Committees are a cash cow for lawmakers
Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka has appointed a special committee to “reimagine” the state after the pandemic is over.
Which is all to the good, if anybody can figure out what she is talking about, or why the Senate needs another committee. It already has 43 Senate, joint and special committees.
Unless of course it is to grant a stipend (pay raise) to Sen. Adam Hinds of Pittsfield, who she named chairman. And because Hinds is already chairman of the Senate Committee on Revenue, he is eligible for a second $17,000 stipend to fortify his base $70,000 salary. It is called double dipping.
There are 37 Democrats, mostly progressives, and just three Republicans in the 40-member Senate, so there is no opposition to Spilka’s increasingly centralized control. She does what she wants, and everybody nods, including the GOP three. They double dip too.
Spilka, the Ashland Democrat leader, appoints all committee chairs, and all get an additional stipend on top of their $70,000 base salary. Some get two stipends if they hold two committee chairmanships or are part of Spilka’s leadership team.
Coveted chairmanships or leadership stipends range from $17,000 upward to $65,000 or more. Nobody in the Senate is just paid a mere $70,000.
And while there are eight leadership positions under Spilka — all eligible for stipends — none of the top posts are held by minorities or persons of color, even though Spilka and the progressives have talked a lot about equity, systemic racism, racial injustice, diversity and transparency.
There are no African Americans in the Senate and there are just two members of the Latin American community, Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz of Boston and Sen. Adam Gomez of Springfield.
Spilka is paid $178,000. All eight members of her leadership team make well over $100,000.
For instance, Sen. Cynthia Creem of Newton, whose base pay — like the rest — is $70,000, gets an additional $68,000 as majority leader, another $17,000 as chair of the Global Warming and Climate Change Committee, plus an additional $20,000 in office expenses.
This triple dipping brings her salary up to around $170,000. When she retires, her pension will be 80% of her pay.
Sen. William Brownsberger of Belmont gets a stipend of $56,000, for holding the honorary position of president pro tempore, along with $17,000 as chairman of the Committee on Redistricting, plus $20,000 for office expenses. That brings his total pay up to around $163,000.
Sen. Harriette Chandler of Worcester gets $39,000 extra as Senate president emerita, which means she is a former Senate president.
In addition, the five other members of Spilka’s leadership team get around $39,000 each in extra money through stipends. They all also chair committees which provides each with at least $17,000 more, plus $20,000 in office expenses.
Those stipends, coupled with the base salary of $70,000 brings their pay up to around $146,000, more than double their base pay.
Those assistant majority leaders are Sen. Joan Lovely of Salem, who is also chair of the Senate Rules Committee, Sen. Mike Barrett of Lexington, chair of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, and Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett, chair of the Senate Committee on Bills in the Third Reading.
Sen. Michael Rush of West Roxbury, the majority whip, is also chair of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, and Sen Julian Cyr of Truro, the assistant majority whip, is chair of the Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Recovery.
What it all means is that the Senate has more committees, committee chairmanships and leadership positions than it has Democrats to fill them. So Spilka loyalists make more money by going along with whatever she proposes.
Any dissidents, like the outspoken Sen. Diana DiZoglio of Methuen, who questioned Spilka’s centralized control, are quickly dealt with. Spilka removed DiZoglio as chair of the Committee on Community Development and named her to a lesser committee.
Spilka has wiped out any opposition. This includes the Republican minority, now down to a pathetic three members, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, and Assistant Minority Leaders Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth and Ryan Fattman of Sutton. All three “leaders” get extra pay even though there is nobody to lead.
How absurd is it? Consider that when Tarr made his committee assignments, he assigned O’Connor to serve on 19 committees, Fattman to serve on 18, and himself to serve on 12.
And Spilka wants to reimagine the state. How about reimagining the Senate first?