Forty days of work and now a 67% raise? For N.J. lawmakers, a sweet gig keeps getting better. | Editorial

Imagine having a job where you only work about 40 days a year and get paid $49,000. If that doesn’t interest you, how about we throw in a 67% raise?

That comes to $82,000 a year for a part-time gig that meets on Mondays and Thursdays. Want to feel a little more productive? Feel free to take a second job.

If this sounds interesting, then maybe you should run for a seat in the New Jersey Legislature. It’s good (part-time) work if you can get it.

It is so lucrative, in fact, that Jersey lawmakers are now among the highest-paid part-time legislators in the country. That dubious ranking comes thanks to the giant pay hike they gave themselves on Monday, the last day of the previous legislative session.

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State Sen. Richard Codey sponsored the measure, which conveniently will not go into effect until after the 2025 election. Codey, as it so happens, officially retired from the Senate after the Legislature concluded its business Monday.

“I’m sponsoring this legislation because it is necessary, not to give myself a pay raise,” he said. So Codey essentially took one for the team.

After being off since late last year, the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved the bill the day before the new session started — nothing like taking care of the most important order of business first.

Lawmakers argued that they haven’t given themselves a raise since 2002. They claimed the increase was needed to keep up with rising costs. That sounds reasonable, but a 67% pay hike is obscene.

Several GOP lawmakers were the voice of moderation regarding the increase.

“Making $82,000 a year is an absolute insult to the people you represent,” said Assemblyman Brian Bergen of Denville.

Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber of Morris County called the pay raise “out of touch, unnecessary, and self-serving.”

“Our constituents just can’t raise their pay when they feel like it and we shouldn’t treat ourselves better than the people we intended to serve,” Webber said.

That underscores why the timing and amount of the pay raise is so offensive. The average salary in New Jersey is $58,333. The new salary for the Trenton lawmakers is 33% higher — for a part-time job.

Of course, it may be easier for Webber to take the high road because the Harvard Law School graduate also pockets a separate salary as a partner in his own law firm.

Therein lies the bigger problem for New Jersey. Most of the legislators have second jobs, including more than two dozen who are attorneys. Others work in insurance, education, or operate their own business. Several hold jobs in local or county government, essentially double dipping from taxpayers, despite a 2008 ban to stop the practice.

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Such dual roles create an inherent conflict of interest as to who the elected official is serving, or at the very least distracts from their role to represent their constituents. New Jersey should prohibit members of the Legislature from holding second jobs. Pennsylvania, where its overstuffed state lawmakers are paid more than $100,000, should do the same.

Voters already distrust elected officials. Indeed, New Jersey has a hard-won reputation for illegal and legal corruption. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez is under indictment for bribery, following a crooked road blazed by many other elected officials.

That explains why two-thirds of Americans in a recent Pew Research Center poll said most political candidates run for office to serve themselves. By voting for a 67% raise, New Jersey lawmakers just proved the point.

In a presidential election year where every vote matters, the greed of New Jersey lawmakers undermines the cause for democracy and public service.