(BOSTON)—Today, the House voted to override the Governor’s veto on a fat pay raise package for lawmakers, members of the judiciary, and other politicians. The Senate is expected to override the Governor’s veto as well.

The big winners in the pay package are the House Speaker Robert DeLeo and most likely Senate President Stan Rosenberg, each of whom will receive a 50 percent raise. The bill includes an emergency preamble to ensure the cash hits bank accounts as soon as possible.

Lawmakers are also taking up votes on the rules for conducting the upcoming two-year legislative session. While members submitted a number of simple reforms to increase accountability, House leadership is expected to put forward rules which allow lawmakers to take selfies freely in the House chamber. The public, however, remain prohibited from taking pictures.

"It's a shame that legislative leaders like Rosenberg and DeLeo don’t share the same enthusiasm for reforming the rules as they do for pay raises and personal enrichment,” Paul Craney, executive director of MassFiscal, said, “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 your back."

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance advocates for fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability in state government and increased economic opportunity for the people of our Commonwealth.

 House Roll Call vote

Senate Roll Call Vote

Today the House passed whopping pay increases for themselves and other elected officeholders and members of the judiciary. Both the Senate President and the House Speaker are big winners in this bill, with their salaries increasing by more than half.

In addition, the measure eliminates per diem travel allowances. Instead, lawmakers who live more than 50 miles from the Statehouse will receive an additional $20,000 and lawmakers who live closer would receive $15,000 for travel and general office expenses. Eliminating per diems, means their reporting requirements would be included. Per diem reports are frequent fodder for candidates challenging incumbents, as padding the reports isn't uncommon among unscrupulous lawmakers. The measure also provides for automatic increases in the salaries every other year.

The Senate is expected to take up the pay increases tomorrow.

Legislative watchers say the pay raise is being rushed through right at the start of a new session to allow the voters plenty of time to forget the vote before elections. 

Lest you think the rush to raise salaries means we've solved the state's fiscal woes, know that legislative leaders continue to push for Prop 80, a new graduated income tax rate scheme that will increase taxes by 80 percent for the state's top earners.

MassFiscal opposes both the pay raise and Prop. 80. To check on how your legislator voted, see below.

As a new session begins, lawmakers meet to decide on the rules for the next session.

The Massachusetts legislature has a reputation for hiding its work behind closed doors. We wonder, what’s the big secret? They’re ignoring technological advances that could mean an informed public, and manipulating outcomes by fast-tracking complicated legislation. Updating the rules could change that reputation, and better lawmaking would be the result.

Increasing transparency and accountability on Beacon Hill is a key part of MassFiscal's mission, to that end, please join us in calling for more transparency in the statehouse and complete our Call to Action that highlights our top 3 reforms for the Rules debate. CLICK HERE to get started.

For more reform ideas, please see below:

• Make all votes available to the public and online. Currently, joint committee votes are not available online, the legislature should post them online and in real-time.
• The legislature should broadcast all committee hearings and Senate and House informal sessions on the Legislature’s website
• Allow the public and lawmakers at least 24 hours to review a bill before they are expected to vote on it. It is paramount to read what’s in a bill before it’s debated and to that end, the legislature should require a minimum of 24 hour review time of bills being considered by joint committee members before a vote.
• Issue a joint resolution on the minimum amount of aid to cities and town no later than March 31 of each year.
• Consider no bill in informal session unless it has been posted on the Legislature’s website at least 24 hours in advance and has received a public hearing or discharge vote by its committee of jurisdiction.
• Conclude no committee executive session or poll if a member has requested the text of a legislative matter being taken up, and had not yet been provided the text.
• Provide members of joint committees with the text of bills before the beginning of an executive session or poll. 
• Require that a conference committee report be filed at 5 p.m. (with text available on the legislature’s website) for the report to be considered the next day.