It Ain't About the Pay Raise

Well it is - sort of. But it really isn't.

The July 7 pay raise was a watershed event in Pennsylvania politics. Two o'clock in the morning. No floor debate. No public input. A bill completely stripped and appended with new language, changing its original subject. No consideration on the required three legislative days. The votes were evidently pre- arranged. And of course, the infamous "unvouchered expenses."

Five separate violations of our Constitution.

Absolutely outrageous, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. In fact, they did almost the very same thing one year earlier in passing Act 71, the slots bill. And they just did it again with SB 595, with many "voting" members nowhere near the Capitol.

The PA Supreme Court upheld Act 71 as constitutional just weeks before July 7, but Act 71 did not benefit legislators in the direct and blatant way the pay raise did. While the unconstitutional procedures used to approve the pay raise were bad enough, the "we're getting ours through unvouchered expenses" attitude behind it made it the epicenter of a perfect storm of citizen outrage.

But it ain't about the pay raise. To paraphrase a campaign tag line from the past, "It's the process, stupid." The process is broken. It's broken because the institution of the General Assembly is broken.

Leaders strong-arm members into submission and punish those who don't submit. The rank and file bow to leadership's every whim. Otherwise, they'd lose the benefits of the Incumbent Protection Program. The "walking- around-money." The campaign fliers disguised as legislative updates. The public service announcements. The boiler-room "constituent service" phone calls to constituents. The $135 million slush fund leadership controls.

The results? Few Pennsylvanians actually being represented in Harrisburg. Thirty years of ignoring the property tax problem. Failure to even put a dent in the health care crisis. Failure to "maintain and support a thorough and efficient system of public education" as mandated by the Constitution. Failure to keep the students we successfully educate here to work and live. Failure to convince businesses to move to or stay in our Commonwealth without an outright bribe.

Failure. Utter failure. Except - of course - for self serving pay raises, pension increases and the occasional tidbit for anyone willing to drop a few dollars into a campaign war chest or two. Plenty of success in those areas.

We can't change the institution a little bit. We need to change it a lot. Pennsylvania is facing some very serious problems. We need actual solutions - not the pretend solutions their "experience" has given us so far.

We need to fix the process. We need to fix the institution. We won't accomplish it by replacing a few of them - they're all in it together. If they haven't been part of the solution, they're part of the problem. We need to clean the place out and start from scratch.

We need to get back to basics - the Pennsylvania Constitution. We need people who will support it, obey it and defend it once they arrive in Harrisburg - and We the People need to remain vigilant in enforcing it. Not just this year, but every year.

We'll keep bringing up the pay raise because it's the best way to illuminate what's wrong with the institution. It perfectly encapsulates the existing culture of arrogance, greed and corruption. While the pay raise was repealed, the indelible mark it left on the public wasn't.

The incumbents will ask you to consider not just July 7, but the rest of their record. Please do. We believe you'll find that record quite unsatisfactory for a group with such extensive "experience."

Pay raise, pay raise, pay raise.

It ain't about the pay raise. It's about institutional failure - and the failure of individuals within that institution to support, obey and defend our Constitution. It's the only thing they swear to do.

- PACleanSweep