Citizens for Political Reform
PO Box 408 * Peabody, MA 01960
Phone: (508) 538-3900 * Fax: (508) 531-4374 * E-Mail: CPR98@aol.com
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*** CPR UPDATE ***
Wednesday, January 15, 1997

"Greed Limit 55%" *Wrong*: Greed *UNLIMITED* !

Greetings folks:

You probably received a recent CPR Update (dated Jan. 12th)
that contained nothing more than a header and footer and won-
dered what it was all about. It was *supposed to be* my update
at the conclusion of the National Taxpayers Conference '97,
which I spent a couple of hours writing very early on Monday
morning, that somehow got lost in cyberspace after I sent it
from my motel room in Maryland (where my car had problems com-
ing home)! I'm trying to track it down, and when I locate it
I'll send it along once again -- if a bit belatedly.

Did you hear the news -- *more* payraises for legislators!

Our slogan and logo "Greed Limit 55%" apparently was wrong:
There is *no limit* to legislative greed on the emboldened
Beacon Hill! As soon as we heard on Monday evening that the
proposal was official and would be part of re-elected House
Speaker Thomas F. Finneran's alleged "Rules Reform", we re-
sponded in true Minuteman fashion; our news release of yester-
day follows a Boston Globe news report:

The Boston Globe
Wednesday, January 15, 1997
Metro / Region (Pg B3)

House OK's Finneran's revamping of rules

By Michael Grunwald
Globe Staff

The Massachusetts House yesterday resoundingly approved
Speaker Thomas M. Finneran's plan to boost the pay of 11 legis-
lators, ban the larding of budgets with unrelated bills, chal-
lenge Gov. William F. Weld's stranglehold on a $1 billion
infrastructure budget and revamp the way the House does busi-
ness.

Finneran described his plan as a check on his own power and
an effort to make the House a more open place for its members.

But House Republicans and a few Democrats accused Finneran
of an unprecedented consolidation of power, and warned that he
was squelching the rights of ordinary back-benchers.

Critics also decried the rules as a back-door pay hike, de-
signed to reward supporters of Finneran's bid for the speaker-
ship. Yesterday's 123-30 vote created two new committees, seven
paid committee posts, and four paid "division chairs" similar
to legislative whips. Nine Democrats and two Republicans will
receive supplements of at least $7,500 to their $46,410 base
salaries.

"Now teacher's pet is a paid position," complained Rep.
Christopher J. Hodgkins (D-Lee), Finneran's most outspoken
opponent in the House.

Hodgkins ridiculed the idea of extra pay for division
chairs, comparing them to "hall monitors." But there was even
more debate over Finneran's move to strengthen the Rules Com-
mittee by allowing it to strike down amendments or limit debate
it deems irrelevant to the bill at hand. Republicans warned
that for the first time in 180 years, members could lose their
right to be heard.

"This House was not designed to be efficient! It was design-
ed to be inefficient!" thundered Rep. Francis L. Marini
(R-Hanson). "None of us should give up our right to offer
amendments and debate them openly. People have fought and died
to maintain that right."

Finneran said his plan would do nothing to muzzle members.
He said it would just stop them from tacking on hundreds of
"outside sections," dealing with everything from abortion to
the death penalty to asphalt plants, during late-night scram-
bles to finish the budget. Those added sections, he said, only
increased the power of the speaker and the Senate president,
who could decide whether to kill or approve them behind closed
doors.

The Rules Committee changes, Finneran said, would parallel
the rules of Congress and dozens of state legislatures. And
they would end the specter of midnight boondoggles that bypass
the regular legislative process.

"I'll take responsibility for the results," Finneran said.
"I'll eat these rules if they are applied in a discriminatory
or despotic way."

The new rules create a Committee on Steering and Policy,
which will help set the House schedule. They also establish a
Committee on Long-Term Debt, which will draw up a five-year
plan for state spending on prisons, highways, open space,
computers, courthouses and other infrastructure projects. In
the past, the governor has had sole control over such projects,
but Finneran wants his new committee to explore a constitution-
al challenge to those powers.

"We have been warned that this is the end of an era," Finneran
told the House after several hours of debate. "I can only hope
that's true."

Some legislative critics complained that business was unfor-
unately proceeding as usual. Although Finneran said he would
make sure his 11 pay raises were offset by decreases in House
spending, limited-government activist Barbara Anderson com-
plained the speaker was paying off his supporters. Less than
two years after the 55 percent legislative pay raise to
$46,410, 51 of the 160 members of the House will receive extra
money for leadership roles.

"Why not call every legislator a leader, give him an extra
$7,500, and get it over with?" Anderson said.

* * * *

CITIZENS
for
Limited Taxation & Government

News Release
January 14, 1997
Re: House Rules

He Who Distributes The Pay Makes The Rules

There are only two reasons to increase the number of committees
and chairmen:

1. To increase the power of the House speaker, who will com-
mand the loyalty of the legislators to whom he gives an extra
$7,500/year. This is the reason that we ordinary citizens are
not permitted to give $7.500 a year to legislators; it is
assumed by ethics laws that we would be buying those politic-
ians. Why can the Speaker buy them if we can't?

2. To give back-door pay increases to the Legislature, which
after the 1994 election raised its own pay 55%. The logo of our
campaign to repeal that raise was "the 55% greed limit." Appar-
ently this was wrong: there is no limit on greed. The new game
is to continue adding to the number of extra-pay positions.
Why not just call every legislator a leader, give him an addi-
tional $7,500 each year, and get it over with? (This is not a
recommendation, but we expect it to happen eventually.)

It is important to note that while most states give extra
pay to presiding officers and majority/minority leaders, very
few give additional pay to others such as assistant leaders,
whips, or committee chairmen. According to the 1994-95 Book of
States, only eight states give additional compensation to all
chairs.

The refusal of members to allow a roll call on giving "lead-
ership pay" to "Division Chairs" (head-counters) proves that
they know this is silly and wrong.

The CPR (Committee for Political Reform) initiative petition
will not allow this additional compensation. We are considering
having no leadership pay at all on the grounds that in a demo-
cratic body, all representatives should be equal. Liberte,
egalite, fraternite.

We will also do our best to get citizens the right to a com-
prehensive audit of the legislative accounts.

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