AP, Sept. 26

Capitol rally draws hundreds to protest pay raises.

By PETER JACKSON
Associated Press Writer

More than 1,000 protesters turned out in drizzling rain Sept. 26 to demand the repeal of legislative pay raises of as much as 54 percent, and speakers urged them to follow through by voting out incumbents in next year's elections.

While members of the state House and Senate went about their business inside the Capitol for the first time since they approved the pay raise early on the morning of July 7, the demonstrators huddled beneath umbrellas on the steps outside, blowing whistles, waving signs and chanting anti-raise slogans.

"Repeal, repay, reform or resign!" the crowd shouted on cue from Barry Kauffman, director of Pennsylvania Common Cause, who served as the rally's master of ceremonies and competed for space with an inflatable, 25-foot, pink "no-pay-raise pig."

"We demand open government, not that cabal that's always scheming and plotting in the dead of the night in this place," said Bob Durgin of WHP-AM in Harrisburg -- one of at least three radio talk-show hosts who broadcast from the rally.

The Senate recessed for private caucus meetings only minutes before Durgin, followed by more than 100 people, set out to hand-deliver what he said were 129,000 petition signatures calling for the repeal of the pay-raise law to the offices of House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia; Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair; and Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.

Pottstown's newspaper, The Mercury, separately delivered nearly 9,000 letters from readers demanding the repeal of the pay raise. The paper said it had solicited the letters during the past month.

Russ Diamond, an Annville businessman and chairman of PACleanSweep, a political action committee that hopes to field candidates to challenge every incumbent legislator in next year's elections, accused lawmakers of violating the state constitution they are sworn to defend and recited legislative leaders' names as if he were reading an indictment.

"You have committed offenses against the constitution and against the people," he said, "Your services are no longer needed."

The Sept. 26 rally was organized by a motley collection of political outsiders and self-styled government reformers hoping to capitalize on taxpayers' unhappiness over the raise and the clandestine manner in which it was approved.

A recent statewide poll showed that four out of five voters feel that legislators do not deserve the raise, which pushed the minimum salary to $81,050 – second-highest after California's. Most legislators received more because of leadership or committee duties. Fringe benefits push the total cost of a Pennsylvania legislator to $150,000 a year or more.

Much of the criticism has focused on the way the vote was handled -- at 2 a.m., without debate or public notice -- and the fact that most lawmakers began collecting their raises immediately in the form of "unvouchered expenses," even though the state constitution prohibits legislators from receiving any raise during the term in which it is passed.

The protesters were urged to visit their legislators and ask them to sign written statements promising to support a bill to repeal the pay-raise law, which also boosted the salaries of judges and top executive-branch officials. Perzel had said he will not permit debate on such a measure unless there is majority support for it, which has not materialized.

Joe Cramer, 63, a protester from New Holland who works at a plant that manufactures industrial batteries, said he has to keep working to pay his medical bills and property taxes, while the "crooks" in the Legislature ignored those issues and fattened their own pocketbooks.

"I can't retire," he said. "My home is paid for, but I will lose it if I retire."

Else Schiller, 70, of Pittsburgh, who rode to the demonstration with her husband and seven other people, agreed.

"We're appalled," she said. "It's our money. We don't have all these perks."