KINGSTON – The Periodic Compensation Committee looking
at Ulster County government leaders’ pay studied the salaries over
a five-month period and offered four recommendations to increase salaries,
but the legislature’s Ways and Means Committee this week approved
a carte blanche pay hike of $4,000 per year for all legislators.
Committee Chairman Richard Gerentine noted lawmakers have not had a raise
in 16 years.
“We went from 33 legislators down to 23 legislators. There is more
work demand on the legislators and they haven’t gotten a raise in
16 years. I think it’s way overdue,” he said.
Glenn Noonan, a former legislator and chairman of the Periodic
Compensation Committee, doesn’t like the way the legislature is
handling the situation.
“We hand this report in and they just tear it in half and throw
it out and give themselves a pay raise,” he said. “I think
that is the most frustrating part.”
The full legislature will conduct a public hearing on the
proposal on Wednesday, December 9 after which a special session will be
held to consider the county’s 2016 budget and 2016-2020 county capital
plan.
