Albany

A compromise floated by Albany County lawmakers would split the controversial proposed double-digit raises for the county executive, sheriff and comptroller into smaller chunks over four years.

The move — which would trim the cost of the increases by about $115,000 over that span — is aimed at defusing opposition to the lump-sum raises proposed last month by the legislature's Audit & Finance Committee.

The committee proposed $15,000 increases next year for all three posts — pay hikes that were not in County Executive Dan McCoy's budget released in advance of his September Democratic primary.

News of the raises angered some lawmakers, who said they were blindsided by them, and talks among the 29 majority Democrats have since centered on a compromise.

Democratic leadership argues the increases are necessary to keep the salaries competitive and on par with the responsibilities of the county's top jobs.

As first proposed, the raises would have amounted to roughly 12 percent for McCoy to $140,559, 13 percent for Sheriff Craig Apple to $129,361 and 13.4 percent for Comptroller Michael Conners to $126,785. They each last received raises — about 6.1 percent — last year.

The proposed compromise would break the increases into 3 percent bumps annually over the four years of their terms, according to a copy of the proposal reviewed by the Times Union.

"I think everyone will get a raise," legislature Chairman Shawn Morse confirmed, "but it will be over four years."

A 3 percent raise for McCoy next year would increase his salary to $129,326, Apple's to $117,792 and Conners' to $115,139.

While staggering the raises would mean about $39,000 less for McCoy over the next four years, his base would actually end up higher — $141,318 — after four years than the initial $15,000 proposal.

Apple would end the four years with about $650 less annually than under the lump sum plan — a total raise of $14,353.

The finance committee is expected to discuss the proposal Thursday afternoon ahead of Monday's scheduled budget vote.

McCoy's office has said the executive did not request his raise but would accept it. Apple did ask for a roughly $15,000 raise from McCoy earlier this year, but the executive declined to include it in his 2016 budget. Apple then took his case to the legislature.

"I think that more than ever before, government requires the best and the brightest people to run it," Morse said. "We've lost a ton of workers; we lose commissioners" to better-paying jobs. "And we have a responsibility to make sure we have the best people around us."

Albany Democrat Chris Higgins praised Majority Leader Frank Commisso for helping broker the compromise.

Higgins, who has clashed with Commisso in the past, said his chief concern was that the raises were added without consultation of rank-and-file lawmakers and that two top elected officials were getting large increases they did not ask for while most county employees are getting 2 percent.

"If everybody wanted a raise, why didn't they include them in the budget? We could have had those conversations back in October and November," Higgins said. "I think this is a reasonable and fair compromise."

But Latham Democrat Tim Nichols, who has criticized the way he says the raises were quietly added to the budget after Election Day, vowed to continue to fight them.

"I'm so disgusted really with the way this all came about that it's really hard for me to support anything at this point," said Nichols, who lost his re-election bid last month.

"Every elected official who ran for office ran knowing what the salary was. And if they're not satisfied with that, then don't run for office," he said. "And if you get elected and decide that it's not fair compensation, you can always quit and do something else and let somebody else do the job."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU