The head of the state’s pension fund is stepping down from his $322,000 a year post next month, citing “personal” reasons as well as concerns about a pair of government reforms being promoted by the Senate Republican Caucus.
News reports of Michael Travaglini’s announcement referenced two GOP proposals that would limit how much money he and other state employees would be able to make. One initiative would cap the pay of employees at the state’s quasi-public agencies at $143,000 – the same amount Governor Patrick makes – unless the higher pay differential can be justified in writing to the Secretary of Administration and Finance. The other would ban bonus payments to the state’s pension fund managers during any year the pension fund loses money.
Travaglini – who earned a $68,000 bonus in 2008 and has the potential to make up to 40 percent of his salary in bonus pay – told reporters “I have a wife and three children, and I’m going to provide for them.”
The Caucus’ salary cap proposal has already been approved as part of the Senate’s economic development reorganization bill, while the restrictions on bonus payments were included in the Senate version of the municipal relief bill. Because the House has not yet adopted these two proposals, the Caucus plans to bring them both up again during this week’s Senate budget debate.
