An appointed panel considering 47 percent raises for state lawmakers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state officials faces a legal challenge: a lawsuit contending that Cuomo and the Legislature violated the state constitution by relinquishing the touchy pay decision to an unelected panel.

James Coll, a New York City police detective and college teacher from Long Island who leads an Albany reform group, brought the case on his own in April in state Supreme Court in Nassau County. His four-page complaint argues that creating a seven-member commission to make salary recommendations that have the force of law was an illegal delegation of the Legislature’s authority to pass laws and appropriate public money.

Coll and the state’s attorneys are due to go before Supreme Court Justice George Peck in Mineola on Thursday.

In an interview on Friday, Coll said he doesn’t oppose raising lawmakers’ pay, but objects to what he contends is the unconstitutional way in which they and the governor sought to transfer responsibility for the raises. He argues they should amend the constitution if they want a commission to set salaries, just as they did when they agreed to surrender responsibility for redrawing legislative lines every 10 years.

“My question is purely process,” said Coll, who teaches American and constitutional history at Hofstra University and Nassau Community College and founded ChangeNYS.org three years ago. “The way that they need to get a raise is to make a case to the public that will be paying for it.”

In its response, lawyers for the state Attorney General’s Office questioned Coll’s standing to bring the case and insisted that raise authority still lies with the Legislature, since lawmakers theoretically can reject or change whatever salaries the commission recommends.

But Coll points out how far-fetched that prospect is, given the fact that lawmakers ended their session in June and aren’t scheduled to return to Albany until next year.

“They would have to call themselves back into session to nullify a pay raise,” he said.

In his court papers, Coll argues that the delegation of pay authority affects him because it means he can’t hold his senator and assemblyman “accountable on the matter of public expenditure related to salary compensation as required by the NYS Constitution.” He also contends he lost “any and all legislative voice” in the decision because he doesn’t live in the districts of the two legislative leaders who appointed commission members.

Cuomo and the Legislature established the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation in last year’s budget. The panel raised judges’ salaries last year and is now considering pay increases for all 213 senators and Assembly members, Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and state department heads. Its deadline is Nov. 15.

One panel member appointed by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie suggested 47 percent raises for everyone when the panel met on July 26, a proposal that would increase lawmakers’ base pay to $116,900 from $79,5000 and raise Cuomo’s salary to $263,000 from $179,000. No alternative proposals were made at that meeting.

The commission is set to meet again on Sept. 22. Its chairwoman, Sheila Birnbaum, said last month that the panel may be ready to vote at its next meeting.

One quirk of Coll’s case is that Peck and any other judge that would hear the case will have gotten raises from the very commission whose legitimacy he is challenging. But Coll said he has faith in the state justice system and is confident in the merits of his argument.

Citizens and candidates opposed to 47 percent raises — or any raises — for lawmakers have emailed a volley of objections to the pay commission, which has posted the comments on its website, www.nyscommissiononcompensation.org. In one letter, Chris Eachus, the New Windsor Democrat challenging Republican Sen. William Larkin Jr., argued the Legislature must enact more meaningful ethics reforms before getting any salary increase.

“The simple fact of the matter is our State Legislators do not deserve a raise and they must prove themselves to the voters before there is any further discussion about pay increases,” Eachus wrote.

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