Totalitarian Pennsylvania Update.

More evidence that the only way to stop the Commonwealth's decay is to vote your local Schweinhund out of office. 2006 is the best opportunity we may ever have to begin cleaning up Harrisburg.

The taxpayer money from the now-repealed pay raise that some lawmakers are returning is going back into accounts controlled by legislative leaders who engineered the salary boost, a House official said.

Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp said the Legislature's 16 percent to 54 percent pay raise, approved in July and repealed in November, "should go back into the general fund of the people of Pennsylvania and not back into the accounts of the people who engineered that pay raise."

He called it "a violation of the trust of the general public."

Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Republicans, confirmed that repayments of so-called "unvouchered expenses" go back into leadership accounts. An audit in April showed those accounts -- controlled by top leaders in the House and Senate -- contained about $135 million as of June 30, 2004.

The Legislature has accumulated extra money for more than 20 years, starting after Democratic Gov. Robert P. Casey attempted to gain leverage during a dispute by striking the Legislature's operating budget. Leaders insist the cash is necessary to ensure the General Assembly's independence.

Leaders had agreed on a pay bill that allowed members to take the raise immediately as "unvouchered expenses" to avoid a constitutional prohibition against midterm salary raises.

Officials said 158 House and Senate members took the unvouchered expenses as of Aug. 1. Legislative records made available during the past week showed that 76 members had repaid the money.

None of those repayments came to the state treasury, said Karen Walsh, a Treasury Department spokeswoman.

Tim Potts, a former House staffer leading a legislative reform effort, said he sees no reason lawmakers can't return the money to the treasury. The money should be "available for uses to benefit citizens rather than benefitting leadership," Potts said.

Miskin, who disputed the term "surplus" for the account, said taxpayers are probably better off that the money isn't being spent on more state programs such as expanded welfare. If the money were put in the general state budget, it would be "spent at the whim of the governor," Miskin said.
Stilp called on Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. to "demand (the money) be paid back to the general fund" so it can be tracked by auditors.

Citizen outrage prompted the General Assembly to repeal the raise Nov. 16. Salaries are now $72,187 per year for rank-and-file members. Leaders are paid extra. The state also pays for lawmakers' car leases for as much as $650 per month in the House and as much as $600 per month in the Senate. Legislators also collect $128 in expenses for every day on official business in Harrisburg and receive generous health and pension benefits.
(Thanks to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for the heads up.)