Nov 13, 2014 3 min read

Our Pennsylvania legislators are home now, enjoying the long rest they so much deserve.

After a grueling seven days of work in October when the House and Senate were in session, our lawmakers returned home to campaign to keep their jobs. They returned to Harrisburg after the election and were in session for one day before leaving for a five-day weekend that included Veterans Day. They returned from that for one day of work on Wednesday before switching off the lights and heading home for the holidays.

They won’t be back at work again until Jan. 6.

Their rest is well-deserved; they must be exhausted from all that effort expended in partisan bickering and gathering money for their re-election. Strenuous, too, must have been the work in making sure state control of liquor sales – as antiquated as it might be – remains stuck in the 1930s. And can you imagine how tired and sore our senators and representatives must be from spending all year kicking the pension-crisis can down the road?

In recent years, many state senators and representatives have vowed to work toward reducing the size of the legislature and requiring receipts for reimbursement of expenses. Anything come of that this year? Didn’t think so.

In 2014, the Pennsylvania Senate was in session for 61 days; the House for 69 days. Legislators have other work to do – committee meetings and work with constituents – but dividing their $84,012 base salary by the number of days they are in session is eye-opening. Adding the $163 per diem expense to which they are entitled, senators collect $1,540 per day and house members take in $1,380.

It’s no wonder Pennsylvania has the most expensive legislature in the country.

Members of California’s legislature actually have a higher base salary: $95,291 in 2014. But there are far fewer of them; California’s senate has 40 members, its house 80. That compares to Pennsylvania’s 50 senators and 203 house members. California’s lawmakers are allowed a smaller per diem ($141.86), and since 1990, no member receives a pension.

In Pennsylvania, a former lawmakers can start collecting an annual pension of nearly $30,000 at age 50, and those pensions can range as high as $125,000 a year … for life.

Sure, tiny New Hampshire has a larger legislature than Pennsylvania: 24 senators and 400 representatives. But those lawmakers are paid only $200 for a two-year term. That state recognizes that being an elected representative is part-time work. We here in Pennsylvania gave up that notion long ago.

Two of our area’s Democratic lawmakers – Sen. Tim Solobay and Rep. Jesse White – were unseated last week by Republicans. The voters who favored their replacements – Camera Bartolotta and Jason Ortitay, respectively, hope they will be effective in reining in expenses and possibly reducing the size of the General Assembly.

We’ll watch with anticipation, but not much hope.