ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be getting a $25,000 pay raise in January 2021, as the state faces a massive $63 billion budget deficit owed to revenue losses tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo’s salary will jump from $225,000 to $250,000 on Jan. 1, 2021 — making him the highest paid governor in the nation.
But judges and 213 state lawmakers serving in the state Senate and Assembly didn’t get the green light for their own expected raises, which have to be approved by the Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation which argued the state is too broke to pay up thanks to COVID-19.
“We understand the potential for significant budget cuts may be necessary at the state executive level as well if the federal government does not enact additional funding to address the economic hardship caused by COVID-19,” the panel wrote in a new report released Monday evening.
“Substantial additional state monies will be needed to deal with the pandemic, including providing face masks, virus tracking, contact tracing, enforcement efforts, and distribution of the hoped for new pandemic vaccine.”
“Simply put the commissioners’ worst fears as articulated in the 2019 Report – a downturn in the state’s finances coupled with an inability to cover increased salary obligations – has unfortunately come to stark reality in the worst possible way,” explained the group, as last year they also declined to approve state Supreme Court judges’ salary boosts, citing last year’s $6 billion budget hole at the time.
The report released Monday concluded: “Granting raises to public servants, no matter how much they might otherwise deserve them, is simply not possible at this time.”
The decision stands for the next four years, unless the Legislature passes their own law to alter their own salaries.
But Cuomo will still get his expected raise, as only the Democratic-controlled state Legislature has the power to approve or deny via a joint resolution by the state Senate and Assembly.
That measure was approved during the spring of 2019.
It’s also not Cuomo’s only new source of revenue this year — he found time throughout the first six months of the pandemic to write a leadership book released in October called “American Crisis” which has landed on the New York Times Bestseller List.
The governor has yet to say how much money he’s getting for the book deal, but has said a portion of the sales will go to a coronavirus-related charity.
The third-term Democratic governor isn’t the only one getting a pay hike, as Lieutenant Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will also see their base pay raised at the start of the new year, as their raises are also bound to legislative approval.
The pay commission’s work has also been the subject of several lawsuits — meeting in 2018 to approve raises for state lawmakers’ yearly salary of $79,500 to $110,000 at the start of 2019, and expected to grow to $130,000 by 2021.
But additional stipulations tied to the increases included a ban on outside income, which would force lawmakers to quit outside jobs or means of revenue.
While a judge struck down the ban on outside jobs, but also negated the legislative pay raises — dishing the decision back to the commission.
State budget officials have estimated a $14 billion budget shortfall next year, that will grow to $30 billion in 2022.
New York City predicts a $9 billion loss, then $12 billion deficit for the MTA over two years and an additional $3 billion for the Port Authority over the same period.
These losses over four years are expected to rise to roughly $63 billion according to the state Division of Budget.
Cuomo has been lobbying the federal government for additional state and local aid, threatening — in some cases — permanent 20 percent cuts to health and education budgets and even tax hikes on the state’s wealthiest earners.
“We don’t dig out of it. We don’t have a shovel big enough to dig out of it, it’s the biggest number in history. We need help from Washington, and that’s what Trump wouldn’t do, and that’s what Biden will do,” he said during a radio interview Tuesday on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning.
“Biden ran, and I know him and I supported and he’s a good man – he will fund state and local governments and we need that to come even close to balancing the budget,” he added.
Cuomo’s office did not return calls seeking comment on the pay hike.