Chabot: Pols bank $67G from eliminated travel perk

Summer break-bound Beacon Hill lawmakers, who failed to pass a popular sales tax holiday last week, collected $67,000 in taxpayer-funded travel stipends this year despite eliminating the perk when they voted themselves a multimillion-dollar pay increase in February.

Legislators immediately began pocketing their pay hike — and they can still take the so-called per diems until 2018, thanks to little-known rule that gives them a full year to collect.

“This is the reason why the public is skeptical of elected officials. First legislators rushed to approve this pay raise and then they continue to collect this taxpayer-funded stipend,” said Republican state Rep. Marc Lombardo, who refuses to take per diems. “It’s insulting and voters should be outraged.”
Fifty-eight state representatives and senators pocketed $67,000 since January, according to state records. The largest payouts went to state representatives Joseph Wagner (D-Chicopee), who took $7,440 and Rep. David T. Vieira (R-Falmouth) who collected $4,700. Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) put in for nearly $4,000 and Senate President Stan Rosenberg got $600.

The stipends are meant to reimburse legislators for travel, meals and lodging, with amounts varying depending on how far the elected official lives from the State House. But lawmakers eliminated per diems when they voted to give themselves their $18 million salary package, which increased the stipends most lawmakers receive for “leadership roles” on top of their $62,500 base salary.

“This clearly demonstrates that lawmakers have very little regard for taxpayers,” said Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. The right-leaning advocacy group has targeted lawmakers who voted for the pay hike, which boosted the salaries of Speaker Robert DeLeo and Rosenberg from $97,547 to $142,547. The measure also raised the pay of Gov. Charlie Baker and other constitutional officers — the governor, the AG and treasurer declined to accept the hike — as well as the judiciary.

“Just recently legislators scuttled any attempts for a sales tax-free weekend because the state needs the revenue. But given the opportunity to save taxpayers money by sacrificing their own perks, they choose to take as much as they can,” said Craney.


Lawmakers left the State House Friday, kicking off an unofficial break without taking up legislation that would give Bay State shoppers a sales tax-free weekend on Aug. 13 and 14. It’s the second year in a row without a sales tax holiday, and disgruntled small business owners have responded by pushing to establish a permanent tax-free weekend in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, the MassFiscal Alliance is blanketing communities with flyers that slam at least 10 lawmakers for approving “a 40 percent pay raise.”

The tactic appears to be working.

Several lawmakers declined to comment when reached about the per diems. One lawmaker shrugged off the issue of the stipends, but then asked not to be named.