Lawmaker faces fight to refuse cost of living increase
HARRISBURG – Montgomery County’s newly elected representative Thomas Murt wants to forego an extra $1,425 in pay as he enters public office, but state House officials are saying he’s not allowed to do so. Murt said he has asked the House comptroller’s office to dock the 2 percent cost-of-living (COLA) increase from his salary, which went into effect Friday for the new legislative term.
Murt said he is uncomfortable with the $1,425 pay increase and, pressed by reform activists, became the first and so far only new member to pledge against taking it.
But he ran into a wall with the House comptroller’s office while trying to adjust his salary to the lower 2006 pay of $72,188.
“They said there’s no mechanism in place to refuse the raise,” said Murt, who is replacing Rep. Sue Cornell in Hatboro. “I haven’t even served one day in Harrisburg. I’m not even sworn in. I don’t see how I’ve earned a cost of living adjustment.”
House Chief Clerk Roger Nick said a lawmaker can’t decline a COLA.
“Counsel has determined that we are required to pay the salary provided by law,” Nick wrote in an e-mail. “Members cannot chose the salary they wish to be paid … Obviously, once received the member is free to do whatever he chooses to with the money.”
Murt says he’s putting the money, about $118 per month, into an escrow account until he finds a way to return the money to the Treasury or, eventually to charity, if no other solution is worked out with House officials.
“I don’t plan on spending the money,” said Murt, a business instructor and counselor at Penn State University at Abington and an Army reservist.
The situation is similar to that of state Superior Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin, who is suing the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts and the Treasury Department for not allowing her to take a pre-2005 pay raise salary. Melvin sued after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in September reinstated judges’ pay. Court administrators said they were not authorized to pay an amount other than that provided by law.
Melvin could have returned the extra pay, after paying income taxes, to the Treasury Department. But she has said she didn’t want to be responsible for the extra incomes taxes, and a higher recorded salary would have also bumped up her pension.
Returning the money to the Treasury is an option for Murt as well, but not a payroll reduction, said Bruce Ledewitz, a Pennsylvania constitutional law expert and professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
“State government doesn’t have a mechanism for paying individuals an individualized salary,” he said. “I don’t think they have the legal authority to pay anyone other than what the law says to pay, however you determine that.”
But activist Gene Stilp called the situation an accounting issue similar to the return of unvouchered expenses.
“At first they said they can’t do it,” Stilp said. “Then they developed all kinds of ways of doing it in payment plans. This is a no-brainer.”
Stilp has sent pledge forms to all 55 new House and Senate members asking them to decline the higher pay. At a news conference Monday, he ceremoniously opened, from a sealed envelope, the first and only pledge to come back to him in the mail, revealing Murt’s name.
On the phone, Murt said he’s not against having COLA increases and didn’t swear off taking one in the future if the economic climate is right.
The automatic annual salary increases, pegged to the Philadelphia region’s inflation index, have been around since 1995 when lawmakers passed the measure as a way to avoid all other pay increases.
“If unemployment is up, if I don’t feel we’ve accomplished a whole lot, I’m going to feel awkward or uncomfortable taking a pay raise,” Murt said.
He said he’d rather not take credit by giving money to charity and will be looking for the best way to settle the issue when he gets to Harrisburg in January.
“This should not be rocket science for me to turn down the raise,” said Murt. “We can do this in industry in a heartbeat.”
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com.