Pay raise for Judges, YES… Pay raise for legislators, NO.
This is going to be very interesting to watch, or will it. Most likely everyone will be there in Albany simply hanging around waiting and getting paid for it. Waiting while the 3 boys in charge yell at each other over the phone. That’s what happened last year when I was there to deliver signatures to Gov. Pataxme. Nothing got done and everyone went home frustrated including me.

State Senate to pressure Sheldon Silver
State lawmakers are headed for an end-of-year showdown over pay raises.

The Republican-led Senate plans this week to pressure Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose downstate-dominated members are squeezed the hardest by the lack of a salary hike.

“We’re going to increase the heat in his kitchen,” crowed one Republican senator, adding, “This will drive his members cuckoo right before Christmas!”

The Senate’s plan: to pass a bill when senators return to Albany on Thursday that would provide immediate raises for judges but no one else, breaking the long-held tradition of coupling judicial and legislative pay hikes.

The $79,500 base pay for legislators hasn’t changed since 1999.

State judges, who also haven’t had a raise since 1999, earn $136,700. The Senate bill would boost them to $165,200, bringing them in line with their federal counterparts, and include a retroactive salary increase.

The Senate GOP hopes to embarrass Silver and squeeze him between the judges, several of whom have sued over their lack of a raise, and his members, who are unlikely to back a measure that doesn’t increase their own bottom line.

Silver Sunday rejected the move as “pure political posturing” by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, adding, “I don’t think he’s real on that. Joe Bruno’s members want a pay raise as much as any other member. To save themselves politically, they don’t want to vote for it.”

Bruno’s plan would also potentially drive a wedge between Silver and his fellow Democrat, Gov. Spitzer. more–>

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