State lawmakers are paying off their Albany homes with the help of taxpayers, The Post has found.
The legislators who last year collected the most in “per diem” payments — $172 a day meant to reimburse them for housing and food costs when they’re in session — were state senators and Assembly members who own property around the state capital.
The taxpayer-funded checks, sometimes enough to cover a yearly mortgage, essentially pay politicians for sleeping in their own beds.
Among those receiving fat per-diem checks last year were six senators and two Assembly members with Albany-area property, including one whose condo is around the corner from the Capitol building.
Topping the list was Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr., a Harlem Democrat who raked in $21,632 in per-diem payments last year — and owns a $147,000 town house less than a mile from the Assembly chamber, state records show.
Sen. Catharine Young, a Republican from upstate Olean, owns a $122,000 condo in North Greenbush, seven miles from Albany, a property she purchased in 2001 for $66,000. She collected $20,306 in per-diem payments in 2014, the most of any senator, state records show. She doesn’t have a mortgage.
The state’s per diem system is so lax that nothing prevents these property owners from collecting the money. No receipts are required to get the cash, which is doled out when lawmakers are in the capital for official business.
But the payments are under scrutiny in the wake of scandals involving a long line of lawmakers. Former Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. was convicted of corruption last year, including lying about legislative work in Albany to collect more than $70,000 in unearned per-diem payments.
He had whined to an undercover agent that his $79,500 salary was not enough to live on.
“The per diem has been used as a supplemental pay raise without authorization,” said Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor, a Republican from Dutchess County, who has introduced legislation to reform the system.
He said those lawmakers who bought property years ago have seen it appreciate in value as taxpayers have contributed to paying their mortgages. “That’s just nonsense,” said Lalor, who refuses to take per-diem payments.
Lalor’s bill would cut per diem and travel expense reimbursements to $100 a day and would require receipts in order to get paid.
Gov. Cuomo has also proposed reforms, including a requirement that receipts be presented. The governor is calling for the state Comptroller’s office to deny reimbursement unless the lawmaker has complied with new, stricter reporting of outside income.
Those cashing their per diem checks defended the practice.
Sen. Kemp Hannon, a Republican from Long Island who collected $14,834 last year, owns a home in Chatham worth $229,000 “for the convenience.”
“I’ve been doing it since a motel rented out my room with my clothes in it,” he said.
A spokesman for Farrell said, “There are costs associated with traveling to and staying in Albany, whether that takes place in a house, an apartment or in a hotel.”
But Farrell collected per diems that amounted to about $1,800 per month — triple the typical monthly mortgage payment for a house like his. For example, a buyer putting 20 percent down on a $147,000 house, and taking a 30-year loan with a fixed rate of 5 percent, would pay about $628 a month to the bank.
Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, a Brooklyn Democrat, owns an Albany house valued at $155,000 and got $17,820 in per-diem payments in 2014, the second highest of any senator. The lawmaker purchased the property in 1986 and paid off the mortgage by 2008.
Coming in third among senators was Michael Nozzolio, a Republican from Seneca Falls who owns a condo worth $128,981 in the same complex as Young. He also owns a condo in Florida.
He pocketed $16,942 in per-diem payments last year.
Dean Skelos, the Senate majority leader, took in $10,981 in per-diem payments in 2014 despite using a $134,000 Albany condo owned by his wife as his second home.