The first public hearing of the special committee that will determine whether New York’s state legislators get a salary increase demonstrated on Friday what a shoddy arrangement it was — and why its members should tell the lawmakers they won’t be getting a raise.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature established the committee in a typical bit of Albany guile earlier this year when the lawmakers were reluctant to do the dirty work of raising their own salaries.

The panel must issue a decision by Dec. 10, and unless the Legislature rejects it, what the panel says will become law on Jan. 1. The $79,500 salary has not increased in 20 years, so a raise is in order, but only as long as the senators and members of the Assembly forgo outside income and ban what are known as lulus, the stipends for committee chairmen and chairwomen that leaders use to hold sway over members.

Many in Albany seem to believe, questionably, that the committee — made up of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, former State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, City Comptroller Scott Stringer and former City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. — can decide only on salary, not the two other issues. In concession, supporters of the raise have said that the Legislature could consider banning outside pay and lulus in its new session next year.