New York, NY (July 16, 2026) – Citizens Union today released the following statement from Executive Director Grace Rauh in response to the New York City Council’s passage of a bill raising salaries for the mayor, City Council members, borough presidents, citywide officials, and district attorneys by 18.2%, the first adjustment to elected officials’ compensation in a decade:

“Citizens Union supports the City Council’s decision to raise pay for elected officials, and we commend the Council for reaching it through a rigorous, public process. We advocated for the establishment of the 2026 Quadrennial Advisory Commission and testified in favor of most of its recommendations, including the 18.2% salary increase, restoring the commission cycle to the third year of a mayoral term, and extending the commission’s review period from 75 to 120 days.

“Periodic, independent reviews of elected officials’ compensation are essential to good government. Competitive salaries attract strong candidates, enable people who aren’t independently wealthy to pursue public service, and reduce incentives for corruption.

“We also raised concerns before the Council’s Committee on Governmental Operations, State and Federal Legislation about a provision that would have created automatic, inflation-adjusted salary increases if a future commission were not convened, warning that such a mechanism risked removing the incentive to convene a pay commission. We are grateful the Council agreed with our recommendation and removed that provision from the final bill.

“The Commission did important work under a tight timeline, and we applaud the Council for the transparent, deliberate process through which they arrived at this decision.”