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Know Your Lulus - and Other City Salary Debates
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 13, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 13, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Gotham Gazette has a great feature on salaries for elected officials, as compensation for various officials will be re-assessed. For instance, did you know that public advocate and borough presidents get paid $150,000, plus have a car and driver, but don't have "real power over city policy?" And did you realize that serving on the City Council is a part-time job, so many members make a bit from their "real jobs"? And then there are the "lulus" - stipends City Council members get for heading certain positions or heading certain committees.
At any rate, there's debate over whether or not certain salaries should be raised. Queens City Councilman Tony Avella says the $90,000 base salary "is enough" while others argue officials spend a lot of time while serving the public. The salary debate will focus on the salaries for the office of mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president, district attorneys, and members of the City Council. NYC has the highest paid mayor in the country, with a salary of $195,000 (Mayor Bloomberg only takes a $1 salary), but the mayor is in charges of hundreds of thousands of city employees.
Gotham Gazette has a chart of the City Council's lulus, plus non-City Council income for certain members - City Councilman Domenic Rechhia pulls in $210,000 in outside income, plus $10,000 for heading the Cultural Affairs, Libraries & International Intergroup Relations Committee, which means an annual total income of $310,000.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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