Senate · Democrat

Pavel M. Payano

Current member · First Essex

Data through FY2026; built October 19, 2026.

Residence

Lawrence

First elected

Senate 2022

Prior public offices

Lawrence School Committee; Lawrence City Council (at-large)

Seats held, General Courts 189–194 (the FY2017–FY2026 budgets)
Session	Chamber	District	Lines	Note
193rd (2023–24)	Senate	First Essex	2021 lines
194th (2025–26)	Senate	First Essex	2021 lines

Posts and stipends

Pavel M. Payano was paid $108,829 in leadership and committee stipends from 2023 to 2026 (2026 to date).

Posts and stipends by session (stipends by calendar year)
Session	Posts	First year	Second year
193rd (2023–24)	Chair, Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses; Vice chair, Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity	$27,564	$27,564
194th (2025–26)	Chair, Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure; Vice Chair, Joint Advanced IT	$30,207	$23,494 (to date)

Posts: the Legislature’s leadership and roster records as compiled for this project; where those name no post, the member’s committee chair, vice-chair and ranking roles from the Legislature’s member profiles. Stipends: additional compensation in the Comptroller’s payroll data (CTHRU dataset 9ttk-7vz6), 2016–2026; 2026 is the year to date. Stipends for 2015 are not available. Base salary is not included.

The district

First Essex on its 2021 lines: 3 cities and towns, 167,027 residents (2020).

Lawrence 53% · Methuen 32% · Haverhill 15%, 37% of the town

Percentages are each place’s share of the district’s 2020 residents; for a town split between districts, the share of the town inside this one follows.

Population-weighted Fairness Index of the district’s cities and towns: 70 for all state aid and 49 for discretionary money (50 is a fair share).

Local earmarks are counted three ways. District money uses the first, clauses that name a place in the district; the second table adds organizations located in the district (placed in the district) and state facilities located there (everything placed). Three ways to count a local earmark.

District money, first measure: enacted earmarks in clauses naming a place in the district, by session (district money, not the member’s)
Session	District	Dollars	In corrective clauses	Per resident per budget, rank	Without corrective clauses, rank
193rd (2023–24)	First Essex	$2.3M	$0	$7.01 · 29th of 40	$7.01 · 29th of 40
194th (2025–26)	First Essex	$1.1M	$0	$6.78 · 24th of 40	$6.78 · 24th of 40

District money is where enacted earmarks land, by the place a clause names, mapped to districts by 2020 population; it is not attributed to the member and does not include leadership’s base-text money that names no place. Ranks are of district money per resident among the chamber’s districts, 1 = most. “In corrective clauses” is the part carried by a Ways and Means chair’s corrective amendments, which is leadership’s money; the last column gives the per-resident figure and rank without it. Sessions are labeled by the General Court that enacted each budget. Per-resident figures use the district as drawn for each session (2011 lines through the 192nd General Court, 2021 lines from the 193rd), so they will not equal a session’s dollars divided by the resident count above.

The same district on the other two measures, by session (enacted; includes any corrective-clause money)
Session	District	Placed in the district	Per resident per budget, rank	Everything placed	Per resident per budget, rank
193rd (2023–24)	First Essex	$3M	$8.87 · 26th of 40	$3M	$8.87 · 27th of 40
194th (2025–26)	First Essex	$1.6M	$9.35 · 19th of 40	$1.6M	$9.35 · 22nd of 40

Budget amendments

Pavel M. Payano sponsored 60 budget amendments in FY2017–FY2026, asking for $87.1 million in all.

Amendments sponsored

FY2017–FY2026 budgets

Adopted, known outcomes

52%

31 of 60

Chamber rate, same ask sizes

43%

expected at the chamber’s rates

Of the 60 with a known outcome, 31 were adopted (52%). At the chamber’s adoption rate for amendments of the same size, about 26 (43%) would have been.

Largest enacted items matched to an amendment Pavel M. Payano filed (strong text matches)
Year	Amount	Enacted budget text (excerpt)	Amendment
FY2026	$500,000	“Merrimack Valley Food Bank, Inc. for the operation of its food distribution programs and to combat food insecurity in Essex county”	S3 #383
FY2024	$300,000	“the Refugee Health Promotion program to expand behavioral health and wellness programming”	S3 #486
FY2025	$250,000	“Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Inc. to expand and sustain its mobile health program in communities throughout the Merrimack Valley”	S4 #482
FY2025	$150,000	“Methuen Arlington Neighborhood, Inc. to increase and enhance entrepreneurial opportunities, neighborhood investment, revitalization activities and…”	S4 #263
FY2024	$125,000	“Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Inc. to address unmet acute patient health needs including, but not limited to, medical and behavioral health…”	S3 #410

Strong matches: 24 enacted items, $2.4 million (the member’s share where several amendments claim one clause). A further two weaker text matches are not listed; attribution is inferred from amendment text and is less certain there.

