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CLT
Memo to the Legislature
Monday, December 1,
2014
Proposed rank & file pay raises are unconstitutional
To: Members of the General Court
Re:
Proposed rank & file pay raises are unconstitutional
Aside from our concern
about giving any pay raises while there appears to be a deficit for FY
2015, you should know that there’s a constitutional problem with part of
what the Boston Globe has reported could be a special commission’s
recommendation: “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."
[Boston Globe; Thursday, November 25,
2014]
Then-House Speaker
Thomas Finneran got a constitutional amendment on the 1998 ballot –
which followed on the heels of the infamous 55% pay raise legislators
voted for themselves in December of 1994 (ironically also during a
lame-duck, post-election session). In 1998 Finneran and supporters
argued that if this amendment is adopted this would never happen again,
and voters bought it. That constitutional amendment which passed in
1998 does not allow increases for the rank-and-file legislators except
what is determined by an increase in the median household income, which
is computed by the U.S. Census Bureau:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25000.html
Just check with the
Secretary of State’s 1998 voter information booklet; the proposed
amendment was a short, easily readable proposal:
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.
Question 1. 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.
The Official
Massachusetts Information for Voters booklet
The 1998 Ballot
Questions
Published by
William Francis Galvin
Secretary of the
Commonwealth
Or read the actual
amendment as it was adopted:
The Constitution
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Art. CXVIII
[Art. 118].
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.
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪ PO
Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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