2011- A Look Back And What's Ahead, Hold Onto Your Wallet

John Cole Times-Tribune Toon

It seems Pennsylvania government can't run from the "pay raise" issue. In 2005 legislators tried to ram through a "pay grab" mistakenly labeled a pay raise. As Pennsylvanians are learning once again legislators already receive an automatic pay increase every year authorized in a 1995 law.

The problem with the automatic pay increase is the index used for its calculation. Instead of the overall Consumer Price Index used for most in private industry and seniors receving Social Security Pennsylvania legislators figured out that the CPI for mid-Atlantic states runs slightly higher. As a result their automatic pay increases since 2003 gave them an additional 10% boost more than if the overall CPI were the benchmark.

In these trying economic times and a bloated, over-staffed state, Pennsylvania lawmakers should reject the pay increase until they resolve the budget deficit and pension crisis issues. As this article by Jan Murphy at PennLive.com points out the costs to Pennsylvanians over the "pension grab of 2001" will escalate due to recent legislation designed to lessen the impact.

The law is aimed at addressing the soaring costs of the state's public pensions systems. Here's a look at what it means: TAXPAYERS: It smooths out the anticipated spike in taxpayer contributions to fund the pension systems. But it costs taxpayers more in the long run. It is akin to refinancing a 15-year mortgage to a 30-year mortgage, which makes the monthly payments smaller but the overall amount paid bigger.

Critics such as the Commonwealth Foundation assail the added debt and say it doesn't address the looming crisis. Supporters say the new law is nonetheless a good start by saving costs on new workers. NEW EMPLOYEES: They now must have 10 years of service to become vested, compared with five for current employees. State employees must work until age 65 (instead of 60); school employees must work until 62 (instead of 60).

New workers receive a 25 percent reduction in retirement benefits. They also are barred from taking a lump-sum payment of their contributions upon retiring. CURRENT EMPLOYEES: These changes do not impact any school or state employees hired before Jan. 1 or incumbent lawmakers. Their benefits remain the same.

As Senator Lisa Boscola points out in her February, 2005 flyer Pennsylvanians have faced the following tax increases since 1997.

• 1995 Automatic Pay Raise
• 1997 Gas Tax Increase
• 2001 Legislative Pension Grab
• 2002 State Tax Increase
• 2003 State Income Tax Increase
• 2004 Occupational Privilege Tax Increase

The tax increases don't include what happened on the county and local level as well as our school district property taxes. In 2002 a COLA was added to the pension benefits as well.

The following stats are from the Berks Patriot Presentation by Nathan Benefield of the Commonwealth Foundation.

Pennsylvania has the 11th highest state and local tax burden, up from 24th in 1990. It is 43rd in job growth, 47th in population growth, and 48th in personal income growth.

People are moving out of Pennsylvania due to this horrendous environment. United Van lines reports 58% of movers are leaving Pennsylvania and Allied Van Lines reports that number at 60%.

As the American Conservative points out Pennsylvania has the highest Corporate Net Income Tax rate in the world.

The Commonwealth Foundation reminds us of the unemployment trust fund debt facing Pennsylvania taxpayers to the tune of $3 billion. Pennsylvanians will also be faced with paying back $800 million to the MCare fund due to a court order.

When the stimulus money runs out in 2011 Pennsylvania's bicameral legislature and Governor Tom Corbett will have a daunting task facing them to fix what is wrong.

John D. Forester Jr.'s Take On A Full Time Legislature

Yesterday, John D. Forester, Jr. penned this opinion in the Reading Eagle of the Pennsylvania legislature's claims to being a full time body.

I have a full-time job.

So far this year, I've taken one week of vacation and a few personal days, and I was off New Year's Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day. Not to mention weekends.

Still, I've managed to put in 130 workdays so far in 2010.

That's a full-time job.

State lawmakers also have full-time jobs.

So far this year, members of the House of Representatives have worked a total of 46 days, while members of the Senate have put in 44 workdays.

That's a full-time job?

State Senator Daylin Leach(leech of taxpayers money) tried to counter that opinion earlier this year with an op-ed column of his own. He blasted the Bonusgate Jury conclusion that Pennsylvania should return to a part time legislature. Yes, at one time Pennsylvania did have a part time legislature. In fact Pennsylvania only had 100 representatives in the 1800's.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Bonusgate grand jury issued a report which has received a great deal of media attention. This report had nothing to do with the specific criminal charges against specific individuals it investigated. This report was an extremely rare supplemental grand pronouncement on the state of our government, along with numerous recommendations for restructuring the entire Legislature.

The methodology, conclusions and recommendations of the report are, in many respects, dead wrong.

But because the grand jury's methodology was incomplete given its self-appointed role as the re-inventor of state government, its members' factual findings were often inaccurate. And given that, the recommendations based upon those findings were, for the most part, ill-conceived.

