What could have been the final meeting on Tuesday of the commission deciding whether to raise the salaries of state lawmakers and agency chiefs for the next two years devolved into contemptuous arguments over ethics reform and the hidden influence of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

No legislative salary increase was approved even as the governor’s appointees on the board offered a deal that was, for now, rejected by proxies of the Legislature.

The meeting began with Cuomo appointee Fran Reiter proposing an out-right linkage of a salary increase for the 213 members of the Senate and Assembly to the passage of limits or a ban on outside income.

With the meeting due by law to wrap up its work Tuesday, Reiter insisted the commission could reconvene by the end of the year should lawmakers act on the measure.

“That’s it, it’s over for everybody or you can do nothing, see what happens,” Reiter said, “or come back in a few weeks and get something really, really good done for the people of this state.”

The legislative appointees, however, were less than impressed with the idea after both Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan had expressed opposition to linking ethics or outside income reforms to a pay increase.

“I think it’s awful that the governor thinks he’s king,” said Roman Hedges, an appointee of the Democratic-led Assembly. “I think it’s awful that his representatives on the commission think the governor is a king.”

Lawmakers earn $79,500 in base pay. The commission is not set to reconvene until 2019, unless extenuating circumstances take hold, such as legislative action.

Reiter blasted the notion that she was being manipulated or directed by the unseen hand of Cuomo and insisted she developed the proposal on her own.

“That’s insulting and quite frankly it shows how little you know about me,” she said. “I’ve had zero, no communication with the governor of the state. Not by phone, not by text, not by email. None. I reject that notion. I came to these conclusions independent of anyone else.”

But Cuomo has in so many words suggested lawmakers could earn the first pay hike in 18 years by addressing ethics and government corruption through either limiting or banning the money they can earn in the private sector.

The outside income ban has been met with a cool reception in the Assembly, where lawmakers proposed a ceiling for private-sector pay Cuomo deemed to be too high. In the GOP-led Senate, the outside income ban has been dead on arrival.

Lawmakers can now pick two doors to walk through before the end of the year.

Behind the first door is a likely December special session that would include the outside pay limits and the approval of a memorandum of understanding for affordable housing construction. The pay commission, in theory, could reconvene and grant the long-desired pay increase.

The second door is an increasing contentious relationship with Cuomo in the new legislative session and a budget season that is already shaping up to be a challenging one, given falling revenues from the personal income tax.

If Cuomo’s representatives are any indication of how he thinks, the governor likely would want the Legislature to pick the first option — a path of short-term resistance, but longer-term gains.

“Fran [Reiter], I think,” said former Cuomo budget chief Bob Megna, “outlined the perfect way to move forward.”