Metro

City employees blast the City Council’s huge raise as ‘unfair’

By
Mary Kay Linge and
Dean Balsamini
Published Feb. 7, 2016, 7:19 a.m. ET
The New York City Council Wiilliam Alatrise for NYC Council

The City Council’s fat new raise means that members’ salaries are now𝄹 double and triple the paychecks of city workers New Yorkers deem truly essential.

“It’s unfair,” said Al Brogna, a retired court officer from Staten Island.🌞 “If they can find money for the City Council, why can’t they find money for people who put their lives on the line?”

The $148,500 that members now receive after passing a $36,000 raise Friday dwarfs t🍌he average annual pay of the city’s firefighters, cops and teachers🃏.

It’s more than twice the $70,110 paid to the average middle-school teacher or the $72,3đŸ¤Ē70 earned by the average high-school teacher.

“I’m jealous. I wish all working people could vote themselves raises like that,” said 𓆏Arthur Goldstein, a ✅teacher at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. “I’m going to ask [UFT President Michael] Mulgrew to bring it up in the next contract negotiations.”

It’s quadruple t𒁏he typical paychecks of crossing guards ($32,880) and police dispatchers ($4đŸ’Ģ3,210).

The pols’ pay vastly āˇ´exceeds that of firefighters, who average $84,530 a year, and cops, who make an average of $78,980.

The 32-percent bump in lawmakers’ sđŸŦalaries comes just weeks after police officers had 𝓀to swallow a meager 1 percent raise.

Cops posting under pseudonyms on Thee Rant, a law-enforcement message board, protested the 🐓hike.

“The New đŸ”¯York Criminal Council,” posted BlđŸŽļue Trumpet.

“Let them patrol the stairwells,” wrote TrueBlue.

“It’s outrageous,” said a local attorney who represented first responders injured in the 9/11 teáƒĻrror attacks. “If they could prove that they had a better year than āš„these guys, I could deal with it. But what great piece of legislation have they passed?”

Good-government activists pointed out that the raise came with đŸŊother significant changes — including a prohibition on outside income.

But city employees weren’t buying it.

“They put Silver in jail. They put Skelos in jail. Now they want💞 more money soāŧē they don’t have to go out and break laws to make more money,” a veteran teacher said.

Additional reporting by Susan Edelman