Residents of Washington Heights lashed out Thursday at their local city councilman, Ydanis Rodriguez, for saying he needs to get paid at least $175,000 to support his family.
Council members currently earn a base salary of $112,500 — which they plan to raise to $148,500 Friday as part of citywide hikes for all elected officials.
Rodriguez, who in 2011 was arrested at an Occupy Wall Street protest, is among the council’s most progressive members.
At a City Hall hearing Wednesday, Rodriguez argued that the 32 percent hike for legislators wasn’t enough and that $175,000 was justified for the long hours they spend serving constituents.
“You’re telling me you can’t live off of [$148,500]?! Get outtahere!” said a Sanitation Department worker who gets by on $62,000 and would only give his first name, Ernesto.
“I live on less than that,” he seethed. “These City Council guys, they get all the perks.”
“What about the rest of the people in the city?” fumed José Blanco, a 41-year-old bookseller who makes $30,000 a year and was walking near 181st Street.
The median household income in Rodriguez’s district is $39,500.
“The pay should reflect the constituents,” said Michael Bridenstine, a 47-year-old freelance TV director. “I don’t think [Rodriguez] deserves a raise. At $148,500, he should be able to support a family of four. I made less than that and I did it.”
Rodriguez’s office issued a statement Thursday saying he supports the $148,500 “compromise reached by the [council] speaker . . . given [members’] foregoing of outside income and the hours of tireless work they put in each day.”
The office pointed out: “Ydanis has dedicated his whole life to the economic empowerment of working and middle-class people throughout New York and beyond and will remain a champion of this cause going forward.”
But the $175,000 salary request gnawed at Washington Heights residents who make less than one fifth as much.
Annie Richardo, a 32-year-old teaching assistant who pulls in $32,000, said she wouldn’t again for Rodriguez again now that she knows how much he wants.
“What about the other citizens who also have families and need more money?,” she asked.
A special salary commission recommended boosting the salaries of council members to $138,315 in what would be the first such raise since 2006.
But the lawmakers — who have the power to set their own salaries, with the mayor’s approval — boosted the figure to $148,500.