New York’s Legislature has been called the most dysfunctional in America — yet it also is among the most expensive to run. As summarized in thisSyracuse Post Standard column by the Empire Center’s director, E.J. McMahon:
* The legislature’s budget of nearly $1 million per member is among the three highest, trailing California and roughly neck-and-neck with Pennsylvania’s. On a per-member basis, New York spends three times the national average.
* The $79,5000 base salary for New York legislators, not including expenses or extra stipends also known as “lulus,” is the second highest in the nation. By comparison, the average for all salaried legislators (a necessary distinction because, in some states, there is no salary, just a per-diem) is just over $31,000.
* The professional staff of the New York State Legislature is the nation’s largest. And that staff is distributed unevenly, to say the least; the majorities in both houses disproportionately soak up the staff budgets.

Reforms needed to reduce costs and empower members, McMahon’s column recommends, would include elimination of extra stipends and a system of flat, uniform pay for all members, as is the case in Congress.