Surely, New York’s Democrats can’t be serious with yet another proposal to increase legislative salaries.

Unfortunately, at least one is. Sen. James Sanders, D-South Ozone Park, is proposing a new increase in lawmakers’ salaries from $142,000 to $180,000. We’d say the bill is an April Fool’s Day joke, but it was introduced March 2 instead of April 1.

It’s only been three years since state legislators gave themselves a $32,000 raise in exchange for a $35,000 limit on outside income. Sanders says state lawmakers have earned the raise by overseeing one of the largest state budgets in the country, multiple types of sessions and negotiations, oversight of executive agencies, year-round constituent services and emergency and crisis response functions when there is a public health, housing, infrastructure, public safety or economic issue in legislators’ districts.

Those items are, indeed, part of state lawmakers’ duties. They are also already compensated well for the privilege. There are a lot of people in New York state who could live quite well on $142,000 a year. If a $142,000 base salary isn’t enough – and don’t forget that those in legislative leadership positions earn more – then perhaps Sanders and Democrats who have presided over the mess that New York’s economy has become should do something to make the state a more affordable place in which to live.

Are any state lawmakers living paycheck to paycheck like many of those they allegedly serve? We’d argue they are not.

Legislators like Sanders argued four years ago that limits on outside income were needed to decrease the amount of influence peddling that goes on in state politics. While influence peddling is a problem, the outside income ban has also created a situation in which lawmakers like Sanders now think taxpayers should be on the hook every time they think they need a raise. We’d argue there should have been a ban on the types of outside income that get legislators into trouble – jobs with firms that have lobbying ties, sitting on boards where high rollers get a legislator’s ear to advocate for pet projects in exchange for outside income or other business relationships that could affect state business.

But for legislators who can’t make ends meet on a paltry $142,000, a second job may be needed. Join the club guys. A lot of your constituents need second jobs, too, because their employers aren’t able to give a $32,000 raise followed by a possible $38,000 raise less than four years later. Heck, there are people in this state who work hard to earn $32,000 a year. A lot of New York state residents need a second job because the state Sanders and his fellow Democrats have presided over with nary a Republican speed bump in the halls of power has some of the highest taxes, fees and cost structures in the nation.

In our opinion, Sanders and other legislators who feel underpaid should get a job on a construction site, in a restaurant or in a retail store and get a sense of how the rest of us have to deal with the mess they’ve made. Spending more time in the real world instead of Albany’s fantasy land would spark some real change in Albany.