Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that gives state legislators a raise of $110,000 to $142,000 annually. This will make them the highest-paid legislators in the country.

“I believe legislators should be paid for their hard work. “People don’t realize how much they sacrifice being away from their family,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D–Bronx), said before a special session last week in which legislators approved the salary hike.

Hochul’s signing of the legislation earned her goodwill from the members of the state Senate, Assembly and the Governor on the day of her inauguration. She was the first woman to win a full four-year term.

The pay raise sponsored by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and state Senate Majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers was not supported by any Republican in either chamber.

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The legislative language states that state lawmakers will need to agree to some limitations on outside income, which will be equivalent to $35,000 per annum, and the $32,000 pay increase that will take effect at the start of 2023.

Hochul and lefty senators are fighting over Hector LaSalle’s nomination to be chief judge of Court of Appeals. Critics point out a few cases LaSalle handled while serving as the Second Department’s state Supreme Court Appellate Division’s Second Department, Brooklyn. They argue that he would make the highest court in the state too conservative for many years to come.

LaSalle’s supporters argue that he values the rule of law more than ideology.

Hochul was coy for over a week about whether or not she would sign the bill to raise her pay after a special session called by Stewart-Cousins, Heastie.

Hochul stated Dec. 23, “I have many bills in my desk… so I’ll address those in proper time.” Hochul made the statement two weeks after she said that a salary raise was acceptable if legislators also approved income limits for outsiders.

Critics of her political right lament that she did not similarly bless a special session in the recent months to address purported problems with controversial criminal justice reforms, which Republicans and some Democrats blamed for increasing crime.

“If @GovKathyHochul had any kind of political courage, she wouldn’t only veto this ridiculous $32,000 raise, but she would also have called us back to a special session for the catastrophic cashless bail,” Assemblyman Michael Lawler (R-Rockland), was elected to Congress last November.

“It’s business as usual at Albany.”