The rumors of a special session may be nothing more than a test balloon to gauge public opinion.

In our opinion, this lead balloon should not fly.

Legislators are paid $110,000 a year in base salary and then can earn more depending on their committee assignments and leadership positions. Carl Heastie, Assembly speaker, was asked last week about rumors of a special session, though the speaker didn’t confirm or deny the rumors. Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, supported the idea of a pay raise for legislators.

“I believe they deserve a pay raise. They work extremely hard. It’s a year-round job. I’ve been with them many times in their districts, and they’ve worked very hard and they deserve it. It is up to them on whether or not they want to come back and make that effective,” Hochul told reporters Friday, according to the New York Post.

Without a special session, legislators would have to wait until 2025 for a pay raise because state law prevents state legislators from increasing their own salaries in the middle of a two-year term. Of course that prohibition is comical given the number of state lawmakers who would be, in fact, much of the legislature would be voting on their own raise in December to take effect in January. Perhaps the vote should only be taken amongst legislators who aren’t returning to office on Jan. 1. At least then the vote wouldn’t be a blatant conflict of interest.

Even more galling is the fact that legislative leaders were just re-elected — but they never had to answer questions from their constituents on a pending pay raise. Those legislators knew what they were making when they ran for office. If the pay was too low they shouldn’t have run for office. It’s also a crass move to approve a raise for yourself at the 11th hour at a time when many state residents are struggling to make ends meet on salaries much smaller than $110,000 a year.

We’d ordinarily say plans to convene a special state legislative session to give state legislators a raise starting Jan. 1 would constitute a new low for the state Legislature.

Unfortunately, in our view, it’s just a new middle for this batch state officials.