BREAKING NEWS: State Lawmakers WON’T Get Pay Raise
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
House Speaker Gordon Fox announced today that previous reports that members of the Rhode Island House and Senate would be getting a raise were incorrect.
GoLocalProv is exclusively reporting that members of the General Assembly will actually see a decrease in the annual salary they receive from the state, according to Larry Berman a spokesman for Fox.
State lawmakers last year earned $14,018 for their work at the State House. The salary is automatically raised or reduced every year according to the rate of inflation, as mandated in the state Constitution. This year they will actually be getting a decrease of $56.07, lowering their salary to $13,962.55.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAfter media reports surfaced earlier this month that lawmakers would be getting a raise of 3.4 percent, several state senators denounced it as inappropriate during a recession marked by high unemployment and budget cuts across the state.
State senators James Sheehan, D-North Kingstown, Michael Pinga, D-West Warwick, and Edward O’Neill, I-Lincoln said they would take the extra money and donate it to local food banks. But now it appears that their outrage over the raise was premature.
The previous reports that there would be an increase in the salary was based on a miscalculation of the inflation rate, according to Fox. He said the original calculation was mistakenly based on the rate of inflation in December, instead of the 12-month average rate of inflation.
