The New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial, & Executive Compensation
Submissions on LEGISLATIVE & EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Commission Information – Division of the Budget -- https://www.nyscommissiononcompensation.org/pdfs/compensation-commission-info-budget-division.pdf
Reinvent Albany -- https://www.nyscommissiononcompensation.org/pdfs/reinvent-albany-compensation-commission-testimony-noleg-pay-raise.pdf
NY PIRG -- https://www.nyscommissiononcompensation.org/pdfs/nypirg.pdf
Elena Sassower – Center for Judicial Accountability -- https://www.nyscommissiononcompensation.org/pdfs/elena-sassower-center-judicial-accountability.pdf
TESTIMONY
Of the
NEW YORK PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP
Before the
NEW YORK STATE COMPENSATION COMMITTEE 2024
Albany, N.Y.
October 10, 2024
Good morning. I am Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research
Group Fund (NYPIRG). NYPIRG is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, research and advocacy
organization. Consumer protection, environmental preservation, health care, higher education, and
governmental reform are the principal areas of concern of NYPIRG. We appreciate the opportunity
to testify on issues relating to legislative and executive compensation for New York State government.
As a multi-issue organization, we are well aware of the relationship of a functioning state government
to attract and retain high caliber individuals. We know that providing reasonable compensation for
public service is an important factor in making government work. We also are deeply sympathetic to
anyone who has not had a raise in over a decade. We have been proud to work with both statewide
elected officials and legislators to advance legislation that is important to the public interest.
However, as an organization that includes governmental reform as one of its priorities, we are also
deeply concerned by the public’s growing cynicism over its own democracy. A cynicism that is the
direct result of some in government gaming the system for their personal enrichment.
That cynicism is reflected in voter apathy and an overall view that those in government are only in it
for themselves. Sadly, in recent years that view has too often turned out to be accurate.
It is in an increasingly toxic political environment that you must consider the issue of setting
reasonable compensation levels for members of the executive and legislative branches. Combating
that public cynicism and growing voter anger is as important a goal as identifying appropriate,
defensible compensation levels.
It was within that view that the governor and state lawmakers agreed to its current pay raises with a
clear linkage to restrictions on outside income. However, a legal challenge to that linkage has, at
least so far, severed that linkage.1 While the decision in this lawsuit is pending, New York State
legislators have a $142,000 salary, the highest in the nation, and no limits on outside income.2
During the period the Committee remains unable to limit outside income, NYPIRG urges you not to
recommend pay increases for state legislators or statewide officials. It is our view that elected officials
cannot “serve two masters,” they must be accountable to only one – the public that they serve.
1 Campbell, J., “Judge strikes down limit on NY lawmakers' income outside government — for now,” Gothamist,
https://gothamist.com/news/new-york-albany-legislature-outside-pay-cap/.
2 National Conference of State Legislatures, “2024 Legislator Compensation,” https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-
legislatures/2024-legislator-compensation.
-^NYPIRG NEW YORK PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP
107 Washington Avenue •Albany, NY 12210 •(518) 436-0876 •Fax (518) 432-6178
Regional Offices in: Capital District & Hudson Valley, Long Island & New York City, Western & Central New York
NEW YORK PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP FUND • NYPIRG.ORG
NYPIRG TESTIMONY, PAGE 2
In addition to a moratorium on any pay increases until the court challenges play out, we recommend
that you recommend steps to further strengthen the outside income restriction – assuming it passes
legal muster.
NYPIRG supports establishing Congress-style limits on lawmakers’ outside earned income.3 The
Congressional system was an outgrowth of the Watergate scandal and has a proven track record of
being effective in removing outside conflicts.
When the Congress adopted its system, it observed that,
“. . . substantial outside income creates at least the appearance of impropriety
and thereby undermines public confidence in the integrity of government
officials.”4
The Congress bans income from any entity in which the Congressmember has a “fiduciary”
relationship with a client. Being a “fiduciary” means putting the interests of your client ahead of your
own. When you’re an elected official whose constituents’ interests are paramount, how do you do
that when you have clients? Can lawmakers serve two bosses?
Yet no such restriction exists in the current (and under legal challenge) outside income “ban” in New
York. We urge you to recommend that New York adopt a similar “fiduciary” restriction as
part of its outside income ban.
