NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC. "The government is us, we are the government, you and I." Teddy Roosevelt

The Debate Over Pay Raises 

A Sixty percent salary increase is unreasonable     

Instead of cutting taxes, the Nassau County legislature granted huge salary increases for County Executive Suozzi and other elected officials. Instead of reducing the size of government to what the people can afford, County Executive Suozzi has doubled the number of patronage appointments. Nassau County residents pay the 2nd highest property taxes in the nation and pay the highest property taxes in the state. How then can the County Executive and the legislature justify double digit salary increases of sixty percent?

In the arena of politics, voting for a salary increase can be difficult as it must be justified. Just ask members of the Pennsylvania state legislature who were ousted a few years ago over their vote to raise their salaries. This is the reason why members of the Nassau legislature have not had a salary increase in more then ten years. Instead of seeking reasonable yearly increases of 3% or 4%, members of the legislature have previously sought single increases of 35% and 90%. If they truly believe that a double digit salary increase is appropriate, they should have the political guts to vote on it prior to the election. This would have allowed the People an opportunity to express their opinion via the ballot box. Consistent with this principle, the County Executive removed the proposed salary increases from his budget in September prior to the election.

In an effort to ensure honesty in the debate over salary increases, a member of the NCCA board of directors appeared before the legislature on October 22nd and asked that the money County Executive Suozzi allocated in his budget for the salary increases be moved from an unallocated budget line to the contingency fund line or transferred to another area of the budget. This would have made it more difficult for the County Executive to simply wait until after the election. Unfortunately, no action was taken. 

Only one week after the election, Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) indicated that she would push through large pay raises for legislators and County officials. As the County Charter prevents the legislature from raising their salaries during their current term and would therefore delay the raises until 2010, Legislator Jacobs actually floated the idea of changing the County Charter in order to facilitate immediate salary increases for herself and other legislators. When Legislators Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin) and Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) cited their opposition to the plan, she dropped the attempt to revise the Charter and scheduled a hearing to address pay raises for the other elected officials which are not affected by the Charter.

The hearing was held on December 3rd. The proposal called for the following salary increases; County Executive Tom Suozzi-$109,394 to $174,614, Assessor Harvey Levinson-$100,000 to $166,300, Clerk Maureen O'Connell-$100,000 to $166,300, Comptroller Howard Weitzman-$108,670 to $166,300 and District Attorney Kathleen Rice-$150,000 to $166,300. The proposal also includes an automatic 4% annual increase. A member of the NCCA board spoke in opposition to the proposal making it clear that reasonable salary increases can be justified but not increases of sixty percent. On December 17th, the legislature voted 11-8 in favor of the raises.

While we can have an honest debate over whether salary increases of sixty percent are reasonable, putting one's interest above the people is simply dishonest.