BOSTON (AP) -- Several state legislators say they will not accept a 5.5 percent pay hike they're entitled to receive, while others plan to donate the increase to charity.
Under a state law approved by voters in 1998, lawmakers' pay rises or falls every two years in line with the state's median household income.
The five-and-a-half percent increase would lift the base annual pay for a member from $58,237 to $61,440.
Republicans Karyn Polito of Shrewsbury, Lewis Evangelidis of Holden and Todd Smola of Palmer, and Democrat Garrett Bradley of Hingham all announced today that they were rejecting the raise.
Polito said she could not in good conscience accept the raise when so many families in Massachusetts were struggling to make ends meet.
House Speaker Sal DiMasi said through a spokesman that he would accept the raise, while a spokesman for Senate President Therese Murray would not say if she had made a decision.
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