{"id":919552,"date":"2026-07-07T22:49:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919552\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:49:34","slug":"nyc-officials-18-salary-hike-gets-support-of-fiscal-watchdogs-but-also-a-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919552\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC officials\u2019 18% salary hike gets support of fiscal watchdogs \u2013 but also a warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City lawmakers took up legislation Tuesday that would give elected officials 18.2% pay raises retroactive to Jan. 1, drawing support from good-government groups for the salary increases but warnings that part of the bill could weaken future public review of elected officials\u2019 pay.<\/p>\n

Citizens Union and Reinvent Albany both backed the immediate raises but opposed a provision that would provide automatic salary increases of up to 8.25% in future terms if elected officials\u2019 salaries go four years without being changed by local law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Nantasha Williams, was heard by the City Council\u2019s Committee on Governmental Operations, State and Federal Legislation, chaired by Council Member Gale Brewer. It would adopt the recommendations of the Quadrennial Advisory Commission<\/a>, which last month called for raising pay for the mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough presidents, Council members, the Council speaker and district attorneys.<\/p>\n

Under the bill, rank-and-file Council members\u2019 salaries would rise from $148,500 to $175,500, while the Council speaker\u2019s salary would increase from $164,500 to $194,400.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s salary would rise from $258,750 to $305,800, the public advocate\u2019s from $184,800 to $218,400, the comptroller\u2019s from $209,050 to $247,100 and borough presidents\u2019 from $179,200 to $211,800. District attorneys\u2019 charter salary would rise to $251,500, though their pay is also tied to state Supreme Court justices and must be the higher of the two.<\/p>\n

The legislation<\/a> would take effect 45 days after becoming law, but the salary changes would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2026, according to the bill text.<\/p>\n

Brewer opened the hearing by framing the raises as the result of a long-delayed compensation review. With the exception of district attorneys, city elected officials last received raises in 2016, she said, while mayors failed to convene required salary commissions in 2020 and 2024. She said the gap left elected officials\u2019 salaries behind inflation and, in some cases, behind comparable positions in other cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an elected official in New York City is a challenging and demanding 24\/7 job,\u201d Brewer said, arguing that elected officials should be able to support themselves and their families on their government salaries without relying on wealth or outside income. \u201cIf salaries are too low, only wealthy individuals will be able to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Weisbrod, who chaired the Quadrennial Advisory Commission, defended the 18.2% figure during Tuesday\u2019s hearing, saying it was based on the increase in the cost of living since January 2022, when most current elected officials began their first full four-year terms. He noted that inflation since the last elected official raise in 2016 was higher, but said the commission focused on the salaries officials expected when they took office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up with our 18.2% because that represents the increase in the cost of living since January 2022,\u201d Weisbrod said.
\n\"\"Carl Weisbrod, chair of the Quadrennial Advisory Commission, testifies before the City Council on July 7Credit John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit\n<\/p>\n

Weisbrod also said the commission considered recommending that the raises take effect in July, but decided to follow the legislation\u2019s January 2026 retroactive date because of the long gap since the last increase.<\/p>\n

The bill would also rewrite the city\u2019s compensation-review process. It would require the next commission to be appointed between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15, 2028, and every four years thereafter, moving future reviews to the third year of a mayoral term rather than the first. Future commissions would also get 120 days to complete their work, up from 75 days.<\/p>\n

The most contentious part of the legislation was the automatic pay adjustment provision. The bill says that if salaries for covered elected offices are not changed by local law during the previous four calendar years, they would be adjusted at the start of the next mayoral term by the change in the Consumer Price Index for the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, or by 8.25%, whichever is lower.<\/p>\n

Grace Rauh, executive director of Citizens Union, said her organization supports the 18.2% raises and most of the commission reforms, including restarting the review cycle in 2028 and giving future panels more time. But she warned that the automatic adjustment could undermine the independent commission process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re concerned that the proposed approach would effectively eliminate the incentive to convene quadrennial advisory commissions in the future,\u201d Rauh said.<\/p>\n

Rauh said salary reviews involve \u201cqualitative considerations\u201d that cannot be captured by inflation alone. She also said compensation commissions can become vehicles for broader reforms, pointing to past changes such as the ban on outside earned income and the elimination of Council stipends. Citizens Union recommended amending the bill to allow another citywide elected official, such as the comptroller, to appoint a commission if the mayor fails to do so by the statutory deadline.<\/p>\n

\"\"Citizens Union Executive Director Grace Rauh Credit John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n

Rachel Fauss, senior policy adviser for Reinvent Albany, also supported the raises while opposing the automatic increase. She said the provision could \u201ceffectively eliminate all public input regarding elected official salaries\u201d if no commission is formed, because the Council\u2019s legislative process and the commission process both typically include public hearings.<\/p>\n

Fauss said the automatic mechanism could create \u201can unintended consequence\u201d by giving mayors an incentive not to convene future commissions because skipping the process would become the \u201cpath of least resistance.\u201d She suggested the Council consider other backstops, including allowing appointments by multiple officials rather than leaving the power solely with the mayor.<\/p>\n

Reinvent Albany also urged the Council to pair the raises with additional ethics and transparency reforms. Fauss said lawmakers should be required to explain in writing if they modify or do not accept commission recommendations, remove references to stipends from the charter and make elected officials\u2019 financial disclosure forms easier for the public to access.<\/p>\n

The hearing comes after months of maneuvering over elected officials\u2019 pay. Last year, the Council considered legislation that would have raised salaries by 16% without waiting for a new independent commission. Watchdog groups, including Citizens Union and Common Cause, criticized that approach, saying they were not opposed to raises but objected to bypassing the independent review process.<\/p>\n

\"\"Reinvent Albany Senior Policy Adviser Rachel FaussCredit John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the formation of the new Quadrennial Advisory Commission in Januar<\/a>y, and Mamdani appointed Weisbrod, Dr. Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and Larian Angelo to the panel in March. At the time, Mamdani said the commissioners would approach the issue with \u201cthe seriousness and independence it demands.\u201d Menin said the commission played an essential role in ensuring compensation decisions are made independently and transparently.<\/p>\n

Both Mamdani and Menin have previously said they would not take a pay increase. Brewer asked during Tuesday\u2019s hearing how officials who decline the raises could do so, but witnesses did not lay out a definitive process, only surmised that officials may be able to refund or donate the money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio took a similar approach<\/a> after the 2016 pay raise, declining the increase during the term in which he convened the salary commission before receiving the higher mayoral salary when his second term began.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s report<\/a> framed the raise as a cost-of-living adjustment rather than a traditional salary hike, saying elected office should be accessible to qualified candidates regardless of personal wealth. The 18.2% recommendation was larger than the 16% raises some Council members had pushed for last year, but this time the proposal came through the independent review process watchdog groups had urged.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City lawmakers took up legislation Tuesday that would give elected officials 18.2% pay raises retroactive to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":919553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,371218,371219,371220,371221,201257,371222,371223,371224,371225,405,403,6640,5226,5225,5228,5227,371226,371227,371228,371229,211324,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-919552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-carl-weisbrod","tag-citizens-union","tag-city-council-hearing-nyc","tag-cost-of-living-adjustment-nyc","tag-gale-brewer","tag-government-transparency-nyc","tag-grace-rauh","tag-mayor-salary-increase-nyc","tag-nantasha-williams","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-council","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-elected-officials-salaries","tag-pay-raise-legislation","tag-quadrennial-advisory-commission","tag-rachel-fauss","tag-reinvent-albany","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}