NYC Council vote on pay raises for elected officials in 2025 postponed amid legal concerns

The city council will not vote this year to increase the salaries of its members, the mayor and other local elected officials because it would violate local law, according to sources familiar with the decision.

As first reported by the Daily News last weekend, Queens City Councilwoman Nantasha Williams had planned to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would give local elected officials five-figure pay raises — with the hope that the bill could come to a vote on Dec. 18.

In a private meeting Monday, Jeff Baker, a senior legislative official in Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ office, informed members that the Council cannot vote on the bill in 2025 because of a section of the City Charter that prohibits the chamber from raising wages during the lame duck period in a local election year, three sources with direct knowledge told the Daily News.

As a result, it is not expected that Williams’ bill could come up for a vote until January at the earliest, Baker added, according to the sources.

Baker also told chamber members that Williams still plans to introduce his bill on Tuesday, the sources said.

The turnaround comes after the initial plan to raise wages this year sparked outrage from government watchdogs.

“It’s not just a bad look. It’s actually illegal. The City Charter expressly prohibits the Council from approving salary increases after Election Day for one good reason: to prevent self-serving decisions by elected officials who won’t face voters again for 4 years,” Citizens Union on X wrote Sunday in response to The News’ report.

Late Monday, Williams told The News she was still introducing the bill this week because it can “lay the groundwork” for passage in 2026.

The bill will have to be reintroduced next year no matter what since it is a new legislative session. But Williams noted that the bill could be heard in 2025 and go through other aspects of the legislative process, which would put it on track to grant it “pre-considered” status next year, which would allow it to move to an immediate vote upon reintroduction.

There could be a complicating factor in that there will be a new Council president next year, and it’s unclear whether that person will be inclined to raise elected officials’ salaries as one of the first acts of the new session. Zohran Mamdani will also be mayor next year, replacing outgoing Mayor Eric Adams.

The last time city elected officials got a raise was in 2016. Neither former Mayor Bill de Blasio nor Mayor Adams, in their outgoing terms, complied with a local law requiring them to convene a panel to study whether pay raises are warranted for elected officials.

Council members currently make about $148,000 a year, while the mayor makes about $258,000. The public defender makes about $184,000 and the city comptroller makes about $210,000. Borough presidents, who also stand to be affected by any increase voted by the Council, earn about $180,000 a year.

Williams’ bill would be based on a 16 percent cost-of-living adjustment that tens of thousands of city workers got earlier this year as part of a collective bargaining agreement. Under that formula, council members would get a raise of about $24,000, Williams said previously.

Supporters of Williams’ bill say it’s high time they got a raise. “It’s been part of internal conversations for a while,” Williams said.