Ask size is the larger of the earmark dollars and the line-item change an amendment requests; bands: no dollar amount, under $50,000, $50,000–$250,000, $250,000–$1 million, $1–5 million, $5 million or more. Leadership’s unattributed base-text and corrective-amendment money is never assigned to a member. The comparison describes outcomes; it is not a measure of merit.

Bills sponsored

Pavel M. Payano filed 72 bills as lead sponsor in these sessions; two were enacted on their own. In completed sessions, 5% of their lead bills were enacted on their own, against a chamber median of 1% for the same sessions.

Most bills die in every legislature, and many policies pass inside other bills; the chamber median for the same session is the fair comparison.

Bills filed as lead sponsor, by session and outcome
Session	Chamber	Lead bills	Enacted	Folded into an enacted bill	Sent to study	Reported favorably, then died	No action	Pending (session open)	Enacted rate	Chamber median	Cosponsored
193rd (2023–24)	Senate	21	1	0	8	10	2	0	5%	1%	195
194th (2025–26)	Senate	51	1	1	15	0	0	34	2%*	1%	288

Enacted bills as lead sponsor

S2525 (193rd): An Act establishing a sick leave bank for Seila Chhav, an employee of the Trial Court. · Chapter 8 of the Acts of 2024
S2799 (194th): An Act establishing a sick leave bank for Jeffrey Yacinthe, an employee of the department of elementary and secondary education · Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2026

Outcomes are the furthest point each bill reached in the record. “Folded into an enacted bill” means the history names the enacted bill that absorbed it. “Passed both branches; no chapter recorded” means the bill was enacted by both branches and laid before the Governor, with no chapter or veto in the history; in the 194th General Court such bills are shown as laid before the Governor (pending). The 194th General Court is in session until January 2027, so its open bills are pending, not dead, and its rates (*) are not comparable with completed sessions. Chairs and leaders control the calendar, which raises their rates. Source: malegislature.gov bill histories.

Recorded votes on accountability measures

Pavel M. Payano cast 32 yes-or-no votes on the 34 accountability roll calls in this file (ten yes, 22 no, two for a named candidate).

