As expected, Democrats in the Legislature overruled Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of significant pay raises for legislative leaders Thursday.
The 43 votes in the House to sustain Baker’s veto included all of the chamber’s Republicans and nine brave Democratic souls who bucked party leaders. The vote played out much the same way in the Senate, with three moderate Democrats joining six Republicans’ inadequate attempt to stop the raises from becoming law. The votes to override Baker’s veto in the House and Senate Thursday were identical to the ones that initially passed the bill last week with no lawmakers changing sides.
DeLeo and Rosenberg will receive immediate stipend increases of $45,000, taking their full compensation to $142,000. The bill also boosts pay for top chairman and members of the leadership teams, as well as judges and court clerks. The judiciary’s leader, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants, got a $25,000 raise. Baker’s own salary went up from $151,800 to $185,000 and now includes a $60,000 housing allowance.
The heavily partisan rebuke of Baker may dampen the chummy relationship between the governor and Legislature. It reveals an issue Republicans hope will stick in voters’ minds when Legislators, and Baker, are up for reelection next year.
“One of the key roles of elected officials is to protect the people’s hard earned tax dollars. Authorizing this drastic salary increase with limited debate defies this obligation and places an undue financial burden on the people of Massachusetts,” Baker wrote in a statement shortly after the Senate voted 31 to nine to override Baker’s objection to the bill and force it into law. The measure passed the House earlier in the day with 116 'yes’ votes to 43 'no’ votes, mostly along party lines.
Baker and Polito have said they won’t accept any raises or allowances included in the law, but Republicans aren’t done making hay out of the pocketbook issue.
“Massachusetts Democrats won’t be getting a profile in courage award anytime soon thanks to the underhanded, backdoor nature of this pay raise scheme,” state Republican Party chairman Kirsten Hughes wrote, adding that the push to raise the stipends was “ignoring a public outcry about fiscally irresponsible behavior.”
The pay raise vote has already become a political liability for several freshmen Democrats, who took their very first vote as elected lawmakers to bump DeLeo and Rosenberg’s pay. The Democrat-targeting Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is preparing to do everything they can to remind voters of the vote in 2018.
“The national political scene provides cover on Beacon Hill. The public’s attention is focused elsewhere, and these practiced politicians want you to think they have your back but instead they have a knife in you back,” Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance executive director Paul Craney wrote.
Republicans and their allies weren’t the only ones knocking Legislative Democrats for giving their leaders 40 percent raises, non-Legislative Democrats were crossing party lines to attack their comrades.
“At a time when the public’s faith in government and the good intentions of elected officials is already strained, I fear that the decision by the legislature to force through their own pay raise will further shake the Commonwealth’s confidence that Beacon Hill is working in their best interest,” Newton Mayor and probably 2018 Baker challenger Setti Warren wrote after the vote.
Attorney General Maura Healey and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, both up for reelection in 2018, will also turn down the raises.
Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.
