How Sweet It Is…

Imagine this…. you are the executive director of the state’s pension fund. You earn over $300K a year (and that is probably more than you really should be making), and you get a $64,000 bonus check–all this while state pension fund lost a billion dollars. All in all not bad, not bad at all.

Despite presiding over a $1 billion loss last year, the executive director of the state’s pension fund will receive a $64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary because the fund outperformed the market indexes and many other major state pension funds.

Michael Travaglini, who is already the highest paid state employee, and his two top aides will get a 20 percent bonus under benchmarks set by the nine-member Pension Reserves Investment Management Board in October. The other 23 members of the management staff will get bonuses of 16 percent.

The bonuses are kicking in as Travaglini is campaigning for salary increases of up to 5 percent for the agency’s staff, according to agency documents. But facing questions from the Globe yesterday, the board’s chairman, State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, pulled the pay increases from the agenda for today’s meeting.

The bonuses and the recommended raises come after the $50.6 billion fund registered a 1.8 percent loss for the 12-month period ending June 30, its first loss in five years. The pension board has noted that its investment returns place it among the top tier of public pension funds around the country.

Cahill did not respond to a Globe request for comment. His spokeswoman, Alison Mitchell, would only confirm that the treasurer had pulled the salary proposal from the agenda. Travaglini did not return calls seeking comment.

Massachusetts Republican Party Executive Director Robert Willington issued the following statement via press release:

Governor Patrick campaigned on a pledge to end the ‘Big-Dig’ culture, and has clearly failed to do so. Only in Massachusetts would the brother of a former Democrat Senate President be rewarded for losing one billion dollars. This loss casts further doubt on the intelligence of the massive borrowing proposed by Governor Patrick. Instead of holding self-congratulatory press conferences, maybe Governor Patrick should hold another one with Treasurer Cahill to explain the billion dollar loss, and why they are asking the taxpayers to contribute another $1.5 Billion to the pension fund this year.

In a time where everyone is making sacrifices, and most of us may not see a 20% bonus check this year (if any at all) because of these tough times, why isn’t anyone on the Hill learning about sacrifice? I guess you have to be someone’s brother in this state to avoid the gauntlet.

Oh, and I love the part about Michael Trav’s campaiging for pay increases of 5%. Hello!?!?!

Aaron Margolis is a life long resident of the Bay State, and works at an architectural firm north of Boston. Aaron has a Master of Architecture Degree from Boston Architectural College and is currently in the process of becoming of a Registered Architect.

One Response to “How Sweet It Is…”

1. Hub Politics » Deval “Won’t Rule Out Tax Increases” says:

   August 11, 2008 at 1:02 pm

   [...] off the table. Perhaps you should stop creating new high salary positions, and maybe even lessen or eliminate bonuses and raises on the state payroll before you worry about taking more of our money from [...]

   Reply