Hubris Gone Wild: 87% Democratic Legislature Overrides Romney Vetoes
by Aaron Margolis, August 1st, 2006 at 06:13am
Just as Sen. Michael Morrissey said when the legislature initially approved the pay raise package, “I wouldn’t bet on [Romney] winning a veto.”
Of course, Sen. Morrissey was speaking specifically of the the pay raise for judges when he said that in June, but as we found out last night, it was effectively a blanket statement for any Romney veto.
After the slew of veto overrides last night, I think I would like to be a judge in Massachusetts… how can I set that up? It would be fantastic to know that the state legislature would override a governor’s veto to give me a 14% pay raise–a retroactive pay raise, no less.
State lawmakers yesterday overrode Gov. Mitt Romney’s veto of a pay hike for judges, insuring that jurists will get 14 percent raises retroactive to January.
Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey have been vocal critics of the size of the judicial pay raises.
“The governor is not opposed to a pay increase for judges, but he believes it should be smaller and that there’s no need to make the increase retroactive,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said.
The pay hike, the first since 1998, sends the salaries of most judges from $112,777 to $129,694, with Chief Administrative Justice Robert Mulligan getting an $18,000 annual raise that boosts his salary to $140,358. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall will receive a $20,000 boost to bring her salary to $151,239.
The 87% Democratic legislature took the eraser to the Governor’s pen with a few more veto overrides–not that anyone is surprised.
Last night they voted to override Romney’s veto of a minimum wage increase. Now the state’s minimum wage will jump from $6.75 per hour to $7.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2007 and on Jan. 1, 2008 it will increase to $8 per hour.
Yesterday lawmakers also rejected a veto by Romney that would have killed a legislatively created Asian-American Commission made up of 18 members charged with representing the interests of Bay State citizens of Asian descent. Romney called the commission unnecessary and duplicative of an existing 14-member Asian-American governor’s commission.
The 87% Democratic legislature must be feeling all warm and fuzzy, they increased the minimum wage. Remember this when people start losing their jobs so their employers can pay this new minimum wage.
And I’m so glad that the Asian-American Commission can waste more taxpayer money for what? To represent the interests of Massachusetts citizens of Asian descent? This is a joke, right? Now my taxes have to help pay for 18 people to get modest salaries for doing a job that our elected representatives are supposed to do already? How many legislators’ friends and relatives will sit on this board? I bet these guys will get some great benefits, too…
I just heard a toilet flush, and I think I heard hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars go down the drain.
Thanks a lot, and go screw.
Entry Filed under: Beacon Hill
4 Comments
1. Helen | August 1st, 2006 at 10:48 am
As we approach the next elections, please revisit these selections from the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
Article V. All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them.
Article VI. No man, nor corporation, or association of men, have any other title to obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those of the community, than what arises from the consideration of services rendered to the public; and this title being in nature neither hereditary, nor transmissible to children, or descendants, or relations by blood, the idea of a man born a magistrate, lawgiver, or judge, is absurd and unnatural.
Article VII. Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.
Article VIII. In order to prevent those, who are vested with authority, from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at such periods and in such manner as they shall establish by their frame of government, to cause their public officers to return to private life; and to fill up vacant places by certain and regular elections and appointments.
2. Salvatore Coglione | August 1st, 2006 at 12:35 pm
About that 87-percent Democratic Legislature:
Uh-oh! Time for Pretty Mitt to take a powder?
3. obi juan | August 1st, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Sal, one would hope that with a more diverse legislature there would be more debate on these things. We need a Ron Paul or two.
4. Salvatore Coglione | August 1st, 2006 at 5:27 pm
Perhaps, obi juan, but that’s beside the point.
Aaron falsely presented the minimum wage increase as a partisan issue, when in fact, everyone in the legislature regardless of party voted for it. Pretty Mitt –and pampered elites like Aaron– are simply out of the mainstream on this.
Why can’t he just tell the truth?