On March 17, the 23 members of the Ulster County Legislature saw increases to their salaries for the first time in seven years. Their pay raises were prompted by the work of a county periodic compensation review committee, which reviews the salaries of all elected county officials at least every other year.
It’s not that legislators don’t desire higher salaries, but the optics of voting for their own raises are awkward, even when the recommendation to do so comes to them from a committee whose purpose is to select the proper time.
A vote to increase their own legislative salaries can be wielded like a cudgel in the hands of opponents looking for a wedge issue.
Legislators saw their annual pay rise $2,000, from $14,000 a year to $16,000. The salaries of the legislative minority and majority leaders, Republican Ken Ronk and Democrat Jonathan Heppner, went from $16,000 to $18,000 a year.
Legislative chair Tracey Bartels received a bump in her salary from $23,500 to $26,000 annually.
For now, 13 of the 23 legislative members have decided not to seek re-election in the coming contest, including all three in the leadership positions. Those top spots left vacant became all the more attractive for any of those left who harbor aspirations to leadership on the county level.
Rank-and-file legislative pay barely vaults the holders of these positions over the threshold to poverty in America, which according to U.S. Census data was $15,225 for a single person in 2022.
Though legislative salaries amount to starvation wages, health insurance benefits are generous/ Benefits paid encompass medical, dental, optical and hospital care, valued at just above $19,000 a year. And rather than decide between their rent and groceries, most county legislators choose to be employed elsewhere. Unless they come into the jobs as people of means, they have no other choice.
Comptroller March Gallagher and sheriff Juan Figueroa also saw raises. Recently consumed with sifting through the ashes for fiscal clues to the exit of the outgoing county finance commissioner, Gallagher saw her salary raised up $15,000 to $116,709 a year. And who can doubt that heavy is the head that wears the hat of top Ulster County lawman? Sheriff Figueroa’s salary is also $116,709.
Nina Postupack, official mnemosyne of Ulster County, likewise reached the $116,709 mark. First elected in November 2005, Postupack, among other responsibilities, oversees the Ulster County Hall of Records. Until ten days ago, Postupack hadn’t seen a raise in 14 years.
“I understand that some of our county officials have not received pay raises in over a decade, including our incredibly hardworking county clerk, Nina Postupack, who hasn’t received a raise since 2009,” said county executive Jen Metzger. “
Metzger, who signed the resolution into law, opted to donate her own $15,000 raise to the SUNY Ulster President’s Challenge scholarship fund, which assists at-risk college-bound students with a two-year, tuition-free, community college education upon their graduation from high school and enrollment at SUNY Ulster. The after-tax value of the raise will sponsor a student through the President’s Challenge scholarship (PCS) fund at a level of $7200. Remaining funds will be donated to the PCS general fund.
“I’m not in public service for the money,” said Metzger. “I do this work because I want Ulster County to become a sustainable, resilient, thriving community that leaves no one behind.”
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