New plum Senate position ridiculed as ‘taxpayer-funded gift’ by critics

The state Senate has added a second assistant majority whip position that’ll let another lucky Democratic member pull down a $35,000 leadership stipend — riling Republicans and government watchdogs who called the new post a “taxpayer-funded gift” to political insiders.

The move to create the new position, which has yet to be assigned to a senator for this legislative session, will add $35,000 to a member’s $62,500 base salary — and comes less than two weeks after an $18 million boost for leadership stipends following Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto was overridden by House and Senate majorities.

Paul Craney of the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance said, “The only place this doesn’t sound ridiculous is in the State House.”

“The workload hasn’t changed from last year,” Craney said. “They tell you they have your backs, but they really have their hands in your pockets.”

The Senate voted to let Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg name an additional assistant majority whip on Monday.

The 40-seat Senate is dominated by 34 Democrats, and all are expected to draw stipends with one or more leadership or committee chair assignments.

“It’s hard to believe that Democrats could top the level of deceit they achieved when they rushed this pay hike through with barely any public debate,” Massachusetts GOP spokesman Terry MacCormack said. “But the Senate president has done just that, with this underhanded move to retroactively add another Democrat to the insider crew that will benefit the most from this taxpayer-funded gift.”