ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday defended getting raises that will make him the highest-paid governor in America.

“The salary adjustments were done last December by the pay commission which publicized and put out a report, which was accepted by the legislature,” Cuomo said in a WNYC radio interview.

“That was published and discussed in December, so there’s nothing new on that.”

A special commission recommended that Cuomo’s $179,000 salary be increased to $200,000 this year, $225,000 in 2020 and $250,000 in 2021.

Because the governor can’t sign off on his own pay hike, the raise required legislative action.

The state Senate approved the increase at 2:45 a.m. Monday and the Assembly acted a few hours later.

Some lawmakers grumbled that the measure was thrown in at the last minute, while they were grappling with the new $175.5 billion state budget.

But Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) backed up Cuomo.

“It has a fiscal component to it, so there’s always the realization to do it,” Heastie told reporters Tuesday.

“We felt that all the statewide officials were able to get raises … the governor and the lieutenant governor’s salaries aren’t fixed by statute, they have to be done by a concurrent resolution between the Assembly and the Senate and that’s the reason why they were done.”

The commission also raised legislative salaries from $79,500 to $130,000 in 2021.