At a time when state workers are going without raises while paying more for health coverage, at a time when New York’s unemployment rate is a horrid 8.5%, state Senate Minority Leader John Sampson has favored a top aide with a $50,000 raise.
As the Daily News’ Kenneth Lovett reported Wednesday, Sampson lavished the money on Paul Rivera, whose loosey-goosey title is special adviser. To put the amount in perspective:
It represented a 62.5% hike on already healthy pay of $80,000.
The increase alone is a quantum leap bigger than the state’s annual per capita income of $30,948.
It’s almost as large as New York’s median household income, including double-earner families, of $55,603.
It gave Rivera a taxpayer-financed salary of $130,000 a year.
Grossly compounding the offense, Sampson set Rivera’s official workweek at just 25 hours — conveniently leaving him lots of time to “volunteer” on the campaign trail. To add further perspective to Sampson’s largess for a part-time job:
Applied to a full-time position, Rivera’s pay rate would produce a salary of $182,000.
That makes Rivera better-paid, on an hour-by-hour basis, than Gov. Cuomo — whose salary is $179,000, minus $8,950 he returns as a money-saving gesture.
He draws money at a higher rate than every staffer in Congress, including those with full-time, enormously challenging responsibilities. Salaries for aides like the clerk of the House and the Senate legislative counsel top out at $172,500.
No way, nohow should any employee of the Legislature be paid at a rate equivalent to $182,000 — let alone an employee who until recently accepted $80,000 to do the exact same job.
Spokesman Michael Murphy explained that Sampson was reversing a $50,000 pay cut that Rivera had accepted last year after the Senate Democrats, led by Sampson, overspent their budget by a wide mile.
Now that they’ve gotten the books back in order, they’re making up for lost time.
Murphy offered the additional justification that at least 17 Republican majority staffers draw even bigger paychecks than Rivera does.
Which proves the point:
The Legislature’s salaries are out of control.
