Pa. House Democrats pay selves first

[larrymeyer]

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...tory?track=rss

Pa. House Democrats pay selves first

77,000 other state employees must wait until next week. Move surprises Republicans
By John L. Micek | CALL HARRISBURG BUREAU
August 6, 2009

-- House Democrats arranged for themselves to be paid ahead of other Pennsylvania state workers as they voted for a placeholder budget earlier this week.

The House comptroller's office confirmed Wednesday that checks were cut for Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday.

State workers won't be paid until next week at the earliest. Republican lawmakers in the Senate and House, as well as Senate Democrats, have not yet been paid, spokesmen for the three caucuses said.

Asked why Democratic leaders decided to pay their lawmakers before state workers got their checks, Brett Marcy, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said:

Capitol Ideas ''We have always had the ability to pay our members throughout this budget impasse, but our leadership team made the decision early on that we would not pay our members until we passed a bill that would allow state workers to get paid. We passed that bridge bill [Tuesday], and the governor just signed it [Wednesday].''

The $11 billion ''bridge'' budget will allow workers to be paid and core government functions, such as state police and prisons, to receive funding.

Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell exercised his line-item veto authority to eliminate, for now, billions of dollars in funding for programs, counties and school districts from the Republican-penned budget the House approved Tuesday.

The move was intended to pressure legislative leaders into reaching agreement on a permanent spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1.

''I call on all of us to set aside partisan politics Â… and work to pass a budget that preserves the future of our great state,'' Rendell said.

Marcy called it ''regrettable'' that state employees were caught in the budgetary crossfire.

''We believe they should be paid as quickly as possible, and that's why we passed the bridge budget,'' he said of House Democrats. ''We have no control over the administrative process of getting those workers paid, but we understand the governor has tried to accelerate that process as much as possible.''

Though most lawmakers have not been paid, legislative staffers have drawn salaries funded through surplus accounts, spokesmen for all four caucuses said Wednesday.

Still, legislative Republicans were surprised by what the House Democrats had done. Asked if Republicans had paid their members, House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin said:

''No way! Our members are not even planning to have that discussion until state workers at least have the ability to get checks.''

Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh, said Democratic leaders should have waited to issue checks until after state employees had received theirs.

Some House Democrats, fearing a backlash, returned their checks or are holding off on cashing them.

During a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader

Dominic Pileggi, R- Delaware, said Senate GOP lawmakers will be paid now that Rendell has signed the stopgap budget.

But Pileggi said those checks won't be issued before state money lands in state workers' accounts. ''We certainly think our members should be paid,'' he said. ''But we will likely not pay our members before state workers are paid.''

State workers have been going without pay or living on partial pay since July 1.

Rendell said Wednesday the state Treasury will start calculating current and back pay due 77,000 state employees, and those paychecks will start going out early next week.

Rendell declined to comment directly on the House Democrats' decision to issue themselves paychecks before state workers, a story The Morning Call broke Wednesday on its Capitol Ideas blog.

''Now that state workers are going to receive their paychecks, it really is a decision that needs to be made by each caucus as to when to pay their members,'' administration spokesman Ken Snyder said.

[Ten*K]

i've got me a pitchfork.. who's got some torches.

fucking ASSHOLES from Planet 9.

[ehidle]

Didn't the SCOTUS declare the line-item veto unconstitutional because it effectively gave the executive branch the ability it legislate, which is outside its scope of function?

Why would not this decision about the federal line-item veto also be applicable to State-level line-item veto power?

[/dev/null]

Now Im not the sharpest tack, but wasn't this the same bunch that voted themselves a real nice pay-raise a couple years back... in the wee hours of the morning?

[PocketProtector]

Can anyone say term limits??? I'm utterly speechless at the hubris of today's Politicians. All of them, they think they're freaking ROYALTY, starting at the top.

[Halftrack]

eh, just more of the same. It extends all the way to DC. More than enough reason to clean house(s), IMO.

[cgbudde]

Unbelievable, although I am not surprised it is the same story, take care of themselves before anyone else.

[Skeptic]

Didn't the SCOTUS declare the line-item veto unconstitutional because it effectively gave the executive branch the ability it legislate, which is outside its scope of function?

Why would not this decision about the federal line-item veto also be applicable to State-level line-item veto power?

Probably because the state constitution specifically gives that power to the executive - but I am fuzzy on the PA constitution.

[Skeptic]

I was going to make a quip on of course they would, but this is really beyond the normal range of bad for a legislature. This is despicable.

[andrewjs18]

after all...politicians are SELF SERVING individuals. they don't give a shit about the people they represent anymore..they just want to get their large paycheck and secure the votes for the following election.