Monday, December 8, 2014

To be fair, state legislator pay should be frozen

As I look back on my columns for 2014 it seems like I’ve written one long column, I’m talking novel long, about the need for property tax reform in Pennsylvania. Along the way I complained about some of the things our state legislature deemed more important than providing relief to property owners, who are being held hostage in the name of public education, and while I know my words have not fallen on deaf ears, our elected officials have been successful in sidestepping the issue the entire legislative session. In their defense they have been busy, though. This past legislative session a total of 369 proposals were enacted, according to witf.org, a Harrisburg-based media outlet. House members introduced 3,160 proposals, and 1,091 resolutions, while their counterparts in the Senate introduce 1,981 proposals and more than 500 resolutions. Man, that’s a lot of paperwork. Somehow or another, our state legislature found a way to come together to pass 369 bills during this past legislative session. And yet not a single measure on property tax relief found its way to the governor’s desk. To be fair, though, neither did a measure on liquor privatization or pension reform. You know that guy in the office that always looks like he’s busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest, that’s our state legislature. While I’m not one to complain, as I tried to explain in my complete rant in this week's column, which you can find in its entirety right here, I’m suggesting we freeze the salaries of our state legislators right where they are.

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