State Senator Tom O'Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats) today said that an opinion from the state Board of Elections (BOE), which he requested earlier this month and received on Friday, permits state legislators to use campaign committee funds to challenge the actions of the New York State Compensation Committee.
O'Mara contends that the Compensation Committee was authorized only to determine whether a legislative salary increase was warranted and, if so, to set new compensation levels. The committee's additional actions — including a near-total ban on a legislator's ability to earn an outside, private-sector income and tying the receipt of legislative salary increases to the on-time adoption of the annual state budget — fall far beyond the intended powers of the Compensation Committee, O'Mara added.