Federal suit against legislators' pay raise

Federal suit against legislators' pay raise

Friday, October 07, 2005

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG -- After filing a federal lawsuit yesterday to block the state legislative pay raise, Common Cause/Pennsylvania leader Barry Kauffman said he'll seek a court order next week to stop 134 incumbent lawmakers from continuing to receive higher compensation in the form of unvouchered expenses.

Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, Democratic state Rep. Greg Vitali and four Central Pennsylvania residents went to federal court in Harrisburg in an effort to overturn the 16 percent to 34 percent pay raises legislators gave themselves early on July 7 without any public notice, debate or hearings.

They said they took the issue to federal court because they don't think they can get a fair hearing in state court -- where judges also received raises under the bill -- and because there are other federal issues involved.

Attorney P. Anthony Rossi claimed that "equal protection" clause of the U.S. Constitution as well as the First Amendment had been violated.

He said all citizens have a right to expect their legislators to be involved in discussions over an issue as important as the pay raise, but, Mr. Rossi argued, the details of the pay raise proposal were fashioned in private by just a handful of legislators and then given to other an hour before the vote.

Without any public debate, he contended, the leaders took an unrelated two-page bill and turned it into 146 pages. The legislators then failed to give it public hearings on three separate days, as the constitution requires.

"Most legislators had no say in the process," Mr. Rossi said. "What the leaders did triggered a truncated legislative process at 2 in the morning."

Mr. Kauffman was more pointed, contending there had been "massive violations of the state constitution" in the last-minute, closed process used to pass the pay raise. These violations, he claimed, "constitute serious violations of our civil rights under the U.S. Constitution."

He said that doing business in a secretive way "has become standard operating procedure" for the Legislature and deprives the public of its rights.

David Atkinson, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Altoona, said the issue shouldn't go to federal court. Jubelirer's pay increases 34 percent to $145,000 under the legislation.

"It's a bit of a reach for them to get into federal court on what seems to be patently a state issue," said Mr. Atkinson. "They've grabbed onto the most popular amendments in the Bill of Rights and hope they can find something."

Mr. Kauffman said he filed the suit "with sorrow and disappointment" but felt it was necessary because of "the misdeeds of Pennsylvania state government."

Another plaintiff, Carl Silverman of Camp Hill, called the legislative leaders who engineered the raise "political terrorists."

The state constitution bars an incumbent lawmaker from receiving a pay raise in the middle of a term, and yet 134 of the 253 legislators have opted to take the higher compensation immediately in the form of "expenses" for which no receipts are needed.

Mr. Kauffman said, "Legislators have received three payments for unvouchered expenses so far, on Aug. 1, Sept. 1 and Oct. 1, and we couldn't wait any longer to file our suit."

Named as a defendant is Gov. Ed Rendell, who signed the pay raise bill, which includes raises for more than 1,000 state judges and members of the Rendell cabinet.

Another defendant is state Treasurer Robert P. Casey, who issues the expense checks to legislators.

Mr. Kauffman said he'll seek a temporary restraining order in federal court next week to bar Mr. Casey from paying out any more money in the form of expenses until the case is decided.

Mr. Casey, who is running for the U.S. Senate, hurriedly issued a statement yesterday saying he's strongly opposed to the pay raise and the secretive way that legislators approved it.

Other plaintiffs in the suit are Tim Potts of Carlisle, a leader of a group called Democracy Rising PA, which was part of a public protest against the pay raise at the Capitol last week; William McIntyre of Camp Hill, who complained about the pay raise this summer and was told to "get a life" by state Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna (whose salary rose from $100,000 to $134,000); and a Lancaster resident, William Koch.

The federal lawsuit is the second legal action taken against the raise. Harrisburg political activist Gene Stilp this summer filed a suit in Commonwealth Court. Arguments in that case are expected this fall.

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(Harrisburg Bureau chief Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 717-787-4254.)

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05280/584353.stm

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