Democratic State Senate Staff Gets Hefty Pay Raise

While the terms of bailing out the M.T.A. are a major struggle for the State Senate, there is one thing the new majority can agree on, pay raises. The leadership had approved hundreds of thousands in raises at a time in our state's economy that sounds rather selfish and hypocritical with the amount of cuts that will be made in this year's budget.

From NY1:

To the victors go the spoils. Fresh from ousting Republicans from more than 40 years of state senate control, Democrats have dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars in raises to select staffers, even amid a fiscal crisis expected to require tax hikes and deep spending cuts.

A NY1 investigation found about three dozen aides saw their salaries grow in the past three months.

Among the aides is the deputy chief of staff for Nassau Senator Craig Johnson, whose salary climbed 63 percent, from $47,500 in 2008 to $77,500 this year.

The chief of staff for Bronx Senator Jeff Klein saw his wages grow by 36 percent, from $55,000 in 2008 to $75,000 this year. Four other people in Klein's office saw salary increases, but their positions stayed the same.

I guess it was to be expected, the Dems got in power and now it's time to get paid. Their excuse though is a 'noble' one, in that with more responsibility comes higher benefits:

With their new majority, Democratic lawmakers say they and their staffs have gained new responsibilities. Johnson became a committee chairman and Klein has become the Senate's deputy majority leader.

"Remember, staff don't get paid for a Saturday and Sunday and overtime," said Senator Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. "So even a salary bump, if you had to pay them by the hour, they're being paid a whole lot less than what they're worth in terms of the time that they're putting in."

Aww, that is too bad. I'm sure that the tens of thousands of recently unemployed New Yorkers sympathize with those poor staffers. Now it must be mentioned that Republicans had also been paying their staffers the same hefty salaries but I thought we were supposed to be reforming the Legislature and setting an example. Following the lead of Bruno and Skelos was not supposed to be a part of the plan. As for the reduction in the Senate's overall budget by 10%, that remains to be accomplished as of yet.

A Lesson On How To Deal With The NY Senate GOP

New York State Senate newcomer Craig Johnson from Long Island may be fresh in this part of Albany, but he definitely knows how to play the game and play it well. Speaking out against the pay raise approved by Spitzer that the NY Senate Republicans wanted (and Dems partly too) his press release was especially well crafted.

From The Albany Project:

"With the softening economy, a looming state budget battle over the fate of our schools and our children, and the mountain of legislative work that this majority seems to have little interest in completing, I do not think it is appropriate, or prudent, to be considering a legislative pay raise at this time.

I will vote against such a bill if it comes to the floor.

If it passes, I intend to donate this extra pay to worthy non-profit organizations within the 7th Senate District. First on the list would be organizations that had member item funds secured by my predecessor, only to have them revoked by the Senate Republicans after my election."

Simply beautiful!

Bush's Pay Increase For The Troops Is Illegal

Not only is it immoral to raise the income of our brave fighting men and women less than the rate of inflation, it is illegal. The law provides troops with receiving a pay increase of at least 0.5% higher than their civilian equivalents. Since inflation was at 3.3 percent, that gives then 3.8, almost a full point more than what the President wants to give our soldiers.

From BradBlog:

Increases in military salary are traditionally determined by increases in average civilian salary, according to a method of measurement called the Employment Cost Index. Regardless of the actual dollar increase in salary, the base pay for service-members must be at least 0.5% above the corresponding civilian pay because of a Defense Authorization Act which Congress passed in 1999.

The Democrats forgot about the law as well, but they want to fund the troops an extra half-percent, a move the White House "strongly opposed." Now both are required to adhere to the rules on the books. Democrats shouldn't mind at all, but the President has a history of not caring about pesky little things that get in his way. It would be nice if the House Republicans still left over from 1999 would remind George about the bill they passed, but Bush doesn't really care for their opinion either.

Olbermann Exposes Bush's "Support The Troops" Crap

Although Keith didn't officially break the news, he did his job in getting it out there to the masses. See Bush doesn't care about our troops, it is only for publicity. When Democrats offered to increase the soldiers pay, his supporters might think Bush would go along with it. Well guess again wingers.