Please note the following article was published in a local periodical which did not include the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or Pittsburgh Tribune-Review....

Tuesday, December 2, 1996

Lawmakers pocket 22% raise

HARRISBURG (AP) - As the holiday gift-giving season opened, legislators received a little something from taxpayers - a salary increase.

And they received more than they might have been expecting.

Starting Monday, the annual salaries increased 22 percent, from $47,000 to $57,367, making Pennsylvania's lawmakers third on the list of highest paid legislators in the nation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The controversial raise the Legislature approved last year - $55,800 - was increased by $1,567 because of an annual cost-of-living increase tied to the Consumer Price Index.

James Broussard, chairman of the state's biggest taxpayer watchdog group, Citizens Against Higher Taxes, said the pay raise is a symptom of a larger problem.

"They think being a legislator should be their full-time jobs," Broussard said. "That just makes the argument to me for term limits and a citizens' legislature."

But lawmakers say their jobs are more time-consuming than full-time employment and they constantly are asked by their constituents to provide an ever-growing list of services.

Only California, where legislators earn $75,600, and New York, where lawmakers make $57,500, pay higher salaries than Pennsylvania. Unless New York increases salary again, Pennsylvania will take over second placed next December as another cost-of-living adjustment kicks in.

All the House members receive the boost, but technically only the senators who were just re-elected get a salary increase.

The rest continue to get more money through expense accounts.

Under the state Constitution, lawmakers cannot vote themselves new salaries. But they got around that last year by padding their expenses. So they won't make less money than their peers, the senators not up for re-election this year will see their expense accounts increase from $8,796 to $10,367. If he is re-elected, Gov. Tom Ridge also will see his pay increase, from $105,000 to $125,000.

The measure included cost-of-living adjustments for cabinet members, some judges, the auditor general, attorney general and treasurer.

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