Republican Judiciary Chairman Marsico Issues Statement on Non-tax Paying Prisoners Ge

**larrymeyer** · June 25th, 2009, 05:27 PM

Republican Judiciary Chairman Marsico Issues Statement on Non-tax Paying Prisoners Getting Paid During a Budget Impasse

Republican Judiciary Chairman Ron Marsico (R-Lower Paxton) issued the following statement in response to recent news that during a budget impasse tens of thousands of Pennsylvania prisoners would continue to be paid for jobs they do at state correctional institutions while state prison guards would not be paid:

“This is absolutely ludicrous. We may have approximately 80,000 tax-paying, law-abiding state workers who will go unpaid for an indeterminable amount of time, and the governor is worried about inmates who have given up their freedoms by breaking the law. Allowing non-taxpaying felons to get paid while in prison is absolutely absurd.

“I am astounded that the governor is worried about upsetting the prison population when he should really be troubled by the fact that the families of our own state workers may not be able to buy groceries or put gasoline in their cars if they don’t get paid. Yet, these state workers will still be expected to show up to work every day in order to retain their jobs.

“It makes me very angry that the governor’s priorities are so incredibly skewed. How can he justify the fact that a prison guard, who is a state worker, shouldn’t be paid during a budget impasse but that the prisoners the guard is responsible for will be paid?

“The bottom line is that we simply need to get this budget passed. The potential problems that this state could incur if we don’t pass a timely budget are just overwhelming. Pennsylvanians deserve better.”

Rep. Ronald Marsico
105th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
(717) 652-3721
(717) 783-2014
Member Site: RonMarsico.com
Member Email: rmarsico@pahousegop.com
Contact: Autumn R. Southard
(717) 787-2946
Caucus Site: PAHouseGOP.com