Head-shaking time near the Capitol

I had lunch today with a couple of former journalist friends who are also long-time PR people, and we spent some of our time shaking our heads about a new poll finding.

The Siena College poll reported today that fewer than a third of voters like the current system where state lawmakers are part-time and can have other jobs. But there is no agreement on what system should take its place.

The poll question was sparked by last week's guilty verdict in the trial of former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who was charged with using his public office to help enrich himself. He pocketed more than $3.2 million over a decade from private sources, testimony and evidence at the trial showed. He got about $120,000 a year from taxpayers for his legislative duties.

One of my dining partners angrily pointed out that most lawmakers already don't have enough to do, and that making them work full-time at it would just lead to more mischief-making.

Some of those polled by Siena thought that having stricter disclosure requirements (lawmakers now don't have to say how much money they make from other jobs, or where the money comes from) might be the answer. Others just want to ban all outside income.

That got us to talking about the most-asked question in Albany these days: how much money does Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver get from the trial-lawyer firm he is associated with in Manhattan?

Silver, who has been the leader of the Assembly since 1994, won't say, but speculation around the Capitol puts it in the tens of thousands of dollars per month. (Nice part of a blog over a newspaper is being able to use unsubstantiated numbers like that.) Measures to curb personal-injury lawsuits and other proposals the trial lawyers don't like regularly die in the chamber Silver controls.

Meanwhile, chances of lawmakers, judges and state commissioners getting raises is nil, even though they haven't had an increase in 11 years. Legislators make a base salary of $79,500, with every senator, every Republican member of the Assembly and about two-thirds of the Democrats getting "leadership'' stipends that puts the average up over $90,000 a year.

By political tradition, the pay of judges and commissioners is linked to that of lawmakers. Trial-level state judges have made $136,700 a year since 1999. They have been screaming less loudly lately about this bad deal as the state's fiscal situation has grown more dire.

Thus goes gossip near the Capitol. Things promise to get even more interesting next year when lawmakers have to figure out a way to come up with multiple billions of dollars to close a budget gap.





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