Totalitarian Pennsylvania Update.

There is at least one legislator in Harrisburg who is making an attempt to smack down our moral and intellectual superiors whose fat backsides reside in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Patriot-News: Lawmaker takes aim at judges' raises

Just days after the state Supreme Court issued a ruling that restored an unpopular pay raise for Pennsylvania's judges, a state lawmaker is floating a plan to take away those increases.

Yesterday, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, unveiled a proposal that would reduce judges' pay upon re-election.

Under Metcalfe's plan, their salaries would revert to what they earned before the July 2005 pay-raise law went into effect, plus cost-of-living increases. Amid public outrage in November, the Legislature repealed the law that raised salaries for legislators, judges and state officials.

In restoring the judicial raises last week, the Supreme Court cited a constitutional ban on cutting judges' pay during their terms in office as the basis for its decision.

Metcalfe's proposal would force judges to decide whether serving another term would be worth a pay cut. The size of that cut currently would range from 7 percent to 11 percent, depending on which court a judge serves on.

As a result of the Supreme Court ruling, associate justices' salaries will increase from $155,783 to about $171,000. The pay of common pleas judges will increase from $135,293 to about $149,000, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

"The actions of the Supreme Court are very arrogant," said Metcalfe, who plans to introduce his proposal as a bill next week.

Arrogant does not even come close to describing those thieves.