State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, a backer of as newly-crowned House Speaker Robert DeLeo, has been named the House chairmanship of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business. Like other lawmakers with chairmanships, she will earn annually an extra $7,500 on top of a base pay of $61,440. In the last legislative session, she had been the vice chair of the Public Service Committee.
And as with any lawmaker who receives a chairmanship, she gains a bigger megaphone, a bigger office, a bigger staff and opportunities for increased fundraising.
Forry, who has worked at Mayor Thomas Menino’s Department of Neighborhood Development and is married to the Reporter’s managing editor, said she will keep pushing for pension reform and changes to the state’s criminal record system.