We agree that this potential conflict exists in Albany and the convictions of elected officials
underscore how lucrative it can be for lawmakers to inappropriately use the powers of their public
office for private gain. Beyond that, legislators routinely consider proposals that may have an impact
on their outside business interests. A bright line standard is therefore necessary.
Current law limits outside income to $35,000 in excess of the Congressional restriction (if
applied would have been $21,500), we urge you to recommend that New York follow the
Congressional maximum amount.
In addition, the scandal surrounding the book deal obtained by the previous governor underscores
meaningful restrictions on the outside income of the full-time, statewide elected officials. We urge
you to recommend that there is a ban on the receipt of advance fees for publishing contracts.
Information produced in reports issued by the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee5 as
well as the then-ethics agency, the Joint Commission On Public Ethics’s independent review6 of the
3 We do note, however, that the Congressional model not only restricts the amount of outside income, but also restricts
the sources of outside income, barring the types of work that create conflicts of interest, such as legal and accounting
services. See Serving Two Masters: Outside Income and Conflict of Interest in Albany, NYPIRG and Reinvent Albany,
February 2015. This report may be accessed at
http://www.nypirg.org/pubs/outside_income_report_2.23.15.pdf.
4 House Bipartisan Task Force on Ethics, Report on H.R. 3660, 101st Cong., 1st Sess. 12.
5 “Impeachment Investigation Report to the Judiciary Committee, Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State
Assembly Judiciary Committee,” prepared by Davis Polk & Wardell LLP, November 22, 2021.
6 Investigative Report on JCOPE’s Approval of Governor Cuomo’s July 10, 2022 Outside Activity Request, Hogan
Lovells US LLP, July 1, 2022.
NYPIRG TESTIMONY, PAGE 3
decisions arising from that approval have raised serious concerns about JCOPE’s decision-making as
well as the former governor’s adherence to the JCOPE agreement.
We also urge that you recommend that any publishing contracts and other requests for outside income
should be subject to pre-approval by the full state ethics body – not staff – with the full text and
conditions of approvals released to the public and prohibited if the publisher is doing business with
the state, including receiving state or local grants or tax abatements.
New York’s statewide elected officials are paid at the highest rate in the nation,7 are full-time, and
should not be allowed to do outside work. We understand that circumstances may arise that such
income could be considered, but the review and approval process must be done publicly and decided
at the highest level.
With regard to compensation for agency commissioners, we agree with annual adjustments made
within the context of the state financial situation as well as other economic conditions. However,
there must be strict limits on any outside income and that any proposals to obtain such income be
approved by the commissioners of the ethics commission, not staff, as mentioned above.
To sum up, we urge that you recommend no increases in salaries for the state’s elected officials
until the restrictions on outside income are upheld and that the additional measures raised in
our testimony be included in your recommendations.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
7 For more information, see https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_gubernatorial_salaries.
****
Testimony to the NYS Commission on Legislative, Judicial &
Executive Compensation
No Legislative & Executive Pay Increases Without Significant Outside Income Restrictions
October 10, 2024
Thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony regarding whether legislative and
executive pay should be increased in New York State. We understand that you must issue a
report by November 15, 2024, and that you are charged with assessing whether the salaries of
members of the Legislature, statewide elected officials, and state officers warrant an increase.
We also understand that due to a legal challenge, the NYC Commission on Legislative, Judicial
and Executive Compensation (“the Commission”) 2018 limits on legislators’ outside income
were struck down. The current $35,000 outside income limit passed by the State Legislature in
2022 that would take effect January 2025 is also currently being challenged in court. While the
decision in this lawsuit is pending, New York State legislators have a $142,000 salary – the
highest of all state legislatures – and no limits on outside income.
During the period the Commission remains unable to limit outside income, we urge you not to
recommend pay increases for state legislators or statewide officials. We believe that pay
increases without greater safeguards to better ensure elected officials put the public before their
private pocketbook interests would be unwarranted and irresponsible. The public basically
made a deal with the Legislature to support pay raises in return for limits on
outside income: no limits means no pay raise.
