For the first time since 1995, the 253 members of the state House and Senate will not see any more in their monthly paychecks starting in December. Base legislative pay, like the economy, will remain stagnant, at $78,315.
Salaries also will stay the same for Gov. Rendell, other top state officials, and judges.
That's because a key inflationary rate that determines annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAS) for many in power in Harrisburg was kept in check during the last 12 months.
Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg activist who has long protested against legislative pay raises and the COLAS, called the news "forced reform," but welcome nonetheless.
"We have been trying to stop these stealth pay raises for years," Stilp, founder of Taxpayers and Ratepayers United, said yesterday. "Finally, the economy has done what we have been unable to accomplish."
Believing it had hit upon a way to avoid thorny raise votes, the General Assembly 14 years ago tied pay bumps to the Consumer Price Index, a standard gauge of retail prices over the preceding 12 months.
The final piece of that equation, statistics for October in the Philadelphia region, were released yesterday. This year, the rate dropped 0.14 percent, representing deflation.
No, that doesn't mean a pay cut for lawmakers. The COLA law, Act 51 of 1995, is very clear: Only an increase or a freeze can occur.
Despite the COLAS, a decade after they were enacted the legislature voted itself another pay raise, which increased base salaries an additional 16 percent.
It was repealed amid intense public outcry, and lawmakers returned to their annual COLAS, typically 2 to 3 percent.
Before you start feeling sorry for lawmakers who will have to make do without raises this coming year, know this: Their salaries have increased 40 percent over the last 14 years thanks to the COLAS.
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