Silver: NY legislators 'deserve' raises

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said Monday that state legislators "deserve" a pay raise.

The powerful Democrat, expressing an opinion held by many in his conference, said lawmakers have gone too long without a pay increase. Their base pay, $79,500, hasn't been changed since 1999. Many of the more than 200 legislators receive stipends for leadership posts, boosting average pay to more than $90,000.

Silver, just as he was walking to a closed-door Democratic conference, said he hasn't discussed the idea with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo or Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre). But, clearly, he has strong feelings on how they should proceed.

"I think members deserve it. There are a number of members, myself not included, who just do this," he said, referring to serving in the Legislature and not earning outside pay. "In the Assembly, what's unique is 50 members of the Democratic conference, this is their pay. They're not committee chairs, they don't have extra stipends. It's a basic pay.

"I'm telling you my opinion: Members deserve a raise."

Silver earns $121,000 including his salary and stipend. The Cuomo administration declined to comment. Scott Reif, a spokesman for Skelos said, "There has been absolutely no discussion of a legislative pay raise and it's not something we are considering."

Lawmakers cannot vote themselves a raise. What typically happens is that lawmakers return to the Capitol in November or December, after Election Day, to approve a pay increase to be applied to lawmakers taking office in January, which technically marks a "new" Legislature.

Silver suggested convening a panel to study the issue and make recommendations -- a strategy successfully used to raise judicial pay last year.