Pay yourself first — over and over again!
Shameless city lawmakers are pushing to give themselves eye-watering 18.2% raises — in a scheme that will also give them automatic pay hikes of at least 2% every year in the future.
City Council Member Nantasha Williams (D-27) introduced a bill that would inflate her and her colleagues’ salaries from $148,500 to $175,500 backdated to January, while also ballooning pay for the mayor, the City Council speaker and other elected positions.
The bill comes days after the lawmakers signed off on a record-breaking $126 billion city budget and includes salaries even higher than a 16% raise the council tried to sneak by in a similar bank-account boosting measure at the end of their session last year.
And the bill also ensures taxpayers will be on the hook to pay elected officials more every year — with no requirement for public debate or a City Council vote.
Under the proposed law, if the council doesn’t vote to hike salaries for four years, raises kick in anyway, at either 2% per year or 8.25% overall — whichever is less.
The proposal follows recommendations from a report conducted by a three-person “Quadrennial Commission” appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The 127-page report suggested automatic pay hikes to prevent what it claimed would be the “further erosion of salaries” — noting that elected officials haven’t received increases since 2016.
The mayor’s salary would also get boosted from $258,750 to $305,800 and Council Speaker Julie Menin’s would rise from $164,500 to $194,000 — though both leaders have said they wouldn’t take the pay bumps.
Mamdani hasn’t taken a stance on whether he was in favor of the hikes and said he’d leave it for the City Council to debate.
Neither he nor Menin immediately clarified what they would do with the legally mandated funds if the bill were to pass.
“Speaker Menin has consistently said that the pay of elected officials should only be modified based on an independent commission,” a Menin spokesperson told The Post. “The independent commission recommended this pay raise, and Speaker Menin, while declining any pay raise herself, will discuss its recommendations with her colleagues.”
The bill in its current iteration does not include a clause for any electeds to opt out of the boost – meaning the bill would have to be amended or the official would have to personally donating the salary difference — though the spokesperson noted methods of declining a potential pay raise are still being reviewed.
Mamdani did not respond to The Post’s inquiry on how he would turn down the increase.
Independent government groups Citizen’s Union and Reinvent Albany testified at Tuesday’s hearing – with both of the fiscal watchdogs supporting a pay boost for elected officials – but citing concerns about an automatic inflation raise.
“We’re concerned that eliminating the incentive to convene commissions would diminish an important mechanism for improving government,” said Grace Rau, executive director of Citizens Union Grace Rau.
The salary boost would also apply to the city comptroller, whose salary would jump from $209,050 to $247,100. Along with the Big Apple’s five borough presidents and district attorneys, who would see a boost from $179,200 to $211,800 and $212,800 to $251,500, respectively.
The mandated raises would not apply to any of the elected officials’ staff.
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