CLT MEDIA ADVISORY

 Friday, November 28, 2014


 Proposed Pay Raises for Beacon Hill Pols are Unconstitutional
 

 

Heads up!  The Boston Globe has been reporting that there will soon be pay hikes on Beacon Hill.  This may be — except for the part about the Legislature voting for raises for rank & file legislators.  This is not possible; the state constitution forbids it.  There was a 1998 ballot question, sponsored by then-Speaker Tom Finneran, that created formula-driven raises, and promised that legislators could never again vote themselves a raise, except for leadership posts. Check it out.

 

Someone may be being cute saying that they will vote this year for next year’s legislators.  Mostly the same folks, folks.

 

"The Globe previously reported the special commission is expected to recommend increasing salary increases, including adding at least $25,000 to the governor’s $151,800 salary and adding $40,000 or more to the attorney general’s $130,582 salary. Changes in cost-of-living increases could also give rank-and-file legislators a raise of nearly $4,000 in January and larger increases in the future."

 

The Boston Globe

Thursday, November 27, 2014

House staff gets 6 percent pay raises

By Stephanie Ebbert
 


Then-House Speaker Thomas Finneran’s constitutional amendment that passed in 1998 doesn’t allow legislators to vote for a pay raise for the rank-and-file.  Just check with the Secretary of State’s 1998 voter information book, it’s a short, easily readable amendment.

 

Question 1: Proposed Amendment to the Constitution

A YES vote would prohibit state legislators from changing their base pay and instead would adjust that pay according to changes in median household income.

SUMMARY: This proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit the state Legislature from changing the base compensation received by members of the Legislature as of January 1, 1996. As of the first Wednesday in January of 2001, and every second year thereafter, the base compensation would be increased or decreased at the same rate as increases or decreases in the median household income for the Commonwealth for the preceding new year period, as ascertained by the Governor....

A "Yes" vote will prohibit legislators from voting themselves across-the-board pay raises.

The Official Massachusetts Information for Voters booklet
The 1998 Ballot Questions
Published by William Francis Galvin
Secretary of the Commonwealth

For more information read:
Despite the state Constitution, pols are back for another pay hike

 

Citizens for Limited Taxation  ▪  PO Box 1147  ▪  Marblehead, MA 01945  ▪  508-915-3665

BACK TO CLT HOMEPAGE