The Pay Raise of 2005 – Four Years LaterBy Tim Potts
DemocracyRisingPA
Four years ago today, our political leadership committed an unprecedented act of theft.
Without the knowledge or consent of the citizens of PA, our leaders enacted a massive pay raise for themselves and their posterity.
The events that occurred thereafter proved what can happen when citizens decide to sign up, speak up and show up.
The names of those who felt the power of PA's citizens, in no particular order, are: Russell Nigro Fred Belardi Don Sherwood Robert Jubelirer Tom Gannon Mike Diven Melissa Hart Stephen Maitland Chip Brightbill Frank Pistella Kenneth Ruffing Paul Semmel Teresa Forcier Mike Veon Patrick Fleagle Shawn Flaherty Gib Armstrong Roy Baldwin Frank LaGrotta Peter Zug Rick Santorum Roy Cornell Robert Allen Curt WeldonM atthew Wright
And a few others. The legislature repealed the pay raise, but our supreme court violated the Constitution to keep it. PA finally got a law to control lobbying. PA finally got a new open records law. PA finally got public officials who are looking over their shoulders. But we also got much that we didn’t want. Lawmakers who promised to change their ways in 2005 instead gave us the Bonus Scandal of 2006. And 2007. And 2008. And 2009.
It is the only major instance of public corruption in PA that is actually being prosecuted by a state official. Former Senator Fumo and former judges Joyce, Ciavarella and Conahan all were brought to justice by federal prosecutors while state and local officials who knew what was going on continued the conspiracy of silence.
We didn’t want to learn how corrupt our courts are, but we can't escape it. We didn’t want to learn how high the cost of corruption is, and we still don’t know for sure. But it's somewhere over a billion dollars and growing. And today, on this fourth anniversary of the Pay Raise of 2005, scores of lawmakers and staff take a break from their failure to enact a budget to defend their failure simply to be honest.
Defendant Mike Veon has called on them to attest in court that illegally using tax-paid staff, offices, equipment and money for election campaigns is so commonplace that no one should be charged with breaking the law. Or else everyone should be charged, which is the remedy we prefer. Breaking the law and being proud of it is a way of life in PA's capitol. Watch what happens during the budget passage to restricted receipt accounts that can be used only for a very specific purpose.
Those funds will be raided for illegal expenditures because, as one administration official recently put it, "By the time they catch us, we'll be gone." Every day from now until the budget passes, we will hear a variation on the theme, "We're no worse than other states."
It sounds a lot like the Veon defense, doesn't it? Whatever else this attitude is, it is not the rallying cry of excellence, and excellence is what our citizens need and deserve. It is why Democracy Rising PA, from day one, has insisted that PA finally and permanently achieve the highest standards of public integrity in America. Anything less continues corruption and invites more of it.
But from the governor's office to the legislature to the supreme court, no one in the past four years has provided excellence. No one who has the power has used the power to demand and deliver excellence in public service. Occasionally they rise to a level of mediocrity. Often, we get far worse. And after four years of platitudes and promises, there is not a single example of PA leading the nation in any aspect of public integrity.
If nothing else, the past four years have proven the need for a Constitution convention. The inability to pass a budget is the least of our problems. The greatest of our problems is the refusal of public officials to obey the Constitution, to trust the people they represent to debate and decide what they want from their government, and to deliver fundamental change that will stop today’s incredible waste of talent and treasure.
Thanks to our bi-partisan political leadership, we face the 21st Century armed with a 19th Century Constitution. The citizens of PA understand this. Frankly, so do our lawmakers, and that is why they refuse to put a referendum on the ballot asking citizens whether we want a convention. On this anniversary of the Pay Raise of 2005, lawmakers hate the people who want integrity, value, transparency and confidence in their government. Too conspicuously, they do not respect, honor or even represent ordinary citizens.
Sadly, it appears that we citizens will make progress again only when lawmakers fear us as well as hate us. A third of the legislature is new since 2005. Next year may be time to change the other two thirds.
Tim Potts is co-founder of DemocracyRisingPA
