PA Legislature Comments

In regards to Rep. Cohen's comment on this post, I'm replying via another post instead of a less visible comment.

Some snippets from Cohen's comment:

Rick Santorum only receives 1.3 cents per Pennsylvanian, yet the national debt, a result of Congressional decision-making, is $35,000 per person, and the war in Iraq alone is now over $6 per person, with large increases likely in the future.

The Pennsylvania legislature annually passes a balanced budget, and has no fiasco remotely similar in per capita cost to the quagmire in Iraq.

The Pennsylvania legislature has played an important role in making Philadelphia a more attractive city, having been a major source of funding for the annual Welcome America Celebrations, the Avenue of the Arts, the Kimmel Center, the Constitution Center, the Convention Center, the Wachovia Center, the stadiums for the Phillies and the Eagles, and the conversion to productive peacetime purposes of the Philadelphia Naval Yard.

...

The Pennsylvania legislature, in short, has played a major role in the successful and continuing transition of Philadelphia from an industrial city to a post-industrial city. Those who have come here because of what our city has to offer should understand that the legislature played a major role in Philadelphia's successful comeback.

...

All this does not mean that Utopia has been achieved. Nor does it mean that Republican majorities in the state house and state senate have been converted to the Democratic philosophy of using governmental powers to help lift up the neediest. But it does mean that the recent flurry of legislature-bashing editorials, newspaper columns, and blog posts is both extreme and unwarranted.

I thought the fight against extremism was waaaaaay more than $6/person. From what I've read, the cost of the war is around $1B/day. That's about $4/person per day, $1460/year, $5840/4-person family per year.

If a person is making minimum wage, $5.15/hr, and working 40 hours a week, 51 weeks a year [7 days of being sick/personal leave/vaca], that person makes $10,506 before taxes.

I am not saying that the legislature didn't deserve a raise in that post nor this post. I have previously posted saying I agree that there should be some changes made to how things are done in Harrisburg. I am no insider. I am also very new to this state and it's politics.

I concur with Rep. Cohen that the PA legislature has done great things in this great state of which I am now a permanent resident. But I must respectfully disagree that the recent flurry of legislature-bashing editorials, newspaper columns, and blog posts is both extreme and unwarranted. Rather, I'd say that it seems that the editorials and blog posts have lit a fire under their feet.

Politicians, for what they do, [when and if they do it correctly] are probably underpaid. As underpaid as cops/firefighters/teachers? No, but underpaid nonetheless. Politicians are elected to represent their costituents and look out for them, to represent the sentiment of their section of the populace. When they do things that they are supposed to do, look out for the populace, there isn't much excitement, that is, after all, what they're paid to do. Recalling Chris Rock's socio-comedic observations: a Dad should not take pride in the fact the he takes care of his kids or not being in jail; a Dad shouldn't be in jail and he should be taking care of his kids. When a Dad doesn't take care of his kids or is in jail, that's when I'd question his parenting.

When the PA legislature passes a bill to give themselves a raise and does not pass a bill to also raise the minimum wage of their constituents [a bill that Cohen champions], I must cry afoul. I don't care if the legislature disagrees with me for crying afoul, whomever s/he may be, I'm doing it anyways. In this case, the legislature [as a whole] is not looking out for its constituents. I don't know how one could say otherwise.

I think that if Cohen had his way, he'd give himself a raise AND raise the minimum wage in this state of ours. I know that if I had the opportunity, I'd sure as hell give myself a raise, especially if it was the last time I could do so. But the rest of the House didn't feel that way. And that let the entire state down.

Comments

[howard]

With all due respect to Rep. Cohen (I'm sure he's a decent man, with decent intentions), however "underpaid" a member of the PA legislature might be, how much more could it be said of the many other state legislatures that don't make nearly the amount that PA lawmakers currently make (prior to the raise)?

