The Buck Stopped Here
If you want to save money, don't ask Pennsylvania politicians to help. As history shows, their greed gets the better of them.
illustration by meg hunt
Fall Guide 2008 Cover Story: Bang for Your Buck
Our conversation took place in the main Senate hallway in Harrisburg on a floor made of handcrafted Moravian tiles just yards from a rotunda inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
It was a classic Renaissance-style building, called "the most beautiful state Capitol in the nation" back when Teddy Roosevelt dedicated it in 1906.
A reporter and I were prying information from Senate aide Drew Crompton, a thirtysomething Republican who wore loafers without socks. Crompton was lawyer to Bob Jubelirer, the top-ranking state senator from rural Blair County.
It was July 2005 and Harrisburg politicians were three days late with the state budget.
They were up to something big.
A big pay raise--for themselves. For all 253 lawmakers, state judges, the governor and his cabinet.
"If they do it," Crompton said to me and the other reporter, "they really want to do it in the light of day."
I'd been in Harrisburg for five years covering state government for three central Pennsylvania newspapers.
State politicians were like college kids with good jobs.
In July 2005 a typical lawmaker earned $69,047 while the House speaker and Senate leader took home $108,724. They had first-rate health benefits, a lavish pension plan and could get a taxpayer- funded car worth up to $650 a month (and daily reimbursement checks for expenses up to $129 with no receipts). The reelection rate in recent years had been around 98 percent.
These politicians spent their time at ribbon cuttings and approving resolutions for Firefighter Safety Week. They put off serious business until the end of the term, the way students wait until the last minute to cram for exams.
Before this budget deadline, they began holding sessions that lasted into the wee hours and weekends. On July 6, 2005, it was Day 12 of the marathon.
What happened in those budget meetings next would blow up in their faces and change the entire political culture of an industrial state that had grown old on secretive government.
Just before midnight on Day 12, a bill was quietly amended to increase the pay of legislators and other top officials. There were no readable news releases; instead, there were 21 pages of mumbo-jumbo.
I got out my plastic calculator, a clunker I'd had since high school, and started pounding away.
With this bill, pay for rank-and- file legislators would go from $69,647 to $81,050. Legislative leaders would get more. The House speaker and Senate president pro tempore salaries would jump from $108,724 to $145,553.
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1. Average Joe said... on Nov 4, 2008 at 05:13AM
“I'm a little surprised. My wife and I have been trying to find a list of who voted for the payraise (yes, I know it was a while ago but we still remember) but have been unable to find one.”