Income inequality, Beacon Hill style
By 
It would be hard to swing a dead cat in the State House without hitting a member of the nearly all-Democratic Legislature who has railed in one form or another against rising income inequality, which has become the cause of our time, particularly among liberal-leaning types.
So it seemed a bit perplexing to read this morning that the state’s district attorneys are slated to receive a healthy pay increase, while a pittance is being tossed at their poorly-paid underlings who man the frontlines in prosecuting cases throughout the state’s courts. The Boston Globe reports that the state’s 11 DAs will see a pay bump of almost $23,000 a year, or 15 percent, under the proposed state budget. The DAs’ salary would jump from $148,843 to $171,561.
The state’s 700 assistant district attorneys are slated to share in a $500,000 line item added to the budget. If that money is divided equally among them, the ADAs would each see an annual raise of about $715. Starting pay for assistant district attorneys is just $37,500, with average pay for those with a few years on job in the low- to mid-$40,000 range, the Globe reports.
The paper highlights several other pay-increase disparities in the budget, including a similar $23,000 raise for the head of the state office that coordinates defense counsel services for those who can’t afford a private lawyer. The raise for Anthony Benedetti, which boosts his pay from $148,843 to $171,561, is tied to the salary increase for DAs, but there is no increase in the budget for the low-paid lawyers who work under him. Salaries for the 500 state public defenders average in the mid-$50,000 range.
Michael O’Keefe , the DA for the Cape & Islands, didn’t exactly help his cause when he told the Globe that the pay gap between DAs and the prosecutors who work under them is just how things usually work. “There is usually disparity between the leadership and those who start at the bottom,” O’Keefe told the paper. No one disputes the idea that a DA should earn more than the assistant prosecutors who work under him. What’s at issue is a budget proposal that widens that gap.
The pay increases for those at the top are, in absolute dollar terms, more affordable to the state. The nearly $23,000 boost in the salary of the 11 DAs amounts to a just under $250,000 in total. In contrast, giving each of the state’s 700 ADAs a $5,000 raise would cost $3.5 million.
Giving decent raises to a small number of people at the top may be less costly than even modest across-the-board increases for the much larger of number of people who work under them, but it’s often said that public budgets are numerical expressions of our collective values. As such, lawmakers seem to be signing off on the sort of statement that many of them regularly decry when it is practiced by the private sector.
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
House Speaker Robert DeLeo isn’t being charged with any wrongdoing in connection with patronage at the Probation Department, but a witness at the trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien suggests agency jobs may have helped the speaker land his current job, CommonWealth reports. Peter Gelzinis says testimony in the Probation trial shows Beacon Hill at its worst, with politicians obsessing over “a job for a cousin, a daughter, a daughter’s boyfriend, the friend of a friend,” and using O’Brien’s office as “their own favor bank.”
Some of the medical marijuana dispensary applicants shot down by the Department of Public Health are blaming federal banking issues, WBUR reports.
The state’s fiscal 2015 budget relies on $73 million in revenues from casinos, which face a repeal referendum in November.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is one of several mayors across the country hosting street parties to watch the US soccer team take on Belgium, Governing reports.
Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi institutes a City Hall media policy.
CASINOS
Mayor Walsh unilaterally calls off surrounding community talks with Wynn Resorts and Mohegan Sun as he tries to convince gaming regulators to put casino licensing on hold until after November, CommonWealth reports.
Voters favor the Mohegan Sun casino proposal in Revere over the Wynn Resorts plan in Everett by a 48-27 margin, WBUR reports.
A University of Massachusetts Dartmouth poll finds slim support for casinos.
Kevin Cullen joins the anti-casino caucus.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
President Obama , frustrated by congressional inaction, announces he will use executive powers to begin immigration reform.
The Atlantic sees a “cold indifference” toward workers from the Supreme Court.
ELECTIONS
The three Democratic candidates for governor and the presumed Republican nominee all voiced general support for a bill moving through the Legislature that would require faster disclosure of super PAC expenditures and double individual campaign donation limits from $500 to $1,000.
Salem immigration lawyer Marissa DeFranco makes her case on Greater Boston why she would have a better chance of defeating Richard Tisei than incumbent US Rep. John Tierney, whom she is challenging in the Democratic primary.
Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera backs Philip DeCologero for a House seat currently occupied by Rep. Diana DiZoglio, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on health care coverage for contraception is bad news for Scott Brown, who struggled mightily two years ago when his Senate run turned on reproductive politics in the Supreme Court. The New York Times sees partisans on both sides working the court’s ruling for all it’s worth.
Lowell Sun columnist Peter Lucas says Attorney General Martha Coakley is losing court cases in ways that make her look like a first-year law student.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Leaders of the state’s vaunted biotech industry say Massachusetts must avoid complacency as a growing number of places nationally and globally are moving to develop biotech hubs.
The US Postal Service is standing by its decision to close and move the downtown New Bedford post office despite pleas from city officials and area merchants to save the historic site. A US Postal Service facility in Shrewsbury employing nearly 500 people is being shut down, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Keller@Large says Brazil’s “misplaced priorities” in building $2 billion worth of stadiums for the World Cup that will be abandoned when the tournament is over is a good predictor of what Boston faces should it win the Olympics.
Wisconsin is putting its historic rehabilitation tax credit on hold because dollar outlays are much larger than forecasted, Governing reports.
HEALTH CARE
A Suffolk Superior Court judge accepts comments but not intervenors as she decides whether to approve a consent agreement between Attorney General Martha Coakley and the Partners HealthCare System, CommonWealth reports. Paul Levy, on his blog, raises questions about the component contracting provision in Coakley’s agreement with Partners.
TRANSPORTATION
AAA forecasts more Americans will hit the road this year for the Fourth of July weekend than in any year since 2008.
Make sure you have a little extra cash today as MBTA fares and passes rise across the board.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The federal Department of Energy has made a conditional commitment for a $150 million loan guarantee for the Cape Wind project. The Globe calls the move a “vote of confidence that the offshore wind farm will get built.”
Groton voters approve a nonbinding resolution opposing plans by Tennesse Gas Pipeline to build a pipeline through their community, the Sun reports.
Dan Kennedy offers the contrasting tales of the Washington Post, which appears to be in a revival under the ownership of Jeff Bezos, and the Orange County Register, which looks like it’s tanking after the initial moves by Aaron Kushner.