Roll calls on rules, audits, public records, term limits and pay
Date	Measure	Vote	Chamber result
not available	Senate President election (contested meaning)	Voted for Karen E. Spilka	not available
February 9, 2023	Amendment 1.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Successive Legislative Days	No	Yeas 4, nays 34
February 9, 2023	Amendment 2.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Time of recess for consideration of new matters	No	Yeas 5, nays 33
February 9, 2023	Amendment 5.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Going past 10 pm	No	Yeas 4, nays 34
February 9, 2023	Amendment 6.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Unanimous consent to go past midnight	No	Yeas 4, nays 34
February 9, 2023	Amendment 10.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Manner of how member voted	No	Yeas 5, nays 33
February 9, 2023	Amd 23 (Rodrigues) strikes Rule 11B, the 8-year term limit on the Senate President; adopted 32-6	Yes	Yeas 32, nays 6
February 9, 2023	Strike remote-participation rules 57C/57D (contested meaning)	No	Yeas 3, nays 35
February 9, 2023	Remote voting conditions (contested meaning)	No	Yeas 4, nays 34
February 9, 2023	Senate rules (S17), rules package: question on acceptance of the report (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 37, nays 1
February 9, 2023	Amendment 1.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Filing of Conference Committee Report	No	Yeas 4, nays 35
February 9, 2023	Amendment 12.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Adding a Minority Report	No	Yeas 3, nays 36
not available	Joint rules (S18), rules package: question on acceptance of the report (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 39, nays 0
not available	Senate President election (contested meaning)	Voted for Karen E. Spilka	not available
February 12, 2025	Amendment 2.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Number of bills to be heard	No	Yeas 5, nays 33
February 12, 2025	Amendment 9.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Minority conference committee report	No	Yeas 6, nays 32
February 12, 2025	Amendment 10.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): 48 Hours for conference committee reports	No	Yeas 5, nays 33
February 12, 2025	Amendment 13.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Timeline for review of conference committee reports	No	Yeas 6, nays 32
February 12, 2025	Amendment 22.0 (John F. Keenan): Considering Conference Reports	No	Yeas 9, nays 29
February 12, 2025	Amendment 26.0 (John F. Keenan): Preventing Unjustified Financial Gain for Members and Their Familes	Yes	Yeas 38, nays 0
February 12, 2025	Amendment 29.0 (John F. Keenan): Limiting Joint Committee Extensions	No	Yeas 6, nays 32
not available	Joint rules (S15), rules package: question on passing the bill to be engrossed (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 39, nays 0
February 13, 2025	In-person voting conditions (contested meaning)	No	Yeas 5, nays 32
February 13, 2025	Amendment 36.0 (John F. Keenan): Continuing Beyond Midnight	No	Yeas 6, nays 31
February 13, 2025	Shorten period in which a matter can be laid on the table (dilatory motions) (contested meaning)	No	Yeas 5, nays 33
February 13, 2025	Amendment 10.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Going past 10PM	No	Yeas 6, nays 32
February 13, 2025	Amendment 19.0 (Ryan C. Fattman): Virtual vote designation	No	Yeas 6, nays 31
February 13, 2025	Legislative days for Rule 24 (dilatory motions) (contested meaning)	No	Yeas 6, nays 32
February 13, 2025	Senate rules (S19), rules package: question on acceptance of the report (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 39, nays 0
June 26, 2025	Joint rules (conference report) (S2545), rules package: question on acceptance of conference committee report (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 40, nays 0
May 28, 2026	S.3104 resolutions limiting the Senate's response to the Auditor to the SJC-defined 4 requests; no votes 5 Republicans + Montigny; contested (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 33, nays 6
July 30, 2026	Press shield amendment to S.3200; adopted 40-0; not about the Legislature's records (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 40, nays 0
July 30, 2026	Amd 18 (Tarr): apply the public records law to the General Court more fully	No	Yeas 6, nays 33
July 30, 2026	Senate passage of H.5469 34-6; no votes 5 Republicans + Montigny (too weak); contested (contested meaning)	Yes	Yeas 34, nays 6

Votes marked “contested meaning” are rules-package and public-records passage votes; reform advocates were on both sides of them. Descriptions are the project’s plain summaries of each question, or the question as recorded for rules-package roll calls; the official record is on malegislature.gov. Votes are facts; no score is computed.

Campaign money in

Pavel M. Payano’s committee reported $64,000 in contributions of $250 or more in years the member served, 2023–2026.

By year (years in the Legislature)
Year	Contributions
2023	$17,000
2024	$9,900
2025	$29,000
2026	$8,100

By kind of contributor
Kind	Total	Share
Individuals	$51,000	80%
Political committees and PACs	$7,750	12%
Unions and associations	$5,250	8%

Individuals’ money by the employer they reported
Employer reported	Share
A named employer	67%
Self-employed	16%
Retired	8%
Not employed	8%
Not reported or withheld	1%

Not counted as contributions: $1,538 in other receipts of $250 or more in the same years (candidate loans and the candidate’s own money, transfers, refunds, bank interest and aggregated small receipts).

The same committee also reported $104,000 in years the member was not in the Legislature (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022), for example while running for another office. Those receipts are not in the totals above.

Largest employers and organizations
Employer or organization	Kind	Total	Contributions
BHHC	individuals, by employer	$3,000	3
LIUNA LOCAL 175	union or association	$2,000	2
TOTAL WINE AND MORE	individuals, by employer	$2,000	2
WALTHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS	individuals, by employer	$1,500	3
1199 SEIU MA PAC	committee or PAC	$1,500	3
CITY OF LAWRENCE	individuals, by employer	$1,300	4
COMMUNITY GROUP	individuals, by employer	$1,300	3
HUD	individuals, by employer	$1,250	2
NEW CAR DEALER POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE	committee or PAC	$1,000	2
CHARLES RIVERS VENTURE	individuals, by employer	$1,000	1

Source: Office of Campaign and Political Finance, itemized receipts of $250 or more since 2015; OCPF filer record: Payano Committee (CPF 15797). Individuals are grouped by the employer they reported; no individual contributor is named, and an employer field that is a person’s name is withheld. Massachusetts bars business contributions to candidates. Employer shows affiliation, not instruction.

Sources

Every figure traces to a public record.

Facts only: posts, stipends, sponsored amendments, enacted items, roll-call votes and district money. No score or grade is computed. Associations shown here are not evidence of cause. Method.