Remember Their Duplicity

To the Editor:

     Did you hear the one about the 212 state legislators voting themselves a pay raise right AFTER the November elections? Oh, wait, that's not funny.
     The press is reporting compensation for the 212 state legislators who prosper on the public dole: $79,500 per year salary for a part-time position, $165 per diem for just showing up in Albany, more cash for sitting on a committee (we know how much power these committees have-zilch) and, if you're nice to Papa Silver or Uncle Skelos, you get to make even more money as a committee chair--which exalted title simply means they still have very little say in legislation but they're richer.
     In addition, they can bill restaurants, car leases, hotel spas and all manner of luxuries to their election campaigns. Many have run up restaurant tabs in the tens of thousands. But the all time winner for hubris is the sterling character who billed his campaign $2,900 for steak sauce. Gold dust on his filet mignon?
     I don't want to be picayune--oh, what the hell--but these legislators fired a lot of people who did the real work policing, teaching, saving lives, serving the public, and--to add insult to injury--cut benefits and pensions for those still employed. Did they cut their own benefits and generous pensions (some are double-dippers, getting pension and paycheck)? Not a chance! 
     As a gesture to beleaguered citizens who are suffocating under a mound of property taxes, did they decide perhaps that legislators serving jail terms really shouldn't receive a pension? HA!
     Of course they didn't.
     These 212, including Governor Cuomo, have been heard to say that even school superintendents and other administrators make more money than they do. That only shows that superintendents make too damned much money, not that legislators make too little.
     State legislators have pampered themselves while the public sweats out these difficult times. So tell your state senator or state assemblyperson you want a vote against a pay raise and you want property tax relief and reform instead.
     There's no guarantee that they won't lie to you--they have been known to do so frequently. But if they do lie you can stress--in whatever language seems appropriate and that will not alert the FBI--that you will remember their duplicity at the next election.


Gioia Shebar


Editor's note: View related article in Albany Times Union: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/144652/amedore-says-hed-vote-against-lawmaker-pay-hike/
Buffalo News editorial:  http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/buffalo-news-editorials/article1001907.ece