I don’t see or hear a lot of support for a pay raise for the Legislators from the electorate. Ordinary people like you and I are against it, getting paid close to 90 Grand a year for a part time gig is outrageous as it is, but a pay increase at this time and the foreseeable future should not even be on anyones mind. I don’t see it happening this session but would not be surprised if it comes up in a special session called in like December after the elections.

Republican Lawmakers Reject Idea of Pay Raise - January 25, 2008 - The New York Sun

Despite Governor Spitzer’s softening on giving state legislators their first salary hike in a decade, lawmakers are unlikely to win a raise at least until the end of the year — and they may have to wait until 2010.

In Albany, legislative salaries could be compared with orchids — they grow only under ideal conditions. In Albany, the timing and political climate are hardly ripe for a raise, even taking into account the governor’s goodwill gesture, lawmakers said in interviews.

While Assembly Democrats are openly clamoring for more pay, Senate Republicans, whose political survival hangs in the balance, insist they’re uninterested.

“It’s not on our agenda,” the Republican Senate leader, Joseph Bruno, told The New York Sun in a sit-down interview yesterday in Lower Manhattan.

On Tuesday, in a private meeting with his Democratic conference, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said Mr. Spitzer was now supportive of a legislative raise.

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