Inefficiency and Corruption: what makes Pennsylvania what it is

Rustbelt Economics

Ralph R. Reiland, writing at NewsMax.com points out two current stories about my state of permanent residence Pennsylvania. One is a report that places the state in the bottom six in the nation in terms of economic freedom. Those ranking lower are Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, California and New York - naturally all six were carried by Kerry. The six freest - Colorado, Virginia, Kansas, Idaho, Utah and Oklahoma - all went for Bush.

The other hot item has to do with pay received by members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Saying they are already the fourth highest paid, Reiland points out that they are trying to engineer a small pay raise. They want to boost their nominal salary from $66,204 to $79,000. Of course, legislators also receive a modest package of fringe benefits including health insurance ($13k/yr.), $650 monthly subsidy for rental of a luxury car available for personal as well as official travel, and per diem of $126 for up to 100 days of official activities (not just the legislative session) - a total of $33,400 per year over and above their nominal salaries.

Reiland doesn't mention it, but our legislature can be quite creative when it comes to slipping money from our pockets into theirs. One year they passed a blatantly illegal pay raise for themselves but put it into a bill containing a long-delayed pay raise for judges and a non-severability clause. With this poison pill, they assured that the judiciary would reject any attempt to overturn the illegal legislative pay raise in court. They also proved that the judges didn't deserve their pay raise after all. On another occasion, they gave themselves a large pay hike disguised as unvouchered "expense" money (taxable as ordinary income) so they could skip the procedures required for raising their salaries without bothering to buy off the judges.