HARRISBURG -- The pay raise for state legislators, judges and executive branch members is dead.

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It expired quietly yesterday afternoon, as state senators -- asking voters to forgive them for the serious mistake they had made in enacting it July 7 -- voted 50-0 to kill it. Gov. Ed Rendell then signed the repeal.

"It's high noon at the state Capitol," said Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, who had opposed the pay raise. "It's almost as if Errol Flynn and Randolph Scott came riding into our chamber."

Mr. Ferlo was only slightly off on the time, as the vote for the repeal occurred about 12:20 p.m.

"The pay raise died as the result of a creative and principled protest from people in many counties around the state. They objected both to the dollar amount of the raise and the manner in which it took place," Mr. Ferlo said. "People across the state have expressed concerns about how the House and Senate operate."

Mr. Rendell signed the repeal about two hours after the Senate acted and it took effect immediately. The state House repealed the raise Monday.

"Far too many days have passed in this Capitol building without focusing on important issues like delivering property tax relief, increasing the minimum wage, passing an anti-crime package and bills to benefit our [military] men and women serving overseas," said Mr. Rendell, who, like all 203 House members and half of the 50 senators, is facing re-election in 2006.

The state House voted 197-1 to rescind the raises, which had covered all 253 legislators, more than 1,000 state judges and several dozen members of Mr. Rendell's administration.

State Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver Falls, was the only member of either chamber who stubbornly insisted on voting to retain the increases.

The pay raise bill had been approved by the Senate at 2 a.m. July 7, without any public hearings or debate. Opponents were upset both at the size of the raises -- 16 percent to 34 percent for legislators -- and the secretive manner in which they were enacted.

One of the leaders of the pay raise action, Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill, R-Lebanon, profusely apologized yesterday to his fellow senators for pushing a bill that got them into trouble with the people in their districts and to the residents of Lebanon who had supported him.

"We are here to correct a mistake," he said. "As one of the people who showed poor judgment on the matter, I would like to apologize to my constituents and colleagues. You trusted me to exercise good judgment and I didn't. I'm sorry."

Senators were clearly chastened and embarrassed by the past four months of angry citizen protests around the state, including a rally Sept. 26 on the steps of the Capitol where 1,500 people demanded repeal.

"This shows that an active and involved public is what makes democracy work," said Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, who had voted against the raise.

The raise had increased the base pay for legislators to $81,050 a year, from $69,647. Some committee chairmen and party caucus leaders would have earned more than $100,000 and the salaries of top leaders in the House and Senate would have gone from $110,000 to $145,000.

The base pay will now return to $69,647, but on Dec. 1 will be increased by 3.64 percent with an annual cost-of-living adjustment enacted by the Legislature in 1995. It is based on the rate of inflation in the Philadelphia area.

Groups that had protested the pay raises, such as Common Cause, Democracy Rising, the Commonwealth Foundation, the League of Women Voters and Rock The Capitol, applauded the repeal but said the move didn't go far enough.

They said the legislators also should refuse to take the cost-of-living adjustment -- something which doesn't appear likely.

Citizen protesters also called on the 134 legislators who had taken their raises in the form of "unvouchered expenses," starting Aug. 1, to return that money to the treasury.

Tim Potts, director of Democracy Rising, said rank-and-file legislators had gotten about $3,800 each in unvouchered expenses money for the August-November period, while leaders got as much as $13,000 each for that period.

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Altoona, already has said he'll return his unvouchered expenses money. But it will be up to each legislator to make that decision.

Senators from the Pittsburgh area who had taken the extra money, including Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, Gerald LaValle, D-Beaver, and John Wozniak, D-Johnstown, brusquely refused to answer yesterday when asked whether they would return the money.

"I have nothing more to say to you about the pay raise," Mr. Costa told a reporter.

Sen. Barry Stout, D-Washington, also took the money, but has missed recent sessions due to illness and wasn't there yesterday. He voted by proxy, which is legal.

Mr. Brightbill stressed that the repeal applies equally to all three branches of government: legislative, judicial and executive.

He said that because all branches were treated the same, he believes the repeal legislation will withstand any court challenge filed against it.

There has been some concern that a judge might sue to overturn the repeal, based on a constitutional provision saying judges' salaries can't be reduced once they've been set.

But Mr. Brightbill said judges' salaries alone cannot be cut, but when they are reduced as part of an overall package that reduces the salaries of all salaried state officials they can be, and that is what the repeal bill did.