According to the media report, Andrew Cuomo's salary will increase from $225,000 to $250,000, as approved by the state's Democratic-controlled legislature last spring for a period of four years, making him the nation's highest-paid governor.
At the same time, state judges and lawmakers were denied raises by the Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation, which found that due to the already borne and anticipated COVID-19-related expenditures “granting raises to public servants, no matter how much they might otherwise deserve them, is simply not possible at this time,” as quoted in the report.
Citing data of the New York Division of Budget, the newspaper estimated the expected losses over the next four years to reach $63 billion.
Yet, Cuomo will not be the only public servant to get a pay raise in 2021 despite these hardships. Aside from the governor, salaries will be increased for Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, according to the report.
The newspaper also pointed to Cuomo having another source of income — revenues from his book "American Crisis," which, as stressed in the report, he had written during the first six months of the pandemic.