A very smart politician decided to get his mandatory pay raise written in stone some time back.  What’s most interesting is that the state constitutional amendment requires salaries to be either increased OR decreased.  Hmmm, guess everybody else is cutting back, while the commonwealth’s political leaders are bellying up.  Wicked.  From Wicked Local:

Gov. Deval Patrick today announced the 200 members of the Legislature will receive a 5.5 percent pay raise for the 2009-2010 legislative session that began today on Beacon Hill. The hike will boost the base salary of each senator and representative by $3,203.02 – from the current $58,236.74 to $61,439.76.
The total cost of the pay raise for legislators is $640,604 per year. Over the two-year 2009-2010 session, the cost is $1,281,208.

Read the Rest…