Newspaper: Smaller Legislature would move budget process along

Interesting editorial in the Delaware County Daily Times suggesting that the Pennsylvania would not have a budget crisis every year if the there were fewer members of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The newspaper calls the current Legislature with 253 members, and "unwieldy group."

I've been a longtime supporter of reducing the size of the Pennsylvania Legislature, but I'm not so sure the number of lawmakers has a lot to do with the current budget impasse. The newspaper fails to place blame directly where it belongs: Gov. Ed Rendell, who purposely misses the June 30 budget deadline to put pressure on the Legislature to give in to his demands, which generally include more spending and higher taxes. It's no coincidence that the state has missed the budget deadline for seven consecutive years, which corresponds to the years Rendell has been governor.

From the editorial:

Pennsylvania has the largest full-time state Legislature in the nation. The cost of that 253-member body is staggering. Each elected official in our Legislature costs Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $1 million, actually a $340 million price tag.

It's not just the salary and $158 per diems available to each member each legislative day, it's the members' staff, travel costs and other benefits — like a health-care package most state residents can envy and a retirement package few can match.

The major impediment to reducing the size of the Legislature is the process. Right-thinking legislators and governors have tried. Believing those in the Legislature will vote on downsizing themselves is a false expectation. The next step would be a ballot question authorizing a constitutional convention with the ability to change the state constitution and reduce the number of legislators.

It's not only the permanent saving in taxpayer dollars that could be accomplished by fewer representatives in Harrisburg.

This latest budget stalemate in the state capital proves how difficult it is for this unwieldy group to work together. Smaller numbers may mean faster action.

Whenever the final budget figures are decided by our elected officials in Harrisburg, those who ended up on the cutting room floor may want to remember one way to gain support for their worthy causes are cuts no one shaping the budget seems willing to consider.

Read the full editorial, "Fewer legislators could yield quicker action," at the newspaper's Web site.