Transparency of Current NYS Salaries and Policies Needed
Before turning to our commentary on the salary levels of legislative and executive officials, we
would like to highlight some gaps in transparency that we believe must be addressed. Due to
ongoing litigation and the Commission’s role of making recommendations that have the force of
law but do not actually amend the law, it is very confusing for the general public to understand
what the current compensation levels and rules actually are.
For example, while legislative stipends are only awarded to majority and minority leader
positions and a limited number of committee chairs due to the Commission’s recommendations,
Legislative Law Section 5-a appears to remain on the books on the Senate’s own website with no
note to the public about it not longer being active. Under the superseded law, nearly every
committee chair and ranking member eligible for stipends of $9,000 (ranking minority member
on Agriculture Committee) to $34,000 (Ways and Means or Finance chairs, for example -
https://reinventalbany.org
OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE, EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT
377 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10013
though we note that current Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger has refused her stipend, which is
still allowed under the Commission’s rules).
Additionally, Executive Law 169 has been superseded, but also appears to remain on the books.
Executive Law 169 as available on the Senate website has six tiers for agency heads and salary
levels from 1998, while in effect, there are only four tiers due to the Commission’s
recommendations, which is reflected in NYS Comptroller guidance.
We fully support having state elected officials’ salaries determined by an outside commission,
but believe that the current process can create confusion about what the actual salaries and
policies are in New York State for top-level officials.
In order to boost transparency of NYS’s compensation levels and policies, we recommend:
1. The Commission create a page or table on its website of current salaries for
all elected and public officials under its purview, together with supplemental
information about limits on outside income and stipends. This page should be updated
regularly – at a minimum while the Commission is in operation – and note whether the
policy is set in law, or as a result of commission action.
2. The State Legislature pass–and the Governor sign–clean-up legislation
removing any outdated sections of law related to the compensation of state officials. The
relevant sections of law should instead reference the Commission and its role in setting
salary levels. The law could also require the Commission publish current salary
information on its website, as recommended above, though we believe this should be
done immediately to avoid further confusion, rather than wait for a law to be passed.
State Legislative Pay
As we testified to the Commission in 2018, we have supported a significant raise for state
legislators ($120,000 in 2018, which in today’s dollars would be approximately $150,000 when
adjusted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index), but only with significant
limits on income. We opposed legislation passed by the State Legislature in December 2022
because they failed to include the significant outside income restrictions recommended by this
very Commission in 2018, and even worse, the outside income limits didn’t kick in at the same
time as the $35,000 salary increase.
When outside income is a large portion of a legislator’s take-home pay and legislators have
business relationships where they are legally required to put their clients first, the public can
rightly question where legislators’ priorities lie.
Additionally, we called for the following in 2022:
● 15% cap on outside income (like U.S. Congress)
● “Fiduciary” ban on outside income from employment where the legislator has a fiduciary
relationship to the employer or client (like U.S. Congress)
● Elimination of stipends for all but majority and minority leaders (like U.S. Congress)
● No family business exception (unless Legislature adopts U.S. Congress-style limits)
● Simultaneous implementation of salary increase and outside income limits
2
It is notable that the Legislature in 2022 gave themselves a pay increase of $32,0o0, nearly the
total salary of 180 legislative staffers, according to City & State. We are concerned that the
current low levels of staff pay in the legislature leads to large rates of turnover, which is harmful
both to legislators’ ability to serve constituents, and the institutional knowledge and expertise of
staff members involved in the legislative process.
See at the end of our testimony a chart comparing the 2018 Commission recommendations with
what was passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor in December 2022.
Statewide Executive Pay
According to data compiled by the Commission, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney
General, and State Comptroller of New York are the best-compensated elected officials among
all 50 states.
Reinvent Albany supports CPI cost of living adjustments for statewide elected officials, but only
if increases are accompanied by greater restrictions on outside income.
Prior to former Governor Cuomo’s $5 million book deal scandal, we asked the Commission in
2018 to provide greater prohibitions on publishing contracts. Specifically, we recommend that
advance royalties on publishing contracts should be banned, as it is by the U.S. House of
Representatives. Additionally, publishing contracts and other requests for outside income
should be subject to pre-approval by the full state ethics body – not staff – with the full text and
conditions of approvals released to the public, and prohibited if the publisher is doing business
with the State, including receiving state or local grants or tax abatements.
