So they keep the attention on the senate and all the while they are working behind the scenes in the assembly, and Spitzer knows all about it. What crap.

In the Fine Print, a Raise of More Than 20%

ALBANY — Speaker Sheldon Silver and fellow Assembly Democrats quietly introduced legislation late last month that would grant lawmakers a raise of nearly 21 percent, increasing their base pay to the second highest in the nation among state legislators.

No, this was not announced in a press release.

At the urging of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, also a Democrat, Mr. Silver agreed to hold off on the legislation for the moment, pending the outcome of a fight between the governor and Senate Republicans over campaign finance reform.

The bill shows how eager legislators are for their first raise since 1999. Their base salary of $79,500 already ranks third, behind only California and Michigan, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but it falls $33,000 short of the base pay of members of the New York City Council.

Because the raise was buried in fine print, it went largely unnoticed when it was introduced. Last week, the focus was on the Republican-led Senate, which passed a bill that would grant state judges a raise of 21 percent — a proposal also supported by the governor — and would set up a commission to review future raises for all three branches of government, including the legislative, following a model proposed by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye. The Senate bill would also give lawmakers a cost-of-living increase.

Mr. Silver introduced a similar bill in his chamber, and a second bill to fix what he described as technical problems in his first. He explained in a brief interview last week that his original bill, which the Assembly did not vote on, ran afoul of the State Constitution by granting the attorney general and the comptroller raises before the end of their terms of office. “Under the Constitution, they cannot receive a pay raise for the current term,” Mr. Silver said.

But there was another bit of tweaking as well. Mr. Silver proposed to alter a section of the original bill in a way that would grant lawmakers the same percentage raise as judges — yes, nearly 21 percent — instead of the cost-of-living increase proposed in the original. That would boost the lawmakers’ base salary to about $96,000.

Many legislators receive thousands of dollars more because of leadership roles on committees or with their conference. Those extra stipends would also be increased by nearly 21 percent under the Assembly proposal.

Mr. Silver’s co-sponsors include his top deputy, Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari, and Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr., the former chairman of the State Democratic Committee. In other words, if the governor and the Senate resolve their differences on campaign reform, the plan looks to be a lock in the Assembly.

And the Senate introduced a measure of its own late last month that matched the Assembly’s proposal for a 21 percent pay increase for lawmakers, but it voted only on the original bill setting up a commission and providing a cost-of-living raise.