Bill proposes top pols’ pay pushed to $142G
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg would see their pay jump by nearly 50 percent to a whopping $142,000 a year under a proposed bill that would also significantly hike the salaries of their legislative leadership teams, the governor and even the state’s judges.
The pay grab, which could emerge for a vote as early as tomorrow, comes just days after lawmakers held a hastily scheduled hearing on a 2-year-old report recommending a range of huge pay increases for top state officials.
The 18-page bill adopts many of the recommendations, and in some cases, goes well beyond them, to pad the salaries of several dozen lawmakers, including party heads, their assistant leaders and committee chairs. Among the recommended changes:
• DeLeo and Rosenberg, who currently get $35,000 on top of the lawmakers’ base $62,500 salary, would instead get an $80,000 stipend, pushing their pay to $142,500. The proposal falls short of the $175,000 the compensation committee had recommended;
• The heads of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees, who currently get a $25,000 stipend for crafting the state budget, would instead get a $65,000 bump, pushing their pay to $127,500 a year;
• The party’s majority and minority leaders’ salaries would rise to $122,500, thanks to a $60,000 stipend. They had been getting an extra $22,500 a year; and
• Gov. Charlie Baker would see his $151,000 salary go to $185,000, with another $65,000 in housing allowances. So far he has said he won’t accept a raise.
“Fair-minded people will consider the fact that the stipends for presiding officers have not changed for 33 years,” Rosenberg said. “Who works for the same amount 33 years later?”
The 18-page bill would also eliminate the Legislature’s controversial per diems, which award lawmakers extra cash based on where they live and how often they drive to work at the State House. Instead, lawmakers who live within 50 miles would get $15,000 to cover expenses, while those who live 50 or more from Beacon Hill would get $20,000.
The bill also would raise the pay of judges across the state, just four years since the Legislature last voted to give them pay hikes. Under the bill, justices on the Supreme Judicial Court would get a $25,000 raise in salary over four installments, pushing the chief justice’s pay to $206,239 and the other justices to a little more than $200,000.