When the New York State Legislature convenes today for their new session today at noon, as the state Constitution directs to “assemble on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January” following an election, the 150 Assembly members and 63 state senators were supposed to be subject to a limit of often corrupting outside income of $35,000 (about 25% of their salaries), but the cap has been knocked out by a lawsuit brought by Republicans, who happily accepted a huge pay hike. Thus lawmakers can still haul in fortunes from private clients who hire them, potentially a huge conflict of interest that landed not a few of their predecessors in prison. For shame. As a good government remedy, the Democratic majorities under Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins should adopt the exact same earnings limit into the rules of their two chambers. The courts will be reluctant, as they should be, to interfere with how the separate and equal legislative branch handles such a purely internal matter regarding their own members’ behavior. Two years ago, Gov. Hochul and the Legislature agreed to give the 213 legislators an immediate gigantic pay raise by passing a law that also included a future limit on outside earnings listed as “wages, salaries, fees, and other forms of compensation for services actually rendered.” We objected that 1) the pay raise was too steep, 2) that the vote on it should have been held before the election (and not in late December) and 3) that the earnings cap should have taken effect at the same time as the raise. Nonetheless, they got the extra moola from the taxpayers, a $32,000 hike (a 29% jump from $110,000 to $142,000), on Jan. 1, 2023, but as we feared, the cap on outside earnings, set at $35,000, due to start this month, has been stopped by a lawsuit from GOP members. They sued in federal court and on June 21 their case was dismissed by a judge. But three of them, Suffolk Republicans Sens. Mario Mattera and Dean Murray, and Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio, also sued in state court in Suffolk County. There, a judge granted a preliminary injunction on July 17 enjoining against enforcement of the new limit on outside earrings. The case continues and the matter is now under appeal, but that should not stop the Senate and Assembly from acting within their own rules. The congressional cap of 15% on outside income is written into the rules of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, as it should be the same for the New York Assembly and New York Senate. Today is the 248th legislative session, going back the first one in 1777, but it is also the 206th New York State Legislature, because the Assembly was elected for just a single year until 1938 and biennial since. In all that time, members were free to pocket as much as possible from whoever was willing to pay them. It was a bad practice that should have now ended. But by changing their rules, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins can defeat the GOP obstruction.