2 senators' salaries shoot up by 54%
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2 senators' salaries shoot up by 54%
Pay-raise bill created posts of deputy whips
Friday, September 02, 2005
BY CHARLES THOMPSON AND JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News
Yesterday was payday for state lawmakers, and it was an especially good
one
for two of them.
Sens. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, and Joseph Scarnati, R-Warren,
each
collected monthly paychecks of $8,916.
That is 54 percent more than they were paid in July -- before the
controversial pay raise that the Legislature approved in the early
morning
hours of July 7 took effect. Back then, their monthly pay was $5,804.
The salary bill created new Senate-only caucus leadership positions of
deputy whip. Hughes and Scarnati got the jobs.
That means they get the largest raises of all, based on their previous
rank-and-file pay. The smallest raise handed out was 16 percent.
Neither could be reached for comment yesterday.
"People are learning more and more about the pay raise. Now it's up to
54
percent for this newly created position," said political activist Gene
Stilp
of Middle Paxton Twp., who is challenging the raise's
constitutionality.
"This clearly violates Article 2, Section 8 of our Constitution. ....
But
even if it didn't, it's so offensive to the average citizen."
The deputy whip position was born in January during the Senate
Democrats'
reorganization for the 2005-06 legislative session, when Hughes was
named to
an unpaid post.
Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow, D-Lackawanna, said demands on
the
20-member caucus' seven leaders "to provide the members with assistance
and
information continues to grow" justified the new position.
Senate Republicans started thinking about creating a similar position
in its
30-member caucus, said Senate GOP Counsel Stephen MacNett. Senate
leaders
decided during closed-door pay raise discussions to codify the
positions.
The whip position has historically been used to help caucus leaders
determine members' positions on sensitive issues and rally support.
The new posts have the added benefit of "allowing another member to be
a
part of leadership and manage some designated issues," said Drew
Crompton, a
staff attorney to Senate President Pro Tem Robert C. Jubelirer,
R-Blair.
In the latest round of legislative paychecks, 133 lawmakers received
the
raise through unvouchered expenses that allow them to skirt a
constitutional
ban on midterm raises.
Locally, those include Reps. Ron Buxton, D-Harrisburg, Adam Harris,
R-Mifflintown, Mark McNaughton, R-Susquehanna Twp., Bruce Smith,
R-Dillsburg
and Peter Zug, R-Myerstown, and Sens. David "Chip" Brightbill,
R-Lebanon,
and Terry Punt, R-Franklin.
The other 119 lawmakers have rejected the midterm raises. That number
is up
by 25 from a month ago, when the first paychecks containing the raise
went
out.
The raise has generated a public outcry and spawned Stilp's effort to
overturn the entire bill. Legislation has been introduced to rescind
the
midterm raises, and legislation to repeal the entire salary package
continues to be circulated among legislators.
Among the midstate legislators who have signed on to co-sponsor the
bill
that would scrap the raise are: Rep. Will Gabig, R-Carlisle; Rep.
Mauree
Gingrich, R-Palmyra; Rep. Glen Grell, R-Hampden Twp.; Rep. David
Hickernell,
R-Elizabethtown; Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg; Rep. Mark Keller,
R-New
Bloomfield, and Rep. Ronald Marsico, R-Lower Paxton Twp.
CHARLES THOMPSON: 705-5724 or ctho...@patriot-news.com JAN MURPHY:
232-0668 or jmu...@patriot-news.com
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