That a majority of the Republicans serving in the state Legislature now find themselves on the wrong end of the very important law capping their outside income is entirely their own doing. Their threats of mass resignations and resulting chaos is phony. The simple way to come into compliance is just limit their external earnings to $35,000 a year, as the law requires. Usually it’s the dominant Democrats in Albany who make a mess of everything, but on this, the Dems under Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins are not to blame. The cap on outside income was passed in December 2022 and the Republicans waited for more than a year to sue, until February 2024 and so the timing of this month’s ruling by Suffolk state Supreme Court Justice Alison Napolitano upholding the limits is their own fault. If the GOP had sued earlier, they would have lost earlier. It was the very last days of December 2022 when the Legislature passed — and Gov. Hochul signed — an outlandishly high pay raise increasing their annual salaries by $32,000, from $110,000 to $142,000, an 29% immediate hike making them by far the highest paid lawmakers among the 50 states. We complained that the vote on the bill should have been held before the November election that year, not in the waning hours of December. Additionally, we objected that the raise was too high and also that the $35,000 cap on outside earnings would not take effect until 2025. We were ignored and they passed the law. The pay hike went forward a few days later on Jan. 1, 2023, while the 63 senators and 150 Assembly members retained the ability for unlimited earnings as attorneys or whatever else they wanted to pursue while holding down two jobs. By far most of the big outside earners are Republicans. In the Senate there is only a single Democrat who makes significant money as a private lawyer. But 12 of 22 Republican senators (55%) have sidelines. In the Assembly there are a handful of Democrats with divided attention, but in the GOP ranks it is 26 of 47 (also 55%). Last July, Napolitano issued an enjoinment against enforcement of the outside earnings cap due to begin on Jan. 1. The Republicans just assumed that they would win their case. But on March 6 they lost as Napolitano upheld the law. Excellent. Now Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay are crying that most of their conference members will have to resign. Nonsense. Everyone who ran last year knew that the income cap was on the books, even if Napolitano had temporarily frozen it while she decided the case. Instead of quitting their legislative jobs, just quit their outside jobs; wind down their law practices and focus on lawmaking. For any Republicans who think that representing paying clients is more important than representing taxpaying constituents, they can resign. Their commitment to public service is less than their commitment to their own wallets. They will not be missed. We think that most of them will stay. It is an honor to be elected to public office and they can continue to sit in the Legislature if they put the interests of New Yorkers first. ...read more read less