By only .5% You have to look at the white space to see the decimal point. They gave themselves a 5.5% increase two years. I don't think they are going to miss 5 tenths of a percent.
Gov. Deval Patrick today announced that he is trimming legislative salaries -- and his own pay -- by .5 percent under pressure from a growing budget deficit and continuing economic recession.
The pay cut means legislators would see $307 trimmed slashed from their pay and would earn a base salary of $61,133; Patrick's pay would go from $140,535 to $139,833. This is the first salary cut since 1998.
Every two years, the sitting governor must decide whether lawmakers will receive a salary boost -- a measure adopted to take the decision away from legislators themselves. Two years ago, Patrick raised legislative salaries by 5.5 percent. |