A big step
Well, believe it or not, the chances of the Pennsylvania Legislature actually cutting its numbers seems to be picking up steam.
Last week, the Senate State Government Committee passed a measure to slash the number of seats in the House from 203 to 153 and the Senate from 50 to 45. The bill now moves to the Senate where a vote could be taken later this year.
State Sen. Pat Stefano, a member of the State Government Committee, said lawmakers were bowing to the wishes of their constituents. “People just think the Legislature is too big and too bloated, and we have too many people,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state House of Representatives passed a bill last year, reducing the number of seats in the chamber from 203 to 151. It left seats in the state Senate untouched.
However, both bills still have a ways to go before becoming law. If the state Senate does approve the measure, then differences between the House and Senate bills would have to be hashed out and brought back for a vote before both chambers.
Both the House and Senate would also have approve it again in the legislature’s next session, which will start in January of 2017. After all that, the bill would have to be approved in a statewide referendum.
That’s something that Stefano hopes happens. “We need to let the people decide how they want to be represented,” Stefano said.
If the results of a Herald-Standard poll about cutting the size of the state Legislature are any indication, then it should pass by an overwhelming margin. As of yesterday, the poll showed about 89 percent of respondents in favor of reducing the number of lawmakers.
However, concerns have been expressed by some that cutting the number of lawmakers will reduce the contact between legislators and their constituents. It could be a problem, particularly in rural districts, where residents could find themselves facing an hour drive or more to a lawmaker’s office.
One alternative would be to cut the staffs of state legislators. According to an Associated Press story in 2011, the state Legislature employed about 3,000 staffers at a cost of approximately $120 million.
That’s up from approximately 790 staffers back in 1969. The story noted that 200 of the employees draw salaries over $80,000.
The story also pointed out that the number of staffers varies, with some lawmakers having twice as many staffers as other legislators. The situation is ripe for favoritism as the staffing size is determined by party leaders who have been known to reward faithful lawmakers with more assistants.
Such politics could be eliminated with all lawmakers having the same number of staffers. And sizable cuts in the staffing numbers would certainly result in savings for taxpayers.
But the focus for now is on the size of the Legislature. We’ll have to watch closely to see if anything actually happens. Similar measures have been introduced in the state Legislature for years only to die on the vine. That’s to say nothing of numerous other well-meaning measures which never got to a final vote.
So, don’t hold your breath just yet. As we know all too well, anything can and usually does happen in Harrisburg.