State lawmakers quiet about salary hike
HARRISBURG – Mum was the word from a number of Pennsylvania lawmakers on Friday about whether they support a hike in their own salaries, an issue that seems to be playing a part in budget talks that are stretching into the weekend. However, state Sen. Sen. Richard Kasunic, DFayette, gave a conclusive “no’ to a pay raise.
“In terms of my district … with Fayette being one of the poorest counties in the state and the the Medicaid issue, in good conscience at this time I could not support a raise.”
Other awmakers said until they saw an actual plan, they wouldn’t have much to say about the issue.
“Would I love more, sure I would love more,” said Rep. Matthew Wright, R-Bucks. “But would I vote for one? I’d have to see what the proposal is.”
“I’m not looking for a pay raise,” said Rep. Dave Steil, R-Bucks.
But would he vote for one? “I might.”
Said Rep. Victor Lescovitz’s spokesman, D-Beaver: “He would be interested for any opponents of pay raises to sign an agreement that they would refuse an increase if offered. A vote ‘no’ is a safe political vote.”
As the pay raise issue spilled into hushed whispers around the Capitol, over 50 Medicaid patients in wheelchairs staged sit-ins outside party caucus rooms and in the offices of senate leadership on Friday to protest expected benefit cuts.
“They’re talking about giving themselves a [$10,000] raise and people in this room are going to die,” said Shona Eiken of Erie, who helped organize the group. The governor’s proposed Medicaid cuts include limits on doctors and hospital visits, as well as limits on prescription drugs, though budget talks seem to be whittling away at some of the cuts.
Just then, Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill , R-Lebanon, walked out a door and continued past the crowd as they called after him: “Two minutes, senator!”
“Sen. Brightbill has the power to say ‘no’ to cuts, but he won’t give us the time of day,” said Eiken.
Pay raises are perhaps the stickiest, most uncomfortable issue for lawmakers to publicly deal with, especially this year with $500 million in Medicaid cuts on the table.
Gov. Ed Rendell said this week that he would not consider a pay hike unless “we produce a responsible budget,” by which he means a restoration of money to Medicaid. No longer is he tying pay raises to a jump in minimum wage, as he did several weeks ago.
“To have a pay raise without that would be unseemly,” Rendell said on Thursday.
Pennsylvania lawmakers receive $69,647, adjusted annually to the consumer price index, plus a generous benefits package, a pension, a state-provided or leased car and a $129 per day living allowance for anyone traveling more than 50 miles to Harrisburg.
One idea proposed by the Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna is to raise salaries $10,000 to bring lawmakers’ pay up to the level of other states with full-time legislatures.
Rendell said he would like to see pay raises also include judicial and cabinet-level positions and be tied in some way to federal salaries of similar positions. That way, not only would lawmakers cease to vote on their own salaries, but also would not be determining judicial salaries.
“There’s something unseemly about a judiciary having to come to the Legislature for a pay raise when that judiciary will often have to make decisions on the constitutionality of the decisions of the Legislature,” he said.
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com