BATAVIA — Assemblyman Steve Hawley, R-Batavia, recently spoke about the announcement to hold a special session prior to the end of the year to raise lawmakers’ salaries.
The session would be held to give lawmakers a salary increase of $32,000 annually, making New York’s legislators the highest paid of any state nationwide.
“This was not the Christmas present taxpayers had in mind,” Hawley said. “Any legislator who votes for this should receive coal in their stocking.
“Lawmakers’ pay shouldn’t even be on the list of issues for the upcoming session, let alone a special session of the Legislature,” he continued. “The cost of this raise would force almost $14 million in additional costs on taxpayers in the state over the two-year term.
With the already-high cost of living in New York, downstate politicians still insist on making life even less affordable for state residents, Hawley said.
“We should be attacking issues such as the high cost of living, high crime and investing in infrastructure to fix our crumbling roads and bridges rather than focusing on issues that only benefit legislators,” he said.
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