Dollars and cents
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, seen here on March 30. Credit: AP / Hans Pennink
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Pencil Point
Good boy
Final Point
Shirley Chisholm then and now
New York City announced on Friday that a monument to Brooklyn’s Shirley Chisholm, the pioneering black congresswoman, will be placed at an entrance to Prospect Park.
It has been 50 years since “unbought and unbossed” Chisholm ascended to the House. Her path there and subsequent career shook up business-as-usual in politics in ways similar to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx and other young, first-time congresswomen.
Where Ocasio-Cortez now uses Twitter and Instagram to fire up supporters and reach voters, Chisholm used a sound truck to blast slogans to housing projects in her first (and crowded) primary in 1968.
“Ladies and gentlemen . . . this is fighting Shirley Chisholm coming through,” she’d announce, according to her House of Representatives official biography.
In her first general election, Chisholm had left-leaning policy positions similar to those of opponent James Farmer, a well-respected hero of the civil rights movement running on the Republican line. But she portrayed him as an outsider for living in Manhattan, and relied on her fluent Spanish to speak to the new Hispanic population in the district.
Ocasio-Cortez used similar tactics this year to take down Joe Crowley, a liberal whose district had shifted with young and Hispanic newcomers and who similarly lost touch while focusing somewhat more on his leadership ascent in the House than on the dynamics in his Queens and Bronx district.
In Congress, Chisholm made a bold entrance, criticizing the Vietnam War in her first floor speech. Ocasio-Cortez nabbed headlines this month for protesting outside California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office in support of a “Green New Deal.”
Chisholm (1924-2005) eventually went on to be a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, rattling colleagues and also at times working with moderates during her seven terms. She also, of course, was the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1972.
How long until the other outer-borough congresswoman gives that a shot, too?
Mark Chiusano
Daily Point
Heastie bobs and weaves over outside income
Testifying in Manhttan Friday before the state’s four-man pay-raise commission, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie did not make a specific dollar ask for the salary hike for state lawmakers, and he declined to specifically say what, if anything, his members would do about limiting outside income.
Responding to a question from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli about his views on establishing limits, Heastie punted. He said he understands why they are popular but, “to agree to specific legislation in exchange for compensation, I’m not comfortable with.”
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer pretty much got the same answer about ethics reform. “I can’t at this point tell you what the legislature would and won’t do,” said Heastie, who has a lot of power over what it can and can’t do.
Well, that was the public session, exceedingly low-key and opaque. However, The Point has learned some details of the back-channel conversations Heastie is having with the commission. (Incoming Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was MIA for the two hearings.)
Members of the Senate and the Assembly currently make $79,500 a year. Heastie did say Friday he thinks the current amount should be adjusted for inflation. That adjustment would bring the annual pay to $122,000. The speaker also has expressed support for the congressional model that limits outside income to 15 percent of salary. So that would bring members up to $140,300 if they had consultancy, law or teaching jobs, etc. The New York City Council limits members to minimal outside income from sources such as teaching, books and speaking.
Most of all Heastie wants to keep the stipends known as “lulus” that add to the benefits most lawmakers get for just showing up. Right now, 75 percent of lawmakers have one, and the lulus range from $41,500 for leaders to $9,000 for those without much seniority. There is also talk of applying a cost-of-living escalator to the lulus. In most states, just a handful of lawmakers get extra money for being in leadership positions.
Rita Ciolli
