Editorial: Pennsylvania legislators could choose to change pay raises
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Once again, Pennsylvania legislators, judges and elected executives, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, will start the new year with a nice increase in salary.
The paychecks in question will go up 3.5% in 2024. That’s downright economical when compared with this year’s 7.8% spike or the 5.6% in 2022. After about $12,000 in total over two years, a mere $3,578 raise for the average lawmaker might seem almost stingy.
For top leaders like Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, it’s more: $5,618.
The hikes are even higher for Shapiro ($8,037), Lt. Gov. Austin Davis ($6,751) and the state’s treasurer, auditor general and attorney general ($6,687). The highest increase goes to Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Todd, who gets a boost of $8,817.
Meanwhile, the average increase for Pennsylvanians who aren’t paid by taxpayer funds is much more modest at about 2% for wage earners. It’s also under the 3.2% cost of living adjustment for Social Security recipients.
The judges and executives don’t get a say in their salaries, which are set by law. Legislators don’t get to duck responsibility that way. Lawmakers created the 1995 requirement that ties government salaries to the Consumer Price Index. The raises happen automatically unless the Legislature takes action to stop that, which it did for 2021 because of the pandemic.
The increases should not be a default.
It isn’t that any of the elected officials should be prevented from getting a raise or that they should lose money in public service. But when legislators are making double the average Pennsylvanian’s income, it seems grotesque that the percentage of their pay raise should be higher as well.
There is no reason that the default should not be demanding a vote to implement the raise rather than one to stop it. It should not be so easy for our leaders to shrug and say it wasn’t their choice.
They all had access to the math and the facts. The increase is triggered every year, predictable as the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll hikes. This isn’t even an issue they can blame on partisanship; officials on both sides of the aisle happily cash the checks.
Every lawmaker who doesn’t choose to reevaluate how these raises happen is choosing to let them continue. And they should have to answer to their voters — especially those who make less and have no guarantee of an annual increase — about why.