About 45 minutes earlier than the calendar turned to 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul gave state lawmakers a present for the brand new 12 months: a $32,000 pay elevate.
Hochul signed a bill into legislation late Saturday that hiked the annual base wage of New York’s 213 state lawmakers from $110,000 to $142,000, a 29% enhance that now makes them the highest-paid state legislators within the nation.
The Democratic governor had beforehand pledged assist for a legislative pay enhance, which lawmakers in the end accepted in a particular session late final month. However her pledge got here earlier than greater than a dozen Democrats within the Senate opposed her nomination of Hector LaSalle for New York’s chief decide – an affront that raised the chance Hochul wouldn’t signal the pay elevate into legislation.
Hochul signed the salary-increase bill into legislation with out additional remark round 11:15 p.m. Saturday evening, her workplace introduced.
With the brand new wage, New York lawmakers now outpace California’s state lawmakers, who, as of final 12 months, made about $120,000 a 12 months, based on the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
New York lawmakers additionally obtain a $183 per diem fee for every evening they spend in Albany, which can be utilized for lodging and meals. A couple of dozen lawmakers additionally earn stipends for management posts.
The brand new legislation will even, for the primary time, limit lawmakers’ means to earn exterior revenue, capping their non-public pay at $35,000. However that cap gained’t kick in till 2025, giving present lawmakers who exceed that threshold time to resolve whether or not they need to run when their seat is up once more in 2024.
The pay enhance doesn’t have an effect on Hochul’s wage, which is ready by a joint decision of the Legislature. The governor’s annual wage is $250,000.