State Officers Pay
Reinvent Albany also supports CPI adjustments for agency commissioners. We appreciated that
the 2018 Commission recommended simplifying the bands of salaries for state agency heads to
four rather than six. As we recommended in 2018, we believe there should be more flexibility
within salary bands, and more consideration given to supply and demand for talented agency
commissioners. It may make sense to pay commissioners of larger agencies a higher rate, but
that should be one just one factor considered. For example, many of the lower-paid agency
commissioners provide services to the most vulnerable in our society like those in prisons,
victim services, and veterans.
Our understanding is public officers law section 73 and 74 restricts agency heads from earning
outside income (as does Part 932 of JCOPE regulations), but we continue to support applying
restrictions on outside income from other elected positions to agency heads as well.
Thank you for your consideration. Should you have any questions, please email Rachael Fauss,
Senior Policy Advisor, at rachael@reinventalbany.org.
3
2022 NYS Legislative Pay Raise vs. Watchdog and Compensation Commission Proposals
Issue December 2022 Pay Raise Legislation1 Reinvent Albany Position2 2018 Compensation Commission
Proposal3
Cap on Outside
Income
25% of salary, effectively $35k on base
salary of $142k (this is an implicit
percentage – the actual law mirrors the
existing cap on income for retired NYS
public employees)
15% of salary, effectively $21.3k on
base salary of $142k
15% of salary (like the U.S.
Congress)
Fiduciary
Relationships
No ban Ban on outside income from
employment where the legislator has
a fiduciary relationship to the
employer or client (like U.S.
Congress)
Ban on outside income from
employment where the legislator has
a fiduciary relationship to the
employer or client (like U.S.
Congress)
Stipends No changes Eliminate stipends for all positions
except Assembly Speaker and
Senate Majority Leader
Limit stipends to only certain
leadership positions and committees
(Finance, Ways & Means, Codes).
This recommendation was adopted.
Family
Businesses
Creates exception for income from family
businesses where member’s services
“not a material factor” in production of
income, without sufficient safeguards
No exceptions for family business,
unless included with full set of outside
income restrictions (i.e. fiduciary ban)
Only allowed with other limits on
outside income, such as fiduciary ban
Timing of Salary
Increase and
Outside Income
Limits
January 1, 2023 salary increase, with no
limits on outside income until January 1,
2025
Simultaneous implementation of
salary increase with outside income
limitations
Salary increase phased in, with
immediate implementation of outside
income limits
3 December 2018 NYS Compensation Commission report available at: https://www.nyscommissiononcompensation.org/pdfs/compensation-report.pdf. See also
A8232/S7258 of 2021 (Wallace/Krueger) available at: https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A08232&term=2021&Summary=Y&Text=Y
2 See Watchdog Group Statement on December 2022 Pay Raise Vote and Reinvent Albany Testimony to the 2018 Compensation Commission
1 See A10730/S9617 (Heastie/Stewart-Cousins) available at:
https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A10730&term=2021&Summary=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y
4
****
CENTER for JUDICIAL ACCOUNTABILITY, INC.
Post Office Box 8101 Tel. (914)421-1200 E-Mail: mail@judgewatch.org
White Plains, New York 10602 Website: www.judgewatch.org
October 10, 2024
TO: Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation
FROM: Elena Ruth Sassower, Director
Center for Judicial Accountability, Inc. (CJA)
RE: Substantiation of Testimony
At the outset of my oral testimony today, via zoom, at your hearing on legislative and executive
compensation, I stated that the documents substantiating my testimony are all posted on the Center
for Judicial Accountability’s website, www.judgewatch.org, accessible via the prominent center link
entitled:
“CJA’s Lawsuit vs the Latest Round of ‘False Instrument’ Judicial and D.A. Pay
Raises and Opposition to Further Crimes by the (3rd) Commission on Legislative,
Judicial & Executive Compensation”.
Please post this writing – with the above-entitled LIVE link – on your webpage of submissions for
legislative and executive compensation, which is currently empty.
More will be forthcoming.
Thank you.
s/ Elena Ruth Sassower
-30-
|