BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Starting January 1, 2020, some of Buffalo's elected officials will receive a pay raise.
The raises are as followed:
- Mayor: $105,000 to $158,500
- Comptroller: $88,412 to $119,500
- Council Members: $52,000 to $75,000
- Board of Education Members: $5,000 to $15,000
The Buffalo Common Council voted on the change for the pay raises on Thursday as part of the 2019-2020 fiscal budget. Buffalo's Citizens Salary Review Commission recommended pay raises back in April.
Board of Education members will see a higher than recommended raise coming next year from the original recommendation of $10,000. It's been more than 20 years since the mayor, comptroller and city council members received a raise. School board members haven't seen a raise since 1974.
Community Activist Harper Bishop released this statement on the matter:
In order for poor and working class people to hold public office they must be compensated adequately, otherwise it continues to perpetuate the cycle of governance by the 1% for the 1% instead of for the people and by the people. This is particularly true of the Buffalo Board of Education who until today were making an almost unbelievably low salary of $5,000/annually to govern the Buffalo Public Schools. The same could be said of the Buffalo Common Council and would, hopefully, encourage everyday Buffalonians' to run for and hold public office in the future. However, the Mayor's pay increase seems particularly tone deaf given that the 2019-2020 Budget includes multiple fantastical revenue projections that even the Mayor's political ally, the newly appointed City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams, has called into question. Furthermore, the revenue that the City does expect to take in will only continue to displace communities of color and poor people; public servants deserve to be compensated for their hard work but not at the expense of our most vulnerable populations.
