ALBANY — A special adviser to state Senate Democratic Minority Leader John Sampson is set to see his $80,000 salary jump to $130,000 a year — and he won’t even have to work full time.
Paul Rivera‘s incredible $50,000 bump — a 62.5% increase in his pay — comes after the Senate Democrats laid off more than 300 staffers during the past 17 months, sources said.
The raise will be retroactive to Feb. 16, but the real kicker is that Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat, allowed Rivera to keep a special designation so he won’t have to work the 35-hour weeks required of most Senate staffers
. Instead, he can clock in for as little as 25 hours a week in his state job, freeing up time for campaign work, the sources added.
“John Sampson’s Democrats talk a lot about standing up for the middle class, but how do they justify giving an aide to the minority leader . . . a $50,000 raise for part-time work?” one Senate aide groused.
“Pretty hard to explain that to the guy who just lost his job and is struggling to pay the bills.”
Rivera and Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy had no comment on the raise.
After busting the chamber’s budget during their short-lived majority, Senate Democrats were forced by Republicans to cut millions of dollars when the GOP gained he majority.
Rivera had made $160,000 a year as the communications director when the Senate Dems were in the majority in 2009-10.
Once the cutbacks began, Rivera saw his pay drop first to $130,000 and then to $80,000 as he became a special adviser to Sampson.
Sources close to Rivera said he originally took the pay cut to help put the conference under budget when it had to slash spending. “Now that it is, his salary is going back up,” one source said.
Sen. Diane Savino, one of four dissident lawmakers who broke ranks from the Senate Dems, called the raise “outrageous.”
“He ain’t worth the $80,000 he was earning,” the Staten Islander said of Rivera, a veteran politico who worked on the presidential campaigns in New York of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.
“When you look at the number of dedicated staffers who helped us take the majority and worked like hell to prevent us from losing it who are now unemployed, you’ve got to wonder about the justification of this,” she added.
A Senate Democratic source argued that several Senate Republican staffers who don’t have to work a full 35 hours a week also got raises — though none came anywhere close to the $50,000 Rivera will enjoy.
klovett@nydailynews.com
