Elected state officials from Western Massachusetts testifying on Beacon Hill Tuesday said they want to strike language from a state law that limits travel expense reimbursements for members of the Governor’s Council.
Pittsfield State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier said the statute "smacks of geographic inequity" and she added, it's a little inexplicable.
"A member of the Governor's Council is reimbursed for travel, meals, lodging and all of that — but only for the first four terms," Farley-Bouvier said.
Pending legislation would remove that limit, and Farley-Bouvier suggested a simple correction of striking a few sentences from Massachusetts General Laws, section 4 of chapter 6.
Governor's Councilor Tara Jacobs is in her second term and lives in North Adams. Her weekly travel to to attend Council meetings at the state house in Boston is 140 miles each way, she said, and she is not the only who comes to Beacon Hill from a distance.
"Several of my other colleagues also represent districts that are quite large and distant from Boston," Jacobs said, "and looking through the statute we couldn't find any other elected officials in the Commonwealth who are subjected to term limits like this one — which seems like an odd inequity in itself."
Almost a dozen western Mass. legislators have signed on to support "An Act relative to reimbursing traveling expenses of governor's council members."