WGXC-90.7 FM

Massachusetts legislators, officers also getting large raises

Jan 03, 2023 12:21 am

Colin A. Young and Sam Drysdale report in the Berkshire Eagle that New York lawmakers may not be the only ones getting raises this year. State lawmakers in Massachusetts will receive their fourth pay raise since 2017, this one worth more than four percent. Constitutional officers in the Bay State are likely getting a 20 percent raise this year. The reason legislators are getting the raise is because the state Constitution increases their salaries based on changes in the median household income statewide. And median household income in Massachusetts has risen 4.42 percent since the last adjustment to lawmaker pay. Lawmakers there will go from salaries of $70,536 to about $73,654, much less than New York lawmakers, who now are getting more than any other legislators in the country, at $142,000 a year, after voting for their own raises just before the holiday break. The 20 percent increase for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, and secretary of state of Massachusetts comes from a 2017 law that ties officials’ salaries to changes in state wages over the past eight quarters, rather than to median household income. Incoming Gov.-elect Maura Healey will now make $222,185 a year, $37,185 more than former Gov. Charlie Baker, who got a $185,000 salary. Healey spokesperson Karissa Hand said Healey will, “accept the salary that has been established by statute.” Read the full story in the Berkshire Eagle.