January has been a month of sweeping ethics proposals in Albany. But if the governor and all the legislators who have expounded on the need to make changes want to do more than talk, they are going to have to convince voters of an idea that at first glance seems absurd and even offensive: we need to pay them more.

Yes—more.

The members of the Senate and Assembly do not need the money for fancier cars or spiffier pocket squares. They should be paid more, but they should work more as well. The Legislature should become a full-time, year-round job. No more six months in and six months out. No more trudging back to Albany at the governor’s or the majority leader’s discretion in the early fall for special or extraordinary sessions. The problems facing this state are enormous—not just a yawning budget gap but a growing tax burden and a rapidly diminishing confidence in state leaders to do anything to patch the leak.

Legislators should be paid enough not just to do the people’s work—and only the people’s work—but also to make sure the best people come to Albany to do that work. These last few years have not done much to burnish the credentials of state lawmakers, much less convince any starry-eyed political neophyte with dreams of a career in public service to take a stab at running for office. If we want to make New York a state of transformative politics, than we need to sweeten the pot enough to recruit and retain the best in the field.

A year-round Legislature would also facilitate the high-speed traffic of bills through both chambers, allowing elected officials more opportunities to bring more legislation through the committees process, and to the floor for a vote. Gone will be the days of voting on only four or five major pieces of legislation a year.

While some legislators would obviously rather spend a year in Siberia breaking rocks than one in Albany passing bills, one of the obvious benefits of a year-round Legislature could have far-reaching implications for the state’s endlessly recurring budget problem. Rather than negotiating one budget per year, legislators could argue and debate a multi-year financial plan, just like what Gov. David Paterson has said he has ordered Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch to do. Imagine putting a stake in the heart of not just this year’s billion-dollar budget hole, but next year’s, and the one after that as well.

And let us not forget the state’s top legal minds. More than a decade has passed since the state judges have received a pay increase. The state’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, makes less than a first-year associate at a Manhattan firm. And the current impasse between the courts and the Legislature over higher salaries will, in the long run, hurt the court system’s ability to keep top judges from absconding to flashy downtown firms. The court system is in shambles enough as it is—this only makes the situation worse.

Higher pay should also come along with more money to pay for statehouse staff, there to help legislators strengthen the committee process in both chambers. Stronger, more influential committees would make chairs more independent of the leadership, potentially freeing them from having to rely on central staff at the speaker’s or majority leader’s discretion.

There is no doubt that the state is in the midst of tough economic times. But members have a stark choice in front of them: hunker down and wait for the crisis to blow over, as they have so many times in the past, or seize the opportunity to embolden the entire legislative process. The time has come to put their money where their mouths are.