Good-government organizations came out strongly yesterday against the City Council practice of stipends to lawmakers at the discretion of the council speaker.
The advocates also want restrictions placed on the outside income lawmakers can earn.
Stipends or “lulus” (payments in lieu of expenses) have been doled out to committee chairs and others in council leadership positions, and critics have complained it’s a way for the speaker to keep members in line.
“In reality, it is a way for the speaker to exert influence over individual members and reward those who are either loyal or need incentives to become faithful,” testified Dick Dadey of the Citizens Union before the council’s Government Operations Committee.
Lawmakers got a 25 percent pay hike last year, boosting their salaries from $90,000 to $112,500. Most lawmakers get additional stipends of $10,000, with a few getting more.
Neal Rosenstein of the New York Public Interest Research Group pointed out that other legislatures and Congress don’t have lulus for members.