HARRISBURG Governor will forgo raise to ease state's budget woes

The governor is passing up between $2,200 and $3,600 a year.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell asked the largest state employees union last month to accept a wage freeze to help ease the state budget crunch.
Now Rendell says he'll do his part, too, and forgo a scheduled pay raise for his $144,463 salary.
Rendell said Monday that he would turn down the cost-of-living raise scheduled for next year as a symbolic cost-cutting gesture. The raise likely would have been about $3,000.
"I'm going to forgo it because we are asking the workers to take a wage freeze," Rendell said.
Rendell asked Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers to accept a wage freeze and a reduction in paid holidays as negotiations for a new contract covering 46,000 people began.
Asked last week about his scheduled raise, Rendell said he did not know he was due to get one and wasn't sure he would take it given the state's $2 billion-plus deficit.
Advises Cabinet
On Monday, Rendell sent a memo to his Cabinet advising them of his decision, adding, "I strongly recommend that each of you do the same."
"I will continue to follow this approach until the wages of our work force are no longer frozen," he wrote.
Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, who is paid $121,000, said she would also give up her raise, calling it the right thing to do.
All 16 Cabinet secretaries are expected to follow Rendell's example, said Kate Philips, Rendell's press secretary.
"I get paid well, and I don't think any one of us took their job [in the administration] for the money," said Don Cunningham, the secretary of the Department of General Services, who is paid $109,792. "The administration is asking unions to hold the line on wages. It's only correct for top managers to do the same."
A state union official could not immediately be reached for comment regarding Rendell's decision.
It doesn't appear the Legislature, where lawmakers are paid a base salary of $64,638, will follow Rendell's lead.
"At this moment, it's not being considered," said Steve Miskin, press secretary for House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia. "No one is talking about that, nor has it been suggested."