Rolling In It

It's good to be rich. To not have to cut corners, eat the crust or stoop for pennies. To treat our employees as if they are kings.

Because they treat themselves that way.

The Pennsylvania Legislature is officially the best-kept state legislature in the country, according to a study by the Pennsylvania Economy League that is linked in Pstupidonymous today. More is spent on these ladies and gentlemen, who have just given themselves annual salaries of $81,050, than anywhere else in America.

The conservative blog - and this is an area where the two sides of the divide can join hands - also links an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review today by Ralph R. Reiland, a professor at Robert Morris University and restaurateur, which does this bit of number crunching:

By and large, Pennsylvania's overblown and overpaid Legislature might be less objectionable (and more affordable) if the state's taxpayers were rolling in money. Quite the contrary, the nation's most expensive Legislature is being supported by a state population that ranks 24th among the 50 states in per capita income, 34th in the median value of owner-occupied homes, and 28th in median household income.

Note that Reiland holds down two jobs.

This after-hours raise that the legislature slipped in, an act that Chief Justice Ralph Cappy labeled as "courage," hikes the pay of the midnight men and women in Harrisburg by between 16 and 34 percent - on top of the 5.2 percent cost-of-living adjustment that arrived in January.

Some comparisons, courtesy of the professor (of entrepreneurism):

Pennsylvania's taxpayers will pay $20.5 million per year to cover the salaries and benefits of the state's 253 legislators. That's nearly double the $11.9 million annual outlay that taxpayers in California, the nation's most populous state, pay for the compensation of their 120 state legislators.

Note that California, with triple the population of Pennsylvania, i.e., a populace of 35.9 million in California versus 12.4 million in Pennsylvania, manages to operate with less than half as many state legislators as Pennsylvania.

Texas, the nation's second-most populous state, carries out the business of state government with 181 state lawmakers who are paid $7,200 per year - a total annual cost of $1.3 million to the taxpayers. In New York, the nation's third-most populous state, the annual cost to taxpayers of compensation to state legislators is $16.9 million -- $3.6 million less than the new cost of salaries and benefits for Pennsylvania's 253 legislators.

And for New Jersey? The Garden State boasts 120 legislators who are paid $49,000.

There's more. Pa is also the most-bloated legislature. The PEL study reports that only New Hampshire has more legislators than Pennsylvania - and they are citizen legislators who earn $100 a year. "The sheer volume of legislators makes the cost of a pay raise bigger in Pennsylvania than elsewhere. In fact, Pennsylvania is first in total amount of salaries paid to legislators - 22% higher than the second-place state, New York."

Think we get what we pay for? Or are we just the country's biggest patsies?

The salary is only part of it.  They also get...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05198/539293.stm

...an auto lease which the article says is $650/month but I've heard it's $800/month;

...a massive pension;

...elite health/dental/life/nursing home plan;

...generous per diem when they're in session, because you know it's so hard to find a cheap meal in Harrisburg

When I looked into things, fully a third of PA House members didn't even face an opposition candidate in their elections.  Nobody wants to run against them, it's a losing proposition.  Regional partisanism and the power of the incumbent = cushy job for the rest of your life.

here's a website you might enjoy if you're angry about the pay raise.  it's operation clean sweep pennsylvania, and it's goal is to defeat every single incumbent in office in next years election, regardless of party.
http://www.pacleansweep.com/main.html