Newspaper: Budget impasse shows PA has too many legislators

One of the reasons Pennsylvania does not have a budget 77 days into the new fiscal year is because there are too many members in the Pennsylvania Legislature, argues The Reading Eagle.

Because there are so many lawmakers (253), power is concentrated in a handful of legislative leaders, the newspaper says.

From a recent editorial:

The Issue: One state lawmaker from Berks County admits he and most of his colleagues have no say on the spending guide. Our Opinion: Then why are they receiving a $78,314 base salary?

It is a rare moment when a member of the Legislature admits that the No. 1 priority of virtually every elected official in Harrisburg is to get re-elected, and practically everything they do is measured toward that goal.

Yes, it is true that a smaller number of senators and representatives is unlikely to change that attitude, but at least the taxpayers would be shelling out far less for an ineffective group if its numbers were cut in half, for example.

In fact, if the number of senators were trimmed from 50 to 25 and the number of representatives were cut from 203 to 100, the taxpayers would save more than $10 million on salaries alone.

Somehow, however, we doubt reducing the size of the Legislature is high on the priority list.

Read the full editorial, "Budget impasse shows state has too many legislators," at the newspaper's Web site.