And given the fact that everyday PA residents still enjoy the lowest federally allowable minimum wage in the nation, exactly how much sympathy are we supposed to feel for lawmakers who enjoy incredible pension and medical packages, along with a paltry 69, sorry, 80 thousand a year in base pay. Tell me that the person working two full-time jobs at places like Wal-mart just to keep the electricity on is supposed to feel anything but insulted by Rep. Cohen's comments.

I'm sorry, he may be a great man, but to suggest that simply because the legislature does its job, it automatically deserves to be more highly paid than almost any legislators in the nation (and twice as much as the average Pennsylvanian), is just ridiculous.

I have a friend who spent over ten years as an elected union official before he got voted out of office. When he was in office, he would defend the fact that he made almost a six-figure income (which was double that of the average union member). He seemed to honestly believe he earned it, that what he was doing was so incredibly difficult that it warranted the salary, and the generous car allowance, and the top-notch benefit package and per diem allowance.

He would often tell us (the regular workers) how we just didn't grasp the difficulty of his job.

That changed very quickly when he lost that job, and was forced to go back to work with all the rank-and-file union members. He has spent many breaths ever since apologizing for having his head so far up his ass.

It wasn't that he was a bad person; it was just that he had no grip on the reality most of the rest of us had to live with. He simply lost touch with our everyday concerns, believing that he understood them simply because he spoke with us or dealth with those problems from a third-party perspective.

I remember when my state representative, Matt Wright, was working for a living, and from what I know of him personally, I don't believe he's a bad person no matter how inane his explanation was for supporting the pay hike. I simply believe he lost touch with the everyday reality of most people in his district. Our concerns should have come before his, but they didn't -- the same is true of most Pennsylvania legislators.

That's something that should make them feel shame, but the saddest fact is it doesn't appear to.

(speaking of shame, I apologize for the unplanned tirade -- I meant to say much less)

[Sir Oolius]

I'm not going to get into all the well-reasoned arguments in the two posts and in the comments to both posts.

I just have a quick question: how much more does a PA legislator make compared to a legislator in a state the size and complexity of PA? A Daily Pennsylvanian Op-Ed this week made comparisons to Nevada, Nebraska, and Montana: they hardly have as many issues to deal with as PA does. The article also compared salaries to Texas, a state known for massive oil-lobby bribery to increase legislator's take-home, so also not something we would like to have here in PA. Does anyone know how much more PA legislators make compared to NY, California, etc.? I know I could probably work to find that out, but I'm lazy, so I'm hoping for a quick answer.

[howard]

They make more than NY legislators, and slightly less (per legislator) than California.

The pressing point here is that though Calif. lawmakers make slightly more per person, they have far fewer lawmakers in their legislature -- for a state that's much larger and more populous than PA.

Sorry, not to get off track, but I wanted to answer your question.

[Rep. Mark B. Cohen]

Thank you for the constructive tone of this posting. You are right that my arithmetic on Iraq was way off: assuming that we now have 300 million Americans and the war in Iraq has consumed "only" 180 billion dollars--the lowest estimate I have seen--that comes out to $600 per person. Other estimates, which are likely more accurate, place the figure of war costs closer to $1,500 per person: the $5,840 figure for a family of four would fit into this calculation. The Bush Administration has deliberately made the costs of the war difficult to figure out, to discourage the mobilization of oppostion to it.

[Ruqayyah]

I would like to comment on the disappearance of Latoyia Figueroa. I would like to wish Mr. Melvin the best of luck and blessings on finding Latoyia. I hope that everyone continues to have faith and help in this case and hopefully she'll return home safely. I had lots of faith but watching the news everyday and listening to the radio made my faith get a little slim. I only would like suggest this because if it was my daughter I would not know what to do without knowing information on her where abouts. I would like to suggest a pshycic only if we continue not to get no information on Latoyia. I know there are several people out there that don't believe in them or they may feel like I feel and alot of other Christains
we should never know what our future holds. But with my child I will do anything to find out where is shes and is she still alive. So I just hope Mr. Melvin think on it and you never know where a pshycic may lead us hey especially Sylvia Brown.(God bless!)