Judicial excess: Pa. Supreme Court lives it up on tax dime
Should it surprise anyone that Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy, boastful of his role in shaping state pay raise legislation passed with blatant disregard for the public, is the recipient of a boatload of taxpayer-funded largesse beyond his $176,800 salary? Pigging out at the same public trough as state legislators, the state’s seven Supreme Court justices, including Cappy, used their uncapped expense account to rack up $164,000 in food, travel, lodging and automobile expenses in the past year, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News. This was on top of a $17,000 benefits package for each justice that includes a car lease of up to $600 per month, health benefits and long-term care insurance, according to the newspaper.
You paid for one justice to get 34 car washes. You paid for three of them to have OnStar service in their cars. You paid for four of them to visit a Bahamas resort for a Pennsylvania Bar Association meeting. You paid for one justice’s 115 meals dealing with “court-related business,” and for his $85 bottle of wine – even though policy discourages the purchase of alcoholic beverages. Guess their old $150,369 salaries weren’t enough to make ends meet. Perhaps their new $171,800 salaries will help ease the pinch.
And what of Cappy, that vocal proponent of the Legislature’s wisdom in voting itself a pay raise of 16 to 34 percent, who in the deal saw his own pay jump $22,352 from the old poverty level of $154,448? He merely had you pay for his $375 membership in the US Airways Club, giving him access to a private area when he flies, and also had you pay for junior hotel suites when he was on the road.
Even better, despite a court policy that requires justices to provide receipts – something not done by the archaic state Open Records Law – the newspaper found that Cappy’s receipts for general expenses were “rare.” Still, someone authorized payment of those bills.
Taxpayers should be just as outraged over this judicial abuse as they are over the legislative pay raise. And they should demand changes, including nonretention of justices.