-year job, wouldn't you think?

Today, we're expecting the commission, to release their report, and hopefully provide more details on how this is all supposed to work, especially the limit on outside income. What counts in the limit, and how or if the legislators will be able to protect their outside income, such as transferring it to a spouse, are a couple of questions. Doing that kind of transfer would not necessarily remove the corruption enticement - the tree from which the poisoned fruit falls will still be in the same garden, right?

The devil will be in the details, and that's the devil we're hoping to see later today.