While you were sleeping this morning, the General Assembly voted to approve a $24.3 billion state budget for 2005-06, along with hefty pay raises of $11,000, or 16 percent, for rank-and-file members and thousands more for legislative leaders and committee heads.

		On the Internet Read the legislative pay raise bill 2005-06 state budget The Growing Greener II Medicaid revision bill

The state Senate voted 27 to 23 at 2:15 a.m. to approve the controversial raises, which lawmakers say are justified because of the long hours they put in, and because they haven't had a "real" raise in a decade. After taking the vote, senators rose from their desks, exchanging hugs, kisses, handshakes and high-fives.

The state House had voted 119 to 79 in favor of the raises shortly before the Senate did. Neither chamber debated the pay-raise issue publicly, nor did they debate the budget, which was unremarkable except for its cuts to Medicaid benefits. House and Senate members, who approved the budget a full week after its July 1 deadline, left their chambers shortly after the pay-raise vote, and many either declined to answer questions from reporters or simply slipped away before they could be queried.

House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese of Waynesburg -- one of many House and Senate leaders who will make far more than the minimunm $81,000 -- said "it's a 24-7 job," and he hoped to attract younger, motivated people to become legislators with the higher pay.

DeWeese will earn $134,688 under the new pay structure, which is pegged to a minimum of 50 percent of the congressional salary, but with added bonuses for committee chairmen and vice chairman, caucus chairman, floor leaders and others.

Because the budget debate moved so slowly over the past week, House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, thanked his colleagues for their patience and extra hours, adding, "It's been one hell of a week.''

The pay-raise bill and the budget bill were contained in separate pieces of legislation. Those two bills, along with two others -- one detailing how $625 million in environmental money will be spent over the next several years, the other explaining cuts in the state's Medicaid program for the poor and elderly -- are all awaiting signature from Gov. Ed Rendell, who plans to sign the bills today in Washington, D.C.

The pay-raise bill ties General Assembly salaries as a percentage of congressional salaries.

Rank-and-file state legislators will get 50 percent of the $162,000 a year that congressmen get, or $81,000. However, that would be the lowest salary under the new structure. Only one freshman senator is expected to make the base $81,000.

Because of many titles held by the other 49 senators, they will make far more than $81,000. The top salary in the Senate will be President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, at $145,463. Next will be the Republican and Democratic floor leaders, Sens. David Brightbill and Robert Mellow respectively, at $134,688. Lesser officials, such as party whips, appropriations chairs, caucus chairs and deputy whips will earn between $89,100 to $124,711.

In the House, 130 of the 203 members will make the base salary.

In 1995, lawmakers boosted their salaries from $47,000 to $55,800, a 19 percent raise, and added automatic annual cost-of-living increases that have since raised the total to $69,647. The theory was that the annual increases would preclude the need for future pay-raise votes.

Legislative pay raises never sit well with taxpayers.

Findlay Supervisor Tom Gallant said yesterday he and his wife have worked for US Airways for 22 years and have had to take three pay cuts in the past five years.

"If they don't like the compensation they're getting, why don't they consider doing what the rest of us have to do -- look for a better-paying job?" Gallant said. "One hundred percent of the people I've talked to don't think these guys deserve a raise."

A labor, social service and religious group called the Raise the Minimum Wage Coalition urged Rendell not to sign the pay raise until the $5.15 per hour minimum wage is raised. "If elected officials have a hard time making ends meet at $69,000 a year, how can low-wage workers even begin to survive at $5.15 an hour?" said coalition member Lance Haver of Philadelphia.

Mellow, of Scranton, was one of the few legislative leaders willing to publicly call for the pay raises.

"It doesn't matter if you raise your salary by $1 or $10,000, it's not a popular move, but it's necessary,'' he said. "It will attract the proper type of individuals for the General Assembly and the proper people to serve as judges and cabinet members.''

Besides legislators, Rendell, his top staff and Cabinet members and state judges are in line for raises -- 1,200 people. This includes the Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth courts, Common Pleas judges, district judges and district attorneys.

Yesterday afternoon, Rendell said he hadn't seen the pay raise bill yet, but he seemed inclined to sign it. He said he probably won't accept his own raise, from $155,000 to about $176,000. "I knew the salary when I ran for office in 2002," he said.

But for legislators, he said, "This is their life's work. Just like a mechanic in an auto shop has the right to hope for a pay raise, legislators have the right to hope for increases."

Lawmakers are prohibited by state law from raising their own salaries during their current terms. The raises, technically, would take effect after the November 2006 elections. But lawmakers can hopscotch around the state constitution by simply cutting themselves checks from an expense account. It doesn't count as salary, yet they still see the extra money immediately, instead of in 18 months.

The pay raise proposal was discussed behind closed doors until the last minute. Besides increasing lawmakers' current salary, it says salaries would continue to rise as congressional salaries do. If those congressional salaries don't rise in a given year, lawmakers will still see a cost-of-living increase.

If the legislative pay raise is signed by the governor, Pennsylvania would vault over Michigan and New York, where legislators earn $79,650, and be second only to California lawmakers, who make $99,000 a year.

One reason budget talks dragged on nearly a week beyond the July 1 start date for the new fiscal year, some lawmakers said, is legislative leaders were twisting arms to round up enough votes for the pay raise.

Some lawmakers who were leaning toward a "no" vote on the raise were told their pet bills wouldn't get out of committee, or that they would be given unimportant committee assignments. Other lawmakers, in private conversations, were cited the opposite tack -- they were offered funding for projects in their districts in exchange for a yes vote.

Most legislative leaders have been avoiding reporters on the raises. But not House Democratic Whip Mike Veon of Beaver Falls, who said legislators put in long hours and haven't had "a real pay raise" since 1995.

The average Pennsylvanian makes less than $39,000 a year.

In addition, taxpayers provide $650 a month for lawmakers to lease a car; lawmakers get a $129 "per diem" allowance for each day in session; they don't have to submit receipts for their expenses; and they get fully paid health and pension benefits.

In other budget news, Rendell said legislators had worked cooperatively with him in restoring about half of the $380 million in spending cuts for Medical Assistance for the poor that he proposed in February.

Lawmakers now begin their summer vacations. They will not return to work in Harrisburg until September.