THIS TAKES A LOT OF CRUST!! (And I'm not talking about bread)

An article in yesterday's (7/14) Harrisburg Patriot News is a testimony to the hypocracy of our State Legislators with regard to who will and who will not accept the outrageous 16% pay raise.

As the title to this "article" suggests, it takes a lot of crust for a Legislator to say, especially publicly, that they will not accept the raise "this year," but will not commit about whether or not they will accept the raise NEXT YEAR.

The Pennsylvania Constitution is clear that "new salaries" for our so-called Lawmakers do not take effect until the beginning of the next Session of the Legislature, which of course will be January 2006, but this is not a "fail-safe" provision, because there is a "loophole" that allows Legislators to receive the amount of the increase as an "unvouchered expense," which doesn't count as salary--well it doesn't count as salary for this year anyway!! "UNVOUCHERED EXPENSES????" This is the ultimate in hypocracy, and those Legislators who agree to accept the "increase," in this fashion deserve to be voted out of office.

At any rate however, the people of Pennsylvania, MUST speak out on this issue, because in the final analysis it is the people (TAXPAYERS) of Pennsylvania who are ultimately paying the bill!