Albany appears to be catching a case of salary envy.
Some New York state lawmakers are quietly looking at the possibility of boosting their own pay after New York City Council members approved a hefty raise for themselves, according to insiders.
The City Council’s new compensation package raises member salaries to $175,000 a year — well above the $142,000 annual pay currently collected by members of the New York state Legislature.
That move knocked state Assembly members and state senators out of their long-held position as the highest-paid lawmakers in New York.
“We’re not anymore, the City Council is,” one state Assembly member told The Post.
The pay increase in New York City could trigger a ripple effect in Albany, where lawmakers last voted to raise their own salaries during a December 2022 special session signed off on by Gov. Kathy Hochul, insiders said.
For state legislators to approve another pay bump before the next session, they would likely need to return for a winter special session — an idea Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said is not currently under consideration.
Still, Heastie did not completely rule out the possibility that lawmakers could revisit the issue, leaving the door open to a repeat of the 2022 salary fight.
“I don’t know if there’s enough money that could pay for the sacrifices that legislators make,” Heastie told Politico last week. “Six months of the year, you’re away from your family. So, I’m always supportive of members getting paid.”
Albany lawmakers’ last self-enriching raise made them the highest-compensated state legislators in the nation.
While the recent City Council pay hike eclipsed the state legislature’s current salaries, it’s still chump change compared to the whopping up to $270,000 a year that Los Angeles City Council members make.
Only Republicans and conservative Democrats opposed the hike in the 42-6 vote, with Council Speaker Julie Menin, a millionaire, abstaining.
Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose salary would also go up to $305,800, both made a show of promising they won’t accept the bumps. The pay level, however, would include the bump for their successors.
The council bump set off waves of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses chatter in Albany, where a bill by state Sen. James Sanders (D-Queens) to hike legislator pay to $180,000 was quietly introduced early this year.
One state lawmaker griped to The Post that the City Council gave itself raises right after Albany forked over billions of dollars to help New York City claw itself out of a massive budget hole.
But other lawmakers viewed the time as ripe for raises, albeit after a short wait.
“Even if we’re going to do it, you’re not going to hear a word about it until November,” a state Assembly member said.
Assemblyman Tony Simone (D-Manhattan) contended raising pay would draw better-quality candidates.
“It’s important to ensure that legislative salaries are enough to attract diverse and qualified representatives from all walks of life,” he said.
Comparing City Council salaries to legislative ones isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, argued Rachael Fauss, a senior policy adviser with the Reinvent Albany good government group.
She noted city council members are not allowed to collect an outside income, but state lawmakers are allowed up to 25% — or $35,500.
Reinvent Albany has called for a 15% cap on outside income.
“I think because the state’s outside income that’s allowed are still high, that really needs to be addressed first,” Fauss said.
An independent commission should ultimately decide lawmakers’ pay, Fauss said.
And many Albany lawmakers already effectively gave themselves a pay raise earlier this year when they approved reforms tied to Tier 6 pensions.
Out of 213 lawmakers, 75 are Tier 6 pensioners and now have to pay less into their retirement, according to The City Reporter.
