as the final days of the lame- duck legislative session come to a close lawmakers are expected to consider a potentially controversial item pay raises for judges for cabinet officials and for themselves the last time salaries for the part-time positions got a bump was in 2000 that was under former Governor Christie Whitman.

and while there are a lot of arguments backing the need for a pay raise eyebrows are raising over the way it's being done for more I'm joined by Bergen Record political columnist Charlie Stile Charlie Stile hey Charlie good to see you uh okay so before we get into the cynical part of this the fact of the matter is these lawmakers they haven't had a raise in almost a quarter Century so is that why this is the time that they're looking to do this that and the fact that you have a lot of departing legislators in the lame duck who uh their careers are over either through retirement or they lost and they no longer have to face voters or the wrath of Voters so uh they can you know hold their nose with one hand and pull the lever yes on the other certainly this may not sit well with some taxpayers but how much money do they make and is it commensurate with you know our our partners in surrounding states uh they make about $449,000 uh for what is on paper a part-time job and the last time that was um approved was in 2000 as commensurate to other states no it's below Most states I think New York it's makes 142,000 uh legislators make 142,000 about 103,000 in Pennsyvania and they're technically full-time legislators you'll hear a lot of that argument from lawmakers uh who say yeah I spend about you know most of my free time as a legislator as an assembly I'm at events around uh my district yeah I'm on the weekends well it's it's certainly a valid argument we know from from covering these folks that they need to be accessible at all times but I guess Charlie I'm curious about the process we're in lame duck we've already gotten past uh an election where all the members were on the ballot so are they going about this in the normal process that we would see uh to approve what's essentially going to be a big jump in pay and not just for them but for their staff as well well you have to Define normal I mean I've been in Trenton long enough to to see that uh when something is politically uh risky or uh controversial like this uh they Ram it through in the uh with minimal uh public scrutiny when that's WEA at the end of a budget season when they're jamming pork through or at lame duck so in that sense it's normal How likely is it for this to happen and for these to be the final numbers that you mentioned previously I would say the odds are pretty good that something will happen I'm not sure it's going to be $85,000 I think there's some pull from the assembly side uh for a smaller number remember they're going to face the voters in two years the senate in four so they're feeling I think they want a little uh insurance and meanwhile the the the governor's office is also using this opportunity to raise or would like to see this opportunity to raise uh salaries for cabinet and sub cabinet level members and then again there's a Judiciary so everybody's GNA want to jump in and get a piece of the pie which the governor's office argues is in order to get uh competitive candidates and to fight with the uh the private sector Charlie style is the columnist for the Bergen Record Charlie thank you so much It was my pleasure