ALBANY – Gov. Paterson yesterday was blasted by public-employee unions, legislative Republicans and even fellow Democrats for granting sky-high pay hikes to his key staffers at a time when he’s asking 130,000 state workers to give up their 3 percent raises.
“This will demoralize our members even further,” said Stephen Madarasz, a spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents 70,000 state workers.
“Frankly, it doesn’t come as a great surprise to us because we’ve been very disappointed in the way the governor has been handling the fiscal crisis from the start.”
As for Paterson’s request that state workers give up the 3 percent hikes they’re due to receive April 1 or risk massive layoffs, Madarasz declared flatly, “We’re not going to do it.”
An apparently shocked spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, which represents 59,000 state workers said only, “We’re not going to comment because the story speaks for itself.”
The Post disclosed yesterday that Paterson had secretly granted raises of as much as 46 percent to more than a dozen staffers since August, when he claimed an “emergency” fiscal crisis required a tough hiring freeze and a reduction in state spending.
The pay hikes, costing about $250,000 annually, went to many of Paterson’s top staffers, including his chief of staff, William Cunningham, whose annual pay rose $8,500, to $178,500, or 5 percent, and his deputy, Charlotte Hitchcock, who received an $18,000 increase, to $178,000, for an 11.25 percent hike.
Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) said the size and scope of the pay hikes “show the governor just doesn’t get it.”
“Whether it’s raising taxes or secretly raising his staff salaries, the trip to Europe, the luxury hotel stay in Washington . . . he’s asking everyone to sacrifice during these difficult times – except for him and his staff,” Skelos said.
Meanwhile, a prominent Democrat who has worked with Paterson called the raises “disastrous” and said, “David ought to be leading by example and showing his staff he can do more with less, and not less with more, which, frankly, appears to be the case.
“If he keeps it up, he’ll be finished as governor,” added the Democrat, who demanded anonymity.
Paterson has been sinking in recent public-opinion polls in the wake of a string of missteps, including the mishandling of the selection of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate replacement; an aborted junket to Davos, Switzerland; a $20,000-plus four-day stay at President Obama’s inauguration; politically unpopular plans to tax sodas and Internet downloads; and repeated flip-flops on whether he backs higher taxes for the wealthy.