New York City Council members approved a controversial pay increase for themselves on Thursday, overwhelmingly backing legislation that boosts their salaries by 18% despite widespread concerns over affordability across the city. The measure also raises the mayor’s salary, although Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged not to accept the additional pay.

The legislation passed by a veto-proof margin of 42-6, increasing City Council members’ annual salaries to $175,500. It also raises the mayor’s salary to $305,800 per year, with both increases retroactive to January, when the current terms began and several newly elected officials took office.

Every vote against the proposal came from Republicans and conservative Democrats. Among them was Councilman Phil Wong (D-Queens), who argued that approving a raise for elected officials sends the wrong message while many New Yorkers continue to struggle financially and the city budget remains enormous.

“In my district, there are so, so many constituents that are living paycheck to paycheck and having problems making ends meet,” he said.

“So, I cannot vote onto a bill to increase salaries for myself.”

The vote came on the heels of the City Council’s approval of a record $126 billion municipal budget and follows an unsuccessful attempt late last year to quietly enact a smaller 16% salary increase before the close of 2025.

After that effort collapsed, Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-Queens), who had led the previous push, renewed the campaign with the backing of a three-member Quadrennial Commission established to evaluate elected officials’ compensation.

In June, the commission issued a 127-page report recommending an 18.2% increase, arguing that inflation and rising living expenses had significantly eroded the purchasing power of public officials’ salaries.

The commission also proposed instituting automatic annual raises of at least 2% going forward.

Council members, however, removed that provision before final passage, deciding instead that the compensation commission would reconvene every three years to review salaries.

Under the approved legislation, the annual salaries will increase as follows:

• Mayor: from $258,750 to $305,800
• City Council members: from $148,500 to $175,500
• Council Speaker: from $164,500 to $194,400

Council Speaker Julie Menin, who is independently wealthy, was the only member to abstain from the vote. She announced that although she did not vote against the measure, she would decline to accept the higher salary.

Before the vote, Menin said the Council had sought inflation-related raises for middle-income municipal workers, including emergency responders, but faulted the Mamdani administration for failing to move those efforts forward.

“Let me just be clear: we pushed for the wages for the EMS workers. We pushed for the FDNY. We pushed really hard for that,” she said. “The administration did not want to do either.”

Mamdani, who won the mayor’s office on a campaign centered on affordability, said during an unrelated event Thursday that he has no intention of taking the raise and would rather see the money benefit struggling residents.

“I will not accept a pay raise,” he said.

“I haven’t knocked on anyone’s door in New York City and they said their concern is that the mayor makes too little. So, that’s not my concern either.”

Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island) criticized the process itself, arguing that elected officials should not be responsible for determining their own compensation.

“I just don’t think elected officials should vote on their own pay,” he said.

“Make raises pegged to the city’s managerial employee increases, which are based on the collective bargaining process, or make them automatic cost-of-living increases like Congress does, but don’t make it political.”

The previous time City Council members approved salary increases for themselves and other city officials was in 2016, during the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

That year, lawmakers approved a 23% pay increase, raising their salaries to $138,315 annually while also redesignating Council positions as full-time jobs and imposing new restrictions on outside earnings.

{Matzav.com}