It is apparently good work if you can get it. The work in question would be as a member of the Massachusetts state legislator with a ranking position on one of the many committees that have been formed there. The Boston Globe took a look at the situation this week and learned that committee members - particularly the leaders - receive enviable pay bonuses for these additional "services" that they provide. One member of the state senate who chairs two committees earns more annually in stipends for his extra work than he does from his base salary. Mark Montigny chairs the Intergovernmental Affairs and Steering and Policy committees. But there's one catch to this happy tale. The Globe could find no evidence of those committees doing any substantive work or writing any bills all year. In fact, there doesn't appear to be any record of the committees even meeting.

As chairman of two committees in the Massachusetts Senate, Democrat Mark Montigny of New Bedford earns $61,000 in leadership stipends, which bump up his annual pay to $162,000 — more than double the base salary of state lawmakers.

But it’s unclear what the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs and the Senate Committee on Steering and Policy have achieved under his leadership.

During the current two-year legislative session, neither of Montigny’s committees has held a single public hearing or considered a single bill. When the Globe asked what the committees have done since January 2023, Montigny said the panels “serve in an advisory capacity to enhance the overall policy work of the Senate” — but declined to say whether either had even convened.

There were a couple of revealing items in this report. For one thing, we learned that Massachusetts state senators can earn a base pay rate of more than $100,000. That puts them in the top ten percent of earners in the country for a job where they only have to show up for work (on average) every other year, sometimes for only a few weeks. Sure, they can find other things to keep them busy in their constituent services offices, but that's still a pretty sweet deal. Plus they get to write off most of their expenses and have them covered by the taxpayers.

Each of the members sits on at least one committee. Some are assigned to more than one. For each committee membership, they are awarded tens of thousands of dollars in additional pay. Some of the committees probably have some defendable responsibilities to take care of, but at least some of them such as the ones Senator Montigny chairs don't appear to do much of anything at all. Is this really a wise use of the taxpayers' money?

When the Globe asked Montigny what the committees actually do, he stated that they “serve in an advisory capacity to enhance the overall policy work of the Senate.” That sounds great, I suppose, but did the committees actually hold any meetings during the previous two-year session? He didn't say for certain, but if they had, you would have expected that information to show up on the Senate's calendar on their website. 

The Globe wasn't just singling out Montigny. They found 12 of the legislature's committees (20%) haven't held a single hearing or considered any legislation during the current session. When the committee chairs - all Democrats - were asked about this apparent lack of activity, they defended their positions by saying that the committees were never intended to consider legislation. They are simply there to "support and advise." But who is it that they are supporting and advising? Each other? It seems like that's something that could be done from the floor of the chamber without requiring a special committee to do it. 

Massachusetts taxpayers are laying out nearly $400,000 per year for these committee membership bonuses. That's not an insignificant amount of money. You would think they should be able to expect something in exchange for it or else demand that it be returned.