The House Committee on State Government, yesterday, Jan. 24, voted overwhelmingly to send to the House floor a bill that would cut representation in Harrisburg.
The bill, HB 153, would cut the number of representatives in the State House from 203 to 153. It would leave the membership of the state Senate unchanged at 50.
The bill would also mandate that counties, municipalities and wards not be divided in forming a senatorial or representative district which would be about the only bright side of this wealth and power grab.
The argument for the bill is to cut cost since the base pay for a Pennsylvania legislator is $$82,026, and, yes, fewer legislators would mean spending less money. Of course, if saving money was really the motive, maybe they would have first thought of cutting their extremely generous pay and benefits rather than representation.
In fact, I am certain we could get high quality citizen-legislators who would be willing to serve for no material compensation just as we get high quality people willing to serve as volunteers as ambulance drivers, and firefighters and Little League coaches and on church boards and on charities.
In fact, I am certain they would be an improvement.
HB 153 is sponsored by House Speaker Samuel Smith (R-66). Among the co-sponsors is Bill Adolph (R-165) of Delaware County.
The only GOP State Committee members voting nay were Lynda Culver and Jerry Stern. The only Democrat members voting aye were Eugene DePasquale, Florindo Fabrizio and Steve Santarsiero.
Let’s hear it for House Speaker Samuel Smith (R-66) who is sponsoring HB 153, that would cut the number of representatives in the State House from 203 to 153. It would leave the membership of the state Senate unchanged at 50.
The argument for the bill is to cut cost since the base pay for a Pennsylvania legislator is $$82,026, and, yes, fewer legislators would mean spending less money. It would be even better it they would get their snouts out of the public trough and cut their extremely generous pay and benefits rather than representation.
The bill would also mandate that counties, municipalities and wards not be divided in forming a senatorial or representative district which would be about the only bright side of this wealth and power grab.
It appears that Rep. Smith and a number of his colleagues are finally listening to my friends in the Tea Party. I hope that Smith will join his fellow State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129) who is circulating an on-line petition to present to Gov. Tom Corbett to encourage him to make supporting the Property Tax Independence Act his highest priority in his annual budget address, before the the state House and Senate, Feb. 7.
He should also support Let us hope that Cox will also support Rep. Tom C. Creighton who is the prime sponsor of House bill 633 that calls for ending of citizens paying big money to take out those seldom read public notices. I’d like to see a decent plan for school vouchers that would allow all parents to send their kids to the school of their choice. Think of how that would benefit the city of Chester.
Let’s get rid of all legislative state pensions and health benefits and get a feel for paying for them as the rest of us do