Recession? What recession?
The collective brain trust known as the Pennsylvania legislature will "earn" itself a nearly 3% raise in a week and a half just for showing up, reported yesterday's Inquirer:
Come Dec. 1, base salaries of state House and Senate members will
increase 2.8 percent, or $2,152, to $78,315. Legislative leaders will
see even more of a pay bump.
The extra cash comes courtesy of a law that legislators passed in 1995,
setting in motion annual cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, for
themselves and other elected state officials, including the governor
and judges.
The legislature replaced the COLAs in 2005 with raises of 16 to 54
percent but, after widespread public outcry, rescinded them later that
year and returned to the COLAs.
The news is a bit hard to swallow, isn't it, during an economic downturn? And then consider this: Our bloated, unwieldy legislature is one of the largest in the country, so we're shelling out even more than we might otherwise for the privilege of rank corruption and incompetence. Finally, this:
With this year's raises, Pennsylvania's legislature will remain the
fourth best paid, behind those in California, Michigan and New York.
Is there anyone -- anyone? -- who thinks ours is the fourth brightest, most effective legislature in the country? | PRS