At last, it's January 2001: time for your and my constitutionally-guaranteed
payraise.
What do you mean, the constitution doesn't guarantee us a
payraise?
It says right here: As of the first Wednesday of January of
the year 2001 and every second year thereof, 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.
This is so neat because as we get our payraises, the median
household income will increase even more, and in two years we'll get a much bigger payraise, and so on til retirement!
What do you mean, it only applies to the Legislature? Not
fair!
Yes, it's all theirs. Legislators put a question on the 1998
ballot, and their argument for its passage in the red voter information booklet began: "A Yes vote would change the state
constitution to prohibit legislators from voting to increase their own pay." Most voters thought this was a nifty idea and
approved the constitutional amendment.
I'm sure that I too would have thought it a nifty idea,
before I spent twenty years on Beacon Hill learning how the political mind works.
The trick phrase in the amendment is the two words "base
compensation." Legislators get not only their base pay, but unaudited office expense budgets that they can use for whatever
they want. They also get a "per diem" that reflects the distance they live from the State House.
Therefore, when voters approved the ballot question, the
base pay of $46,410.00 was already enhanced by the expense budget, the per diem, and of course varied bonuses for various
leadership positions. Last summer, during the all-night "Animal House" session, with no roll call, the House
members voted to double their expense budget and their per diem; the Senate went
along. This gave a non-leadership legislator a total pay, before benefits, of between $54,000 and $63,000.00.
Then this month, the constitutional amendment requires that
base pay hike be computed from the rate increase in median family income in 1999 and, as estimated by the Governor, in 2000. This
calculated percentage must be adjusted when the final 2000 number is available. But the hike will probably be at
least $3000.00, and in two years, there will be another raise - unless the
median family income rate drops, in which case legislative base pay will be cut as well.
If that happens, however, they can just vote themselves
increases in their expense budgets and per diems again, or create some new leadership positions with bonus pay.
It's not about the money, which is a small part of the total
state budget. The problem is that legislators don't have to improve their performance in order to get a payraise. They don't
have to resolve issues, or even debate them. They don't have to spend all their expense budget on constituent service. They
can drive to the State House, make a few phone calls before returning home, and collect their per
diem. Or, they can stay to vote just as the legislative leadership tells them to vote, and call
themselves representatives.
Governor Cellucci's Administration and Finance Secretary
wants to see important legislation debated on its own merits, separate from the annual budget document. It has become a sorry
tradition to group disparate subjects, having nothing to do with the budget, in "outside sections" of that document so that
debate on almost everything is crowded into a few leadership-controlled
days and nights.
Even though most Beacon Hill players and observers agree
that this is a bad way to make major policy, they usually don't object because the correct system of public hearings followed by
leisurely, informed floor debate is hard to get on a bill that the leadership doesn't support. As part of the budget,
votes can be traded off, or controversial things passed without awareness
by sleepy legislators in the general confusion.
A coalition of political activists from around the political
spectrum is working on a package of legislative reform proposals that are intended to democratize the legislature and make it more
accountable to the public. Their proposal would empower individual legislators and committees, encourage debate, keep
the public better informed.
A legislative commission has recommended fewer reforms, but
included a prohibition on all-night session unless there is a unanimous vote to stay beyond midnight.
It's January 2001, time for the Legislature's constitutionally guaranteed payraise. Let's check in one
year from now to see if our representatives have earned it.