Spitzer's Pay Raise

Is Governor Spitzer trying to set a record for most tone-deaf politician? Straight off the debacle of his plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, the governor now reportedly is offering pay raises to state lawmakers, who already earn $79,500 a year in salary plus a "per diem" of up to $154 for each night spent in Albany. With the state facing a $4 billion budget gap and the taxpayers groaning under one of the largest state and local tax burdens in the country, lavishing a raise on lawmakers who are already overpaid strikes us as one of the worst ideas imaginable.

Particularly when Mr. Spitzer rode into office vowing to clean up the scandal these same lawmakers had made it their business to create in Albany in the first place. If Mr. Spitzer's about face is designed to raise his personal popularity with the lawmakers, he could skip the pay raise and give the other politicians expensive Christmas presents or have his campaign fund donate to theirs. That way, at least, the purchasing of goodwill isn't being done at taxpayer expense.

If the taxpayers must shoulder a pay increase for the lawmakers, the least Mr. Spitzer can do is demand some concessions in return, such as genuine and complete disclosure of all outside income earned by the lawmakers in the time they are not spending on government work. That would include specific annual figures, not broad ranges, and, for lawyers or consultants, the names and addresses of clients, including the names and addresses of the members or directors of limited liability companies or other hard-to-trace corporations.

Mayor Bloomberg is bringing the concept of merit pay to New York City public schools, and winning widespread plaudits for it. New Yorkers wondering what the politicians in Albany have done to deserve a raise might be forgiven for scratching their heads in trying to figure out what the lawmakers have done to earn it. What's the raise for? Being dysfunctional? Why not merit pay for lawmakers? It may be, after all, that some individual lawmakers deserve pay raises — but surely not all of them.

When the upstate New York economy stops resembling Appalachia in large part because of policy errors of the lawmakers, when the state's population and economy start growing at rates that compete with Sunbelt economic powerhouses, when individual New Yorkers start seeing raises in their take-home pay because of tax cuts — then, and only then, might it make sense to consider pay raises for Albany lawmakers. Until then, the only raise to discuss in Albany will be the one Mr. Spitzer will get when he leaves office and takes a job in the private sector, which, if he keeps going at this rate, can't come soon enough for a lot of New Yorkers.