City lawmakers give themselves hefty raise

City Council members are celebrating their first pay raise in a decade following an overwhelming vote on Feb. 5. The 32-percent hike bumped annual salaries from $112,500 to $148,500 — nearly $10,000 more than Mayor Bill de Blasio and a pay commission had recommended.

Along with the raise, the Council passed measures including the elimination of stipends for chairmanships, a ban on most forms of outside income for members and the creation of an online database making financial disclosures available to the public..

“I think that lulus… there was a potentially corrupting influence,” said northwest Bronx Councilman Andrew Cohen, using the popular term for the stipends. He called them “corrosive” and “antiquated.”

Prior to the Feb. 5 vote, the executive director of the good government group Common Cause NY gave testimony criticizing the stipends.

“All too often, such stipends have been doled out on the basis of political loyalty or favoritism,” Susan Lerner said on Feb. 3 at City Hall. “We do not agree that serving as a committee chair deserves additional compensation, particularly when virtually every Council member holds such a post.” 

“We believe that the city’s procedure is one that sets an appropriate model for how other jurisdictions, including New York State, should handle the issue of setting salaries for elected officials,” she added.

The Council is getting a hefty pay hike, but the NYPD and FDNY were expected to receive raises of 1 and 2.5 percent, respectively, according to The New York Daily News.

“The NYPD and FDNY don’t go 10 years without a raise, and that’s not a fair comparison,” Mr. Cohen said.

Other local councilmen welcome the pay hike.

“This is the right thing to do for Members of the City Council, who have not received a raise in nearly ten years,” Councilman Fernando Cabrera, whose district includes part of Kingsbridge, said in an email statement.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who could not be reached for this story, had pushed for an even higher pay raise than the one that passed. He sought an annual salary around $175,000.