Testimony by Amy Carnevale

Chair, Massachusetts Republican Party

Before the Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions

In Support of the Ballot Initiative to Reform and Regulate Legislative Stipends

March 17, 2026

Madam Chairs, Ranking Republicans, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today about legislative stipends.

 

Right now, Massachusetts is a national outlier.

 

We have the rare–and frankly, undistinguished–honor of having 149 “leaders” in a legislature of 200. There is not a single state across the country that has that many leaders. The term itself has become almost meaningless with so many leaders. It’s increasingly hard to know who isn’t a leader in the current legislature!

 

More importantly though, our 149 leaders can receive anywhere from $8,000 to $119,000 in generous additional compensation, on top of their base salary for leading some committees that haven’t even met in years. The consequences of being a leader, thereby accepting the stipend suppresses true representative government and democracy.

Criticize the Speaker? You may lose your stipend.

 

Talk to the media about concerns with a bill? You may lose your stipend.

 

Vote the way your constituents want you to, and the way your leader doesn’t? You may lose your stipend.

What might have begun as a good idea to compensate for extra work has ballooned out of control. This system is no longer working for the citizens of the Commonwealth. The way we’re doing business now rewards loyalty, not doing what’s best for your constituents.

 

The reforms before you today correct this system of loyalty payments disguised as leadership pay. They would transparently tie stipends to real committee work, cap both the number and size of these payments, and reduce the enormous disparities that currently exist between legislator and legislator. It empowers our rank-and-file legislators to consider no other interest than that of their constituents without having to wonder how their paycheck and families might be impacted.

 

so you can work for them. Incentives should encourage doing that job independently and in their interest, not punish it. That’s what the Massachusetts Republican Party believes. Thank you for your time.

###