A special commission will limit how much money state lawmakers can earn outside of the legislature, capping their non-legislative salaries at 15 percent of their public-sector income. But there are more questions that were raised by the pay commission’s determination to limit lawmaker pay, a move the commission insisted will have the same force of law behind it as the hike in legislative salaries to $130,000 in the next several years.

Already, the limit is stoking concerns among lawmakers who have jobs on the side in addition to their work as legislators.

There was very little enthusiasm in the statement released Monday evening by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie reacting to the 30-page report detailing the special compensation board’s decision to boost the pay of state lawmakers, but also limit their outside income to less than $20,000 and end the stipend system.

“I have not yet read the report in full,” Heastie said.

“As I review it, I will be guided by the principles of the sanctity of independence and respect for the legislative branch which are embedded in the New York State Constitution. Above all else, as a new legislature is about to be seated, these principles must be maintained.”

Lawmakers have maintained the purview of the commission was to determine legislative salaries, a narrowly defined focus as prescribed by the law that created the panel of former and current comptrollers in the first place.

The report released Monday and posted online did answer key questions, though, when it comes to how much wiggle room lawmakers would have with their outside pay. Answer: Not much.

The commission’s recommendations have the force of law unless the legislature acts by the end of the year, though that is being questioned.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, was pleased with the outcome. His pay will be raised should a joint resolution of the Legislature be adopted to $250,000 in the coming years. And Cuomo, who has received outside income of his own in the form of a book deal for a memoir published by HarperCollins, insisted lawmakers could clear up the legality of the commission’s decision by passing an income cap of their own.

“I do expect a challenge, for political reasons,” Cuomo said in an interview on WNYC radio Monday morning.

“But the Legislature can handle the ban, because if there’s any question of the commission’s authority – the Democrats are all in favor of a ban on outside income, anyway.”