Please note:
The House will meet on December 9, 10,11, 16, 17 & 18.
The Senate will meet on December 3, 4, 9, 10 & 11.

 

The automatic pay raise or the Cost of Living Adjustment (“COLA”) for Pennsylvania’s elite class of public servants will be announced on December 1. The cost of living adjustment is set by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers in the Mid-Atlantic states.

Lawmakers get a COLA on December 1. The executive and judiciary branches receive a COLA on January 1. 

The COLA also drives per diems (the daily expense allowance) for legislators. The legislative per diem varies based on the time of the year and destination. If a per diem is taken on a session day or for a committee meeting, taxes are not taken out or paid pursuant to IRS rules. Two of our neighbors – New Jersey and Ohio – do not allow lawmakers to claim per diems.

Act 51 of 1995 was supposed to be the pay raise to end all pay raises. Since the “unvouchered expenses” debacle of July 7, 2005, our leaders have received an annual and automatic raise seven out of the last eight years:

  • 2005: 3.6%.
  • 2006: 1.98%.
  • 2007: 3.46%.
  • 2009: 2.8%.
  • 2010:  0 %.
  • 2010: 1.7 %.
  • 2011: 3.0%.
  • 2012: 2.2%.

Governor Corbett is the nation’s highest paid chief executive with a salary of $187,256. Mr. Corbett will decline the COLA on paper, but accept the pension bounce when he retires. Mr. Corbett is pension eligible.

Last September Governor Corbett gave four of his senior aides a 7.4% raise or a $10,000 pay spike. His deputy chiefs of staff, secretary of policy and planning and the secretary of legislative affairs now make $145,018.

You can see why legislators are jealous.

The minimum wage for a backbench lawmaker is only $83,801.88, but they do receive health care, per diems, perks, pensions and state leased vehicles.

At a press conference held on November 21, 2011, Governor Corbett publicly criticized the automatic Cost of Living Increase: “I thought it was mistake then. I think it is a mistake now.”

It’s time to fix the mistake.

Repealing Act 51 is an opportunity for the governor and legislature to do the right thing, and put the interests of taxpayers ahead of their wallet.

The newly minted bipartisan reform caucus should be leading the charge. If few legislators will go on the record as supporting the COLA, there should be no reason why we don’t have 253 cosponsors attached to legislation eliminating the automatic pay raise.

If not now, when?

Sincerely,

 

Eric Epstein, Coordinator
Rock the Capital
http://www.rockthecapital.com/
717-635-8615

 

Photo by 401(K) 2012