Some take pay raises, some don't

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer

January 09, 2009 09:58 am

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At a time when communities are bracing for cuts on fears state revenues could plunge another $1 billion, state lawmakers have found themselves in line for a 5.5 percent pay hike and a nearly $62,000 salary.

Lawmakers don't determine their own raises. A 1998 law ties their salaries to fluctuations in the state's median household income.

However, it is up to lawmakers whether to take the extra pay.

Of the North Shore's lawmakers interviewed yesterday, state Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers, and state Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem, said they planned to take the extra $3,203.

Others, like state Rep. Brad Hill, R-Ipswich, would have none of it.

"My plan is not to take it," Hill said. "Too many citizens of my district have fallen on hard times, many are unemployed, and to take a 5.5 percent pay increase would be a slap in their faces."

State Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, and state Rep. Joyce Spiliotis, D-Peabody, said they plan to donate the extra money to causes inside their districts.

"I'm probably giving mine to charity like I did in 2003," Spiliotis said. She gives to a variety of causes but had not yet earmarked any for her extra pay.

"This decision is a very personal decision," said Ehrlich, who has been on Beacon Hill just a few months.

Ehrlich will take the raise, but she plans to donate it to a host of organizations: the Marblehead and Swampscott food pantries and councils on aging, My Brother's Table, Friends of Lynn and Nahant Beach, Aging in Place-Lynn, Friends of Marblehead Public Schools, and the Swampscott Public Schools revolving fund.

If her 2009 raise is divvied up equally among these organizations, they could each expect a check for $355.89.

"My phone has been ringing constantly with constituents and service providers in the district who are not only feeling the pain of cuts but tremendous demand for their services," Ehrlich said.

State law requires the governor to certify the extent of the pay raise by looking at changes in household income at the start of each legislative session every two years. The increase brings lawmakers' base pay up from $58,237 to $61,440. Some heads of committees make $7,500 to $15,000 on top of that.

Spiliotis said lawmakers can probably expect a decrease at the start of the next session.

"This mechanism was supposed to take (raises) out of the political arena," Keenan said.

Ehrlich said she was not trying to score political points by donating her raise, but the economy is in such tough shape, it has "probably shined a brighter spotlight on this."

Speliotis, the Danvers Democrat, said lawmakers have the discretion to take the pay raise, just as former Gov. Mitt Romney, a wealthy businessman who co-founded an investment company, decided to forgo his salary.

Speliotis said as a full-time lawmaker in his seventh term, he can't afford to do what Romney did, but he doesn't think the raise is excessive.

"I do take the raise," Speliotis said. About a decade ago, lawmakers would vote on pay raises and they would come in cycles. Many years would pass without a pay increase, then lawmakers would vote themselves a large increase, which did not sit well with the public.

"This happens to be one of the lowest pay raises we've received under the formula," Speliotis said.

"It wouldn't be arbitrary, it wouldn't be capricious acts by the Legislature," said Speliotis, who understands why residents might cringe.

"I pick up the paper and I see every municipal employee receiving a step increase, a raise, and they all go within the flow of the budget. ... No one has ever said to me, 'Ted, you make too much money.'"

"This whole amendment to the (state) Constitution was supposed to take it out of our hands because it is never a good time for an elected official to vote on a pay raise," Keenan said.

Keenan also gets $18 on days when he travels to Boston, and he estimates he received $1,000 last year in travel allowances.

Elsewhere in the state, some lawmakers said they planned to forgo the pay raises all together.

"I cannot in good conscience accept a raise in legislative pay when there are so many families across the state who cannot afford to meet their household expenses," said Karyn Polito, R-Shrewsbury, in a letter to Treasurer Tim Cahill.

The $640,600 for additional pay would best be spent elsewhere, she said.

State Rep. Lew Evangelidis, R-Holden, echoed Polito's statements.

Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry, D-Peabody, state Sen. Thomas McGee, D-Lynn, and state Rep. Mary Grant, D-Beverly, could not be reached for comment.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.