A judge temporarily blocked a law that would limit how much income New York state lawmakers can make outside government work, dealing a win to Republicans who are trying to strike it down.
Wednesday’s ruling from state Supreme Court Justice Alison Napolitano of Suffolk County will prevent the cap from taking effect while a lawsuit led by GOP lawmakers continues, unless the state attorney general’s office successfully appeals.
The cap would have barred state legislators from earning more than $35,000 a year outside of their public salaries. It was set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025, after the Democrat-led state Legislature approved it as part of a 2022 bill to hike lawmakers’ salaries by 29% — making them the country’s highest-paid state legislators.
But the Republican lawmakers — which include state Sen. Mario Mattera of Long Island and Assemblymembers Jodi Giglio and Dean Murray — sued to strike it down. They argued for a preliminary injunction, which will keep the limit from taking effect while their lawsuit proceeds.
In her ruling, Napolitano, a Republican, said she believes the lawsuit is likely to succeed. She said leaving the cap in place while the case is ongoing could harm lawmakers and candidates who currently face the decision of whether to give up their outside businesses or jobs.
“With these decisions, it is conceivable that by giving up their businesses and employment, the affected legislators will have to take certain drastic, often permanent, actions usually associated with the ending of a business or a job,” Napolitano wrote.
The pay hike, however, is already in effect. Democratic state lawmakers approved the salary increase and outside income cap in the waning days of 2022, more than a month after that year’s elections. In 2023, their annual pay went from $110,000 to $142,000 a year.
But the accompanying $35,000-a-year cap on outside income wasn’t set to take effect until 2025. The delay was designed to allow lawmakers time to decide whether to shed their outside business or leave the Legislature altogether.
The Republican lawsuit — led by former Republican state Attorney General Dennis Vacco, now a private lawyer for Buffalo-based firm Lippes Mathias — makes the case that the cap itself violates the state constitution. The constitution lays out only three basic requirements for a candidate for the state legislature to run: They have to be a U.S. citizen, live in the state for five years and reside in their district for the year preceding the election.
The Republicans also argue that the law’s definitions of outside income and some of the exceptions to the limit — which allow things like passive investment income to exceed the cap — are unconstitutionally vague.
As a member of state Senate leadership, Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Buffalo-area Republican, is technically a defendant in the lawsuit. But he said he supports the effort – in part because the founding fathers “supported the idea of citizen legislators over career politicians.”
“This ruling affirms that principle and protects the ability of citizens from all walks of life to serve in the state Legislature,” Ortt said in a statement.
At least 23 state senators and assemblymembers earned more than $35,000 in 2021, with the top earners skewing heavily Republican, according to New York Focus.
State Attorney General Letitia James’s office, which represents the state in the case, declined to comment. So did a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx). A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) could not be reached for comment immediately.
This isn’t the first time Republicans have beat back a pending limit on outside income.
In 2018, a commission created by the state Legislature recommended three years of salary increases from lawmakers — but tied the final two pay hikes to a limit on outside income.
The courts struck that outside-income cap — and the final two pay raises — down, finding that the commission exceeded its authority.