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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Legislative pay raise: Throw the bums out only goes so far

It’s been 30 days since the Pennsylvania Legislature pulled off the Great Pay Grab of 2005. The fact we’re still talking about the crime a month later is a victory in itself. But a lot more needs to be done between now and the primary election in 2006, which will be the first opportunity voters have to throw the bums out.

The news media has a short attention span. Stories are followed for a day or two and then forgotten. Television is the worst. Unless you’re a runaway bride or an attractive blonde high school senior who disappeared in Aruba, you’re lucky if the story stays on the air more than a day.

Since the initial vote on July 7 when legislators gave themselves pay raises of 16 percent to 34 percent, there’s been hardly a mention of the Great Pay Grab on any television newscasts, which, sadly, is the main source of news for many people. It’s been up to newspapers and a few radio stations to keep the issue alive.

I’ve browsed Web sites of many Pennsylvania newspapers over the past 30 days to see how this story is being covered across the state. To my surprise, every newspaper — large and small, liberal and conservative — has been outraged by the flagrant abuse of power displayed by the Pennsylvania Legislature. I’ve read more than two dozen editorials, at least 100 letters to the editor and dozens of columnists. Everyone is on the same page.

I can’t recall any issue in my 23 years in the newspaper industry where there has been universal agreement. What the legislators did on July 7 is reprehensible. A betrayal of public trust. Utter contempt for the people these legislators claim to represent.

The pay heist wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment crime. It was premeditated. Down to the last detail. The party bosses knew which legislators came from safe districts. They voted yes. The party bosses knew which freshmen legislators were vulnerable. They were allowed to vote no. But don’t be fooled. Nineteen House and Senate members who voted against the pay raise took the money anyway.

The smug political bosses who run this state miscalculated on the pay grab. They figured the whole thing would blow over in a week or two. But five weeks after Pennsylvania residents were fleeced by their own state representatives, the anger continues to grow. Spurred by newspapers, talk radio and the Internet, residents are organizing and planning their response to July 7, 2005 — a date that will live in infamy in the annals of Pennsylvania history.

After voting themselves pay raises of 16 percent to 34 percent at 2 a.m. on July 7, the 253 members of the legislative body in the country went on a 10-week summer vacation. Legislators are spending the month of August at their shore homes or in their cabins in the Poconos. Some of them are at their homes in Florida. Others are on European vacations. Who can blame them? If you just "found" an extra $11,000 in your pocket, wouldn’t you go on a spending spree?

If they’re not relaxing on the beach, our legislators are spending the summer in underground bunkers. Politicians love to see their name in print and their smiling face on the front pages of newspapers. But for the past five weeks, they’ve been in hiding, refusing requests for interviews about the pay grab. Readers have contacted me to say they believe the legislators disabled their e-mail systems so constituents could not contact them.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who signed the pay grab into law, and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy are the only politicians who’ve publicly defended the heist. (Rendell gets a $21,228 annual pay raise under the same legislation, while Cappy gets an $18,144 per year pay boost.)

Their arguments are weak: "Legislators work hard. They put in long hours. They’re away from their families." Nobody is putting a gun to anyone’s head forcing them to run for public office. Legislators are free to leave Harrisburg for private sector jobs any time they want. But name one private sector job where you can set your own salary and boost your pay any time you want (as long as you do it in the middle of the night when your boss is asleep).

Rendell, whose own re-election in 2006 is jeopardized by the pay heist, dropped by the Reading Fair Monday to grab something to eat. He was booed by the fairgoers. Nothing planned. No organized protest. Just hard-working residents of Pennsylvania trying to provide a day out for their families. They saw a well-dressed politician making four times the pay they bring home and spontaneously started booing Rendell.

Rendell is lucky fairgoers didn’t toss tomatoes or eggs or cow chips in his direction.

There’s no doubt politicians are feeling the heat. But the key is to channel the anger into action. It’s time for wholesale changes in Harrisburg. Unless most the incumbents on the ballot in 2006 are voted out of office, the politicians will continue to rape taxpayers.

E-mail Tony Phyrillas at tphyrillas@pottsmerc.com

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