HARRISBURG -- Taxpayers who were outraged at the now-repealed pay raises that state lawmakers gave themselves in 2005 might want to take a look at the list of their employees' salaries.
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A list released by the House of Representatives yesterday shows that 133 employees have salaries exceeding $73,614, the base pay for rank-and-file lawmakers. Thirty-three staffers have salaries of more than $100,000.
Add bonuses that were secretly doled out to employees last year, and some House aides took home more than Gov. Ed Rendell, whose salary is $164,396.
The highest base salary, $169,446, belongs to Edward J. Nolan, chief Republican staffer for the House Appropriations Committee, who also received a bonus of $16,045 for a total of $185,491.
Mr. Nolan's Democratic counterpart, Miriam Fox, has a base salary of $126,568 and received a bonus of $28,137, the highest of all bonuses given to legislative employees last year. That brought her compensation to $154,705.
Two weeks ago, House Speaker Dennis O'Brien ordered salaries of the 1,898 staffers to be released, saying he wanted to "make the House more transparent and open."
His order came after newspapers reported $2.4 million was quietly doled out in bonuses to House employees last year. Of that, $1.9 million went to Democratic caucus employees who were told in a letter not to talk about the bonuses.
Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, initially refused to discuss the bonuses or to disclose the amounts, but he relented after the other three legislative caucuses provided lists of their bonus recipients.
Now, state Attorney General Tom Corbett is investigating whether those bonuses were tied to campaign work, which would be illegal. An analysis by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that 80 of the top 100 bonus recipients were involved in campaigns for Mr. DeWeese, or former House Democratic Whip Mike Veon of Beaver Falls or the House Democratic Campaign Committee, which the two controlled.
Generally, the top bonus recipients also were among the top-salaried employees. In a few cases, though, bonuses went to lower-paid employees, sometimes increasing salaries by 40 percent.
For example, one research analyst for the Democratic caucus was paid a salary of $45,006 and a bonus of $17,665, records show.
Mr. Rendell criticized the payments when he learned about them. Although no members of the governor's staff received bonuses, he said he doesn't oppose them if they are based on a reasonable percentage of salary.
On the Republican side, Minority Leader Sam Smith limited bonuses to 10 percent of salary or less. Departments under the executive branch limited bonuses to $1,500.
Democratic leaders said the bonuses were awarded based on merit for legislative work or to boost pay of workers who had reached salary caps. Democrats say their salary scales are lower than Republicans. So far they have not responded to requests for copies of those salary scales.
Their argument bears out when it comes to actual salaries of top staffers, at least.
For example, Michael Manzo, chief of staff to Mr. DeWeese, is paid $141,102 per year. Add in the $20,250 bonus he received last year and his compensation was $161,352, just 2 percent less than the governor's.
Mr. Manzo's Republican counterpart, Anthony Aliano, was paid more. His base salary is $153,924 and he received a bonus last year of $15,392 for a total of $169,316.
Meanwhile, Brian J. Preski, who no longer works for the House, received base pay of $164,272 and a bonus of $15,527 for his service as chief of staff to former speaker John Perzel.
The current speaker has two chiefs of staff: Michael J. Piecuch, whose salary is $125,000, and Michael S. Schwoyer, whose salary is $128,024, records show.
Other top salaries are:
Brett Feese, former legislator now working as chief counsel to the Republican Legislative Management Committee, $155,000.
Roger Nick, House chief clerk, $151,000.
Reizdan B. Moore, chief legal counsel to Democrats, $133,432. Mr. Moore also received a $6,695 bonus last year.
Jeff Foreman, chief counsel to Majority Whip Keith McCall, $126,204. Mr. Foreman received a $14,815 bonus last year as chief counsel to Mr. Veon, former minority whip.
Joseph C. Miller, director of the Republican Legislative Management Committee, $124,000. He received a $2,066 bonus as an employee of Mr. Perzel.
Scott V. Brubaker, Mr. DeWeese's director of staffing and administration, $122,564 salary, $15,250 bonus.
Until now, information on taxpayer-funded salaries was available only upon written request to the House clerk, who would provide information for no more than 15 employees at a time. Requests often took two weeks to fulfill. Under that procedure, it would have taken roughly five years to receive salary information for all employees.
Now, the information is publicly available in a 138-page book available in the office of the House chief clerk.
