# Mass. Lawmakers To Receive 5.5 Percent Pay Hike



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*This can't happen the state is broke,just ask Coupe*

Massachusetts lawmakers are in line to receive a 5.5 percent pay hike, even as they prepare to make deep cuts to state services.

That would lift lawmakers' base pay from $58,237 to $61,440.

Under a state law approved by voters in 1998, lawmakers' pay rises or falls every two years in sync with the state's median household income.

The law requires the governor to determine the change to the household income at the start of each two-year legislative session.

*Gov. Deval Patrick* sent a letter to state Treasurer Timothy Cahill Wednesday saying he'd determined the increase to be 5.5 percent.

The timing is politically awkward as the state grapples with tumbling revenues and lawmakers face the prospect of slashing spending.

http://wbztv.com/politics/lawmakers.pay.hike.2.902452.html


----------



## 7costanza (Aug 29, 2006)

> The timing is politically awkward


Ya think...but an article about LEOs contract and it turns into Mass hysteria.


----------



## StbbrnMedic (Nov 28, 2008)

Thats B.S. most cities and towns have already said that they will make offers that will resemble, 0%-0%-1% over three years! Yet they have the [email protected]!!$ to give themselves 5.5%!!!!!!

This is just irresponsible even for politicians!


----------



## wallymc8 (Mar 3, 2007)

No surprise, our town administrator got a 9% raise shortly after telling us we may have to lay off... It happens at every level


----------



## BrickCop (Dec 23, 2004)

Quiet lowly peasants...know your role and bend over!


----------



## cj3441 (Oct 14, 2004)

The poor souls need the extra cash now that the bribe money is drying up


----------



## jyanis (Jul 23, 2004)

We just had a meeting tonight about potential layoffs and these thieves are getting 5.5%????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


----------



## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

Oh no not in Douglas! My grandfather worked construction and in the 50s apparently a "highway robbery" happened to him out in that area when he was working on 146. I go through Douglas everyday on my way to work. He always carries because he is afraid of "highway robbery" happening to him in Douglas. Doubtful that will happen in these days, but Douglas patrols a huge section of Route 16. Plus their own town. 

I hope it isn't so. It is so ridiculous that the most visible and important services a town offers, its police department is cut. I'm sorry cut the janitor at the town hall and have people empty their own trash. That could maybe save one police officer. I think the days of one guy being on in towns that normally had 2 on (pre-2001, had even 4 on at times) now may have 1 on!

Sad state of affairs. Statewide.


----------



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Some Lawmakers Refusing Pay Hike*

*Discuss: Should They Take The Raise?*

*
Interactive: Tell Us Your Thoughts On The Pay Raises*

It's a pay raise that's raising eyebrows. As the state slashes budgets, every state Senator and Representative will be getting a 5.5 percent salary increase this year. The annual base salary is now just above $61,000.

If you add up this increase for every lawmaker, it amounts to an extra $600,000. A few legislators are either refusing the raise or donating theirs to charity. Many are taking it. It's part of a state law approved by voters; but all of the lawmakers we talked with understand that, beyond the golden dome, there's a negative perception of their pay raise at a time when many of their constituents are taking pay cuts or losing their jobs.

So WBZ's Ron Sanders went into the people's house, where the legislature went back into session yesterday, and walked around to find out how lawmakers are reacting to the people's reaction. "Tell us what your plans are for your pay raise."

"My intention is to donate it to charity in and around my district," but House Minority Leader Bradley Jones of North Reading said tough times affect some of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

Rep. George Peterson (R) Grafton said, "I haven't made a decision one way or another at this point. I'm sort of in a similar situation with families across the Commonwealth. My total income has been reduced severely."

Under the state law passed by voters in 1998, legislative salaries go up or down every two years in-line with median household income estimated by the Governor. South Boston Democrat Brian Wallace says, for what some lawmakers do, $61,000 dollars is a bargain for the taxpayers. "I mean, I work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, always there, phone's ringing all the time, people knocking at my door."

"This is your principal job?" asked WBZ's Ron Sanders.

"It's my only job. So, I think I'm worth $61,000 and I have no problem taking it." But Shrewsbury Republican Karen Polito does. She wrote the state treasurer to refuse the raise. "I am employed elsewhere but this is money, over $600,000, that could be dedicated to other parts of our operating budget, given back to cities and towns, wherever it could go," said Polito.

Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi plans to accept the raise, defending it as a modest increase and saying legislators have already been told to expect a pay cut next term.

Since the legislative pay raise is automatic, State Senators and Representatives don't have to go on record and declare their positions on it. So we put the question to them. We emailed or phoned nearly 200 State Senators and Representatives today and asked them this question:

"If you had to vote on the pay raise you are about to receive, would you vote in favor of the pay raise or against the pay raise?"

The following lawmakers responded that they would vote AGAINST the pay raise if a vote was possible:

Sen. Brian Joyce (will donate his raise to community organizations)

Rep. Fred Barrows (will donate his raise to charitable organizations)

Rep. Lida Harkins

Rep. Lori Ehrlich

Rep Garrett Bradley (will refuse the raise)

Rep. Brad Hill

Rep. Rosemary Sandlin

Rep. Will Brownsberger

Rep. Lewis Evangelidis (will not accept raise)

Rep. Jeff Perry

Rep. Robert Rice (will donate his raise to food banks in his district)

Rep. Jennifer Callahan

Sen. Scott Brown (will donate his raise to food pantries and senior centers in his district)

Sen. James Timilty (will not accept the raise)

Rep. George Peterson

Rep. Timothy Toomey

Rep. Cleon Turner

Rep. Katherine Clark

Rep. Jay Kaufman

Rep. Kevin Murphy

Rep. Bradley Jones (will donate his charities in his district)

Rep. John Keenan

Sen. Robert Hedlund

Rep. Todd Smola

Rep. Coleen Garry

Rep. Paul McMurtry

The following State Senator would not say whether she would vote for or against the pay raise, but that she will accept the raise.

