PA Legislative Pay: Dollars and 'Sense'

The Philadelphia Daily News offered this intro to today's editorial on the new legislative salaries in Pennsylvania:

Rate for a minimum-wage worker in Pennsylvania: $5.15 an hour.

Old hourly rate for state legislators in Harrisburg: $92.30 an hour.

New hourly rate for state legislators in Harrisburg: $115 an hour.

Getting that increase now, through a backdoor loophole, instead of waiting until 2007: Priceless. ...(read the rest of the DN editorial)

The editorial vents about the legal loophole that will allow lawmakers to swipe that money early, because, well, when you're a low-paid state employee like they are, you can't get that money fast enough. In the piece, the DN references an Issues PA analysis of the recent pay raises:

Pennsylvania legislators are among the highest paid in the nation - but that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cost of Pennsylvania's state legislature.

(July 2005) Earlier this month, the legislature and Governor Rendell raised the pay for legislators, judges, the Governor, and certain appointed officials who work directly for the Governor. Not surprisingly, it's been a hot topic in the news and on the editorial pages statewide, where the focus has been on the pay raise for legislators - totaling at least $11,403 per member or a 16% increase - and the perks that go along with the job.

How does pay for Pennsylvania's legislature compare to pay in other states? Pennsylvania's legislators now rank second in terms of base pay, trailing only the $99,000 salary for California legislators. New York is slightly behind Pennsylvania at $79,500. The only other state that's close is Michigan ($77,400). ...(read the whole Issues PA analysis)

It really is only the tip of the iceberg. Though individual Pennsylvania legislative salaries are still second to California's, the size of the legislature pulls the overall cost comfortably ahead of California, a geographically larger and more populous state. Then there's the per diems, pensions and traveling expenses.

The other side of this is that we, as citizens, have no power to regulate these matters, other than the power we have in the voting booth. Which is to say we have all the power, if we're only willing to exercise it. We should be. Any Pennsylvania taxpayers (especially those scraping by on or near minimum wage) who know about this situation should be infuriated by it, and even more by the legislators who've stepped forward and explained how this raise took so much "courage." Of course it did take a sort of courage, as much as it takes courage to steal a woman's purse in broad daylight. The question here is, are we going to let them get away with it?