Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration sued the New York City Council on Wednesday over its newly enacted bill to pay paraprofessionals one-time $10,000 payments, saying it runs afoul of the state law that restricts public-sector wage increases to collective bargaining and could set an expensive precedent.
The Council passed the bill last month with a veto-proof majority, and it lapsed into law Wednesday without the mayor making any attempt at a veto, which councilmembers likely would have overridden.
Mamdani spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said the legislation “undermines collective bargaining and sets a dangerous precedent: allowing politicians to bypass workers and their unions and dictate the terms of employment themselves.
“We will not allow the political process to replace the collective bargaining table,” he said in a statement that cited the city’s financial challenges.
The suit argues the bill was beyond the Council’s authority and “set a perilous and unlawful precedent with huge fiscal consequences for the [Department of Education] and the city — and, by extension, the tax-paying public.
“If the Paraprofessional Pay Bill is allowed to stand, other public employees will undoubtedly seek their own ‘stabilization’ payments from the Council, also outside of the collective bargaining process, or otherwise use Council proposals for such payments as leverage over that process,” the suit alleges.
Following the July vote, Mamdani said the bill was “in direct violation of the Taylor Law.” The nearly 60-year-old law covers most public employees in New York and gives them the right to organize and bargain for wage increases and other benefits.
A City Council spokesperson shared a joint statement from Speaker Julie Menin and Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, who introduced the bill, saying the legislature “will vigorously defend the law.”
“Every member of the Council, in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, supported the RESPECT Check Act because it is unacceptable that paraprofessionals who support some of our highest-need students are earning as little as $32,000 a year,” they said in the statement. “This law is not only the right thing to do, it is also the fiscally responsible thing to do, helping address the staffing shortages that contribute to the City’s $1.5 billion in Carter case costs.”
Paraprofessionals are teacher aides who work with students with disabilities and special needs. Carter cases are civil lawsuits against the city seeking reimbursement for private special-education tuition and are typically filed when families allege their child’s needs were not met in the public school system.
The United Federation of Teachers union earlier Wednesday celebrated the bill becoming law, saying it would help low-paid paraprofessionals. In a statement after the lawsuit was filed, union president Michael Mulgrew said the Council was careful to word the bill so it wouldn’t violate the Taylor Law.
“We hope the mayor will work with us, keep his promise, respect the paraprofessionals and solve this injustice,” he said in a statement.
Starting pay for city paraprofessionals is around $33,000 a year, and the top pay is more than $56,000 within 15 years, according to the UFT.
Mulgrew and Menin said the pay increases were necessary due to a citywide shortage of around 1,600 paraprofessionals. Without these aides, Chalkbeat previously reported, some students couldn’t get to school.
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post Mamdani Sues NYC Council To Block $10K Payments for Teacher Aides appeared first on The City Reporter.
