Pay Raises and Whatnot

So the Pennsylvania State Legislature voted themselves a 16% pay raise and, of course, people all across the commonwealth are pissed off.

The people who make the laws of this state deserve a pay raise every once in a while, don't you think?

Everyone want a pay raise every once in a while don't they? Why then, if everyone feels as though they deserve a pay raise, do they feel as though the legislators do not deserve a pay raise? Are people pissed because they feel like it is coming out of their pocket because it is taxes that pay for the pay raise?

This is the first pay raise in 10 years. In 1995, they voted to give themselves 70,000. Inflation in the past 10 years has far exceeded what what the legislators have given themselves as a pay raise. According to westegg.com, 70,000 in 1995 is the same as 87091.88 in 2005. So did the legislators give themselves a pay raise or have the been taking a gigantic pay cut every year for the past ten years?

Let's put this into some real perspective now: The Pennsylvania State Legislature is comprised of 250 people. 250 X $81,000 = $20,231,000. The total budget for the state of Pennsylvania is $24,300,000,000. The salary for the legislators is less than one-half of one-half of one-half of one-percent of the total budget. FURTHERMORE: the the difference between this year's salary and last year's salary comprises less than one-sixty-fourth of one-percent of the total budget. That is 0.01028%.

I know what you are thinking: Don't bore me with numbers. Give me something tangible to work with here.

Okay, here is something tangible: The entire Pennsylvania Legislature will earn $20,231,000 this year. The Pirates payroll is $38,133,000, the Sixers payroll is $63,757,853, the Steelers payroll is $77,955,021, the Phillies payroll is $95,337,908, and the Eagles payroll is $104,977,331. The Pirates, Phillies, and Sixers all suck. The Steelers are good, but can't seem to make it past the first round or two of the playoffs, and the Eagles just can pull the trigger when it comes to actually getting to, and then winning the Super Bowl.

Let's put some more perspective on it, shall we: The entire legislative body of Pennsylvania will have earned $7,460,667 LESS than the state's two highest paid athletes (Allen Iverson - $14,625,000 for the 2004-2005 season, and Jim Thome - $13,166,667 for the 2005 season).

The naysayers will say: But the legislators' salary comes out of MY taxes. My taxes don't pay for the sports teams' salaries.

You're right, our taxes don't pay for the sports teams, but we do pay, and I do mean WE because almost everyone I know owns at least one article of clothing or other piece of paraphanelia from at least one Pennsylvania Sports team. I can complain and complain until I am blue in the face that Allen Iverson gets paid way to much for what he does, but the other side of that coin is the fact that I own two Iverson jerseys, four Iverson bobbleheads, and an Iverson action figure, and have (over the past 4 years) bought 4 pair of Iverson sneakers. (In my defense: one pair was on sale, and two pair, the Iverson Questions, are my favorite type of sneakers ever. If they continued to make them, I would continue to buy them. Also in my defense, the three of the 4 bobbleheads were a gift from Christo.)

So when I hear some idiot at the convience store who is wearing a Phillies hat and has a Eagles bumper sticker on his car complaining about the pay raise of "those greedy bastards in Harrisburg" I'd like to ask him if he'd like to have his pay frozen for the next ten years. Whatever you make this year... and I will even throw in bonus and benefits... that is what you will get each and every year for the next ten years. THEN in July of 2015, when you are flat broke because you can't afford anything because you are so far behind the curve of inflation because the buying power of your salary has been weakened by 10 years of the steadily rising prices of food and gas and services and cars and movies and college and taxes and beer and basic necessities, when you ask for a 16% increase in your pay, then I am going to call you a greedy bastard for asking soooo much of a raise.

I think the legislature needs to enact a law where they get a pay raise every year, that way they don't have to deal with the crap of voting a pay raise for themselves. If they would get a 2 or 3 % cost-of-living increase each year, then they would never have to worry about idiots questioning their income.

Throughout the history of our nation, the people who have been elected have had the difficult task of paying themselves what they feel they are worth. And they have had to give themselves pay raises. If they never gave themselves pay raises, they would all be working for free. Like volunteers. Question: do you want a group of volunteers running the state government? I want volunteers working at the library and meals on wheels and at charity events and for scout troops. I don't want them running our government.

peace,
mph