New law would raise salaries, let Christie profit from book

Lawmakers in New Jersey have introduced a measure that would raise salaries for legislative staffers, judges and Gov. Chris Christie’s appointees, while also letting the governor profit from a book.

The bipartisan measure was introduced Monday night.

State law currently forbids the governor and state officers from being paid for published works.

A spokesman for the governor wasn’t immediately available to comment on whether the Republican governor plans to write a memoir in his last year in office.

The legislation would raise the allowance for lawmakers’ staffers by $30,000 to $140,000. It would allow Christie to raise his department heads’ salaries from $141,000 to as much as $175,000.

Judges would get 3 percent raises in 2017 and 2018 and the state’s county prosecutors would also get pay increases.