They also say being a Pennsylvania legislator should not qualify as full-time work. Wrong again. Most legislators spend 70 to 80 hours per week, every week, at their jobs and still struggle to keep up.


Inaccurate information leads to poor recommendations. Sure, some of the technical suggestions, such as consolidating House printing offices, might have merit, but their broad policy suggestions would do great harm to our state if implemented.

For example, a part-time Legislature is a terrible idea. We make decisions affecting tens of billions of dollars in complicated policy areas such as transportation, health care, criminal justice and economic development. In some matters, such as abortion, the death penalty and access to medical care, our decisions literally have life and death consequences.

Of course Senator Leach is way off the mark with his comments.

Nathan Benefield, director of policy research for the Commonwealth Foundation wrote an Opinion in The Mercury making the case for a part time Pennsylvania legislature.

Ask Pennsylvanians what comes to mind when they hear the words "state government," and the responses will regularly include corruption, late budgets, cronyism, wasteful spending, and ineffectiveness. In a January Franklin & Marshall College poll, only 16 percent of Pennsylvania voters said the state legislature was doing a "good" job.

It's not surprising, then, that the idea of returning Pennsylvania's Legislature to part-time is gaining steam given the lack of trust in our elected officials.

With a price tag that's grown to $300 million, Pennsylvania's 253-member General Assembly is the most expensive (and second largest) state legislature in the country. It's also among the four most "professionalized" in the nation, with staff totaling nearly 3,000. For perspective, the legislatures of Illinois and Ohio — the states closest in population to Pennsylvania — have 1,023 and 465 staff, respectively.

The annual salary for rank-and-file Pennsylvania legislators ($78,314) is the fourth-highest in the country.

There is a direct link between our full-time Legislature and our state economy. A Commonwealth Foundation analysis shows a strong connection between legislative professionalization and higher spending per capita, a higher tax burden, and less economic freedom. Specifically, each increase in the level of professionalization results in an estimated $441 increase in spending per person, and a 0.4 percent increase in taxes as a percentage of income. For highly professionalized legislatures, like Pennsylvania's, the effect is five times those estimates.

In contrast, consider the case of Texas. The Lone Star State has twice the population of Pennsylvania and is four times the size of the Keystone State geographically. Yet, the Texas legislature meets once every two years for 140 days to produce a biennial budget. When Texas lawmakers need to deal with emergency situations or revise their budget, they return for a limited, special session. During its 2007 session, Texas' legislature passed 1,672 bills, while Pennsylvania's full-time General Assembly passed less than one-fifth that number.

Over the last two years, Texas has created more jobs than Pennsylvania and the other 48 states combined!

The Department of Justice gives Pennsylvania an "F" for its limited disclosure of legislators' assets, holdings, and related information. A December 2008 USA TODAY analysis of Department of Justice statistics ranks Pennsylvania tied with Florida as the 11th most corrupt state in the union (with 4.5 public officials convicted for every 100,000 residents).


Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review chimed in with his own Opinion this weekend.

In all, 27 legislators, former lawmakers and staffers have been accused of crimes since 2008. That counts the federally indicted Fumo and former state Rep. Frank LaGrotta, D-Lawrence County, sentenced to House arrest after pleading guilty to two felony counts of conflict of interest.

The Ories, DeWeese and Perzel maintain their innocence.

The surge in corruption cases, at least in the public's mind, hasn't yet reached critical mass. It will unfortunately take more charges before the public demands a complete and thorough overhaul of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Legislators have used state tax money as their own, creating an Incumbency Protection Program that has perverted representative government and robbed Pennsylvanians of fair elections.

The title of Bumsted's Opinion says it all "When will enough be enough?"

Outgoing Specter Honored With $10 Million Dollars Of Pennsylvania Tax Money

Just when Harrisburg was trying to convince Pennsylvania taxpayers that this year's budget has sacrifices in it(and it does for SELECT non-profits and social programs) this story surfaces from the political watchdog group, Commonwealth Foundation, that Pennsylvania taxpayers are supplying $10 million for the "Arlen Specter Project Library Center" and another $10 million to Johnstown for the "John P. Murtha Center for Public Policy".

Nathan Benefield of the Commonwealth Foundation, a fiscally conservative Harrisburg-based think tank, responded by e-mail: "Unbelievable. Not only are taxpayers going to be forced to shoulder the burden for these projects (which despite billions in spending over the years, have shown no economic benefits), but they're not even getting proper credit. At least call it 'The Taxpayers Library' or the 'Pennsylvania State Debt Center.'"

It's amazing that Rendell sneaks in these legacy projects but touts education as the headliner for the budget. Ed always gets you looking left when you should be looking right.

Arlen, will veterans be able to read about tax on prosthetics in your library?