GOP lures Democrats into trap
“One, two, three…jump!” You’ve seen it before: even though everyone was supposed to take the plunge at the same time, only one person jumped – leaving the rest back on the dock snickering. The summertime ritual of youth played out in Harrisburg this week, with the state House Democrats ending up all wet and state Republicans staying dry and yukking it up.
The GOP, who have been winning the public relations war over the state budget for months, are happily jeering Democrats for paying themselves right after voting on a partial state budget Tuesday while leaving the roughly 77,000 state employees to wait until next week to receive their checks.
House Majority Whip Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County, said Thursday that after similar budget impasses in the past, each caucus would cut checks right after voting on a budget. This time, however, only the House Democrats jumped, leaving them twisting in the wind. Meanwhile, Republicans defer payment until the state rank and file get theirs. (So noble!)
And while the wait for state employees has since been reduced to two days (the state Treasury announced Thursday direct deposits would go through on Friday), the PR damage was already done.
The whole thing could’ve been wrapped in a bow, it was so perfectly suited for the GOP’s public relations effort. All this needs is a -gate suffix. (Checksgate? Paymentsgate? DemsPaidThemselvesFirstgate?)
Attempting to distance themselves from the issue (likely with Bonusgate backlash still fresh in their minds), some House Democrats are waiting to cash their checks or giving them back.
State Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union Township, said Thursday he will be holding off cashing his check – lawmakers’ first since June 1 – until next week.
“I just think we should wait until everyone else gets their checks, then I’ll deposit mine,” he said.
He categorized the cutting of checks to House Democrats as an “oversight” rather than a mistake and that Republicans are simply playing politics when there’s more important things to be done.
“The Republicans just want to make hay out of this, which is what’s wrong with Harrisburg,” he said. “We should worry about getting the budget settled, not playing politics. We had a lot bigger things to worry about then who’s cashing checks and who’s not.”
State Rep. Deberah Kula, D-North Union Township, is also holding off cashing her check, a spokeswoman said, because she wouldn’t feel right doing so before state workers were paid.
While Democratic representatives across the state are backtracking, the Dems were thiiiiisclose to avoiding the whole PR mess in the first place, but House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, led them straight into the muck while the other three caucuses just watched.
Up until they blew it at the end, the House Dems, like the other caucuses, chose good PR over pay. You see, even while the budget battle raged, all four caucuses of the Legislature could have received pay from a reserve fund set aside to cover operations during just such a budget impasse, but each chose not to. (Legislative staffers in both parties were paid from the fund, however.)
When the budget was signed, the House Democrats proceeded to cut checks as they always did in such situations, unaware of (or undeterred by) the fact they were the only caucus to do so. With Senate Democrats and both chamber’s Republicans refraining, the Republican PR machine revved up.
So, ironically (or embarrassingly, depending how you look at it), Democratic House leadership knew this type of thing would look bad and tried to avoid it, but still ended up smeared over the very issue anyway.
And since Eachus runs the caucus in much the same unilateral fashion a CEO would run a company (in much the same way any caucus leader does), it’s hard not to lay the blame for this latest PR snafu at his feet.
DeWeese said Thursday that even as a member of caucus leadership, he was not consulted – “I was not involved in the decision,” he said – and that he did not discover until later that House Democrats were the only ones to be paid.
The Waynesburg legislator said in the dozen or so times a budget was late during his three decades in Harrisburg that all four caucuses were paid at the same time without incident or issue. So on Wednesday, unaware of any difference this time around, he deposited his check.
“I did not realize until later in the day we were the only caucus paid,” he said.
Then, with a little more of his trademark verboseness, he stressed this is more the GOP playing politics than a real issue.
“The Republicans pushing this two-day differential (between lawmakers’ pay and state employees’ pay) to the max is pre-eminently a PR effort on their part,” he said. “To employees at SCI-Greene or SCI-Fayette, certainly those are two important days, and all of us in retrospect wish everyone had been paid at the same time.”
As embarrassing as this is for House Dems, it’s important to keep things in perspective. This is not, as one Republican representative said, worse than Bonusgate. That’s just hyperbole. There’s no legal issues with the lawmakers hitting the till first, just PR issues. (Or leadership issues, considering they essentially got punked by the GOP.)
In the end, had House leadership held onto their self-imposed pay ban at least a week longer – like their colleagues in the Senate and Republicans in both chambers – they could’ve saved themselves another headache over pay (and spared their spokesmen from blowing through a few packets of Rolaids).
Instead, they’ve given the GOP another PR victory.
If you want someone to cash your check, Brandon Szuminsky can be reached by e-mail at zuminsky@heraldstandard.com.