Sen. Susan Fargo

http://wbztv.com/politics/lawmakers.pay.hike.2.903295.html


----------



## OfficerObie59 (Sep 14, 2007)

> Art. CXVIII. The base compensation as of January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-six, of members of the general court shall not be changed except as provided in this article. As of the first Wednesday in January of the year two thousand and one and every second year thereafter, such base compensation shall be increased or decreased at the same rate as increases or decreases in the median household income for the commonwealth for the preceding two year period, as ascertained by the governor.


So what you're telling me is that in 2008, the average median household income rose by 5.5%? I truly doubt it. But if we as cops have the "audacity" to take 1%, .5% and 0% we're the public mooches out of touch with those in the private sector.

If the public is pissed off at the public sector (as they always are in times of economic hardship...like it's my fault I chose a profession funded by tax dollars, which, coincidentally requires me to wear a kevlar vest everyday), they should at least focus their anger on those who deserve it.

But after all, according to Coupe Deval, the average median housegold income apparently increased by 5.5% anyway, so what do they have to complain about anyways [sarcasm inflection added]?


----------



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*21 Of The 200 House, Senate Members Forgo Raise*

According to data obtained by WBZ News, as of the 5pm deadline today for legislators to inform the state treasurer of their intention to *forego the raise*, only 21 of them - just over 10 percent of the 200 members of the House and Senate - had done so.

A complete list is below. The declined raises will revert to the state's general fund. (An undetermined number of legislators have said publicly that they will accept their raise but donate it to charity.)

The salary hike - required every two years under a constitutional amendment approved by Massachusetts voters in 1998 - was announced on Jan. 7 by Gov. Deval Patrick, who is required to set the amount of the raise based on median household income data and estimates.

The base salary for lawmakers was $58,237 a year, although extra payments for committee chairs and legislative leaders boosts many paychecks considerably higher.

*LEGISLATORS THAT HAVE DECLINED A PAY RAISE FOR 2009:*

SENATORS - TOTAL: 7 of 40

*GOP:* 
Sen. Michael Knapik (R-Westfield)

*Democrats:
*Sen. Harriette Chandler (D-Worcester)

Sen. Benjamin B. Downing (D-Pittsfield)

Sen. Thomas McGee (D-Lynn)

Sen. Michael Moore (D-Millbury)

Sen. Steven Panagiotakos (D-Lowell)

Sen. James Timilty (D-Walpole)

REPRESENTATIVES - TOTAL: 14 of 160

*GOP:*
Rep. Lew Evangelidis (R-Holden)

Rep. Bradford Hill (R-Ipswich)

Rep. Karyn Polito (R-Shrewsbury)

Rep. Todd Smola (R-Palmer)

*Democrats:
*Rep. James Arciero (D-Westford)

Rep. Garrett Bradley (D-Hingham)

Rep. Thomas Calter (D-Kingston)

Rep. Linda Dean Campbell (D-Methuen)

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose)

Rep. Thomas Conroy (D-Wayland)

Rep. Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill)

Rep. John Fernandes (D-Milford)

Rep. John Fresolo (D-Worcester)

Rep. James O'Day (D-West Boylston)

http://wbztv.com/politics/lawmakers.pay.hike.2.909644.html


----------



## fra444 (Nov 23, 2008)

kwflatbed said:


> *21 Of The 200 House, Senate Members Forgo Raise*
> (An undetermined number of legislators have said publicly that they will accept their raise but *donate it to charity*.)


What a load of CRAP!!!!!! So who is going to collect the receipts for this charitable donation?! If we said that we were going to take our 2% raise from last year and donate it to charity the media God's would be screaming LIARS! Yet these idiots, (House Senate Members) say it and they, (media) follow like lemmings over the edge of the cliff!!!!!


----------



## Guest (Jan 17, 2009)

FUCKING BULLSHIT! Fuck you Deval. I thought EVERYTHING was on the table for the axe. You just got your emergency budget powers again, I'm sure you can figure a way around this just like you did details. Laying off police, fire, and EMS... Slashing local aid... and these fucks can't IMAGINE having to deal with a lack of a pay raise... I swear I am going to be on high blood pressure medication at age 31.


----------



## Guest (Jan 17, 2009)

fra444 said:


> What a load of CRAP!!!!!! So who is going to collect the receipts for this charitable donation?! If we said that we were going to take our 2% raise from last year and donate it to charity the media God's would be screaming LIARS! Yet these idiots, (House Senate Members) say it and they, (media) follow like lemmings over the edge of the cliff!!!!!


Even if they do donate it to charity, it's still money out of the state coffers, it counts towards their pensions, and they even get a tax write-off. It's meaningless, empty symbolism, which is what they do best on Beacon Hill.


----------



## BB-59 (Oct 19, 2005)

You have to love the "Cadilac Man", he cannot bully the lawmakers to go his way so now he justs bribes them.

Most departments can not get a raise approved, yet our liberal democrat elected officals can find away to boost their pays while laying off us.

"We can"; "Change we can believe in". BS the masses love to hear!


----------



## SinePari (Aug 15, 2004)

This is why a memo posted at work about details and "standing tall" because some state rep was stuck in traffic puts me in postal mode. You want ME to stand tall, on a detail which YOU voted to eliminate, and have the AUDACITY to give yourself a pay raise???


----------

