Legislators won't have to return extra money

While a repeal of raises is expected, there are no plans for a payback clause.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- If a repeal of July's unpopular pay raise becomes law, individual lawmakers will likely have to decide for themselves whether to return the extra money.
Legislative leaders plan to negotiate a compromise repeal bill this week, but there are no plans to write a payback clause into it, aides said.
To encourage the money's return, citizen groups that oppose the 4-month-old pay raise are planning to send poster-sized invoices to the 158 lawmakers who accepted any extra money.
Under the law that increased their pay by 16 to 54 percent, lawmakers have had the option to accept extra expense money, called "unvouchered expenses" -- skirting a constitutional provision that bars midterm pay raises.
Individuals choose
"I think it's fair to say that [a payback decision] is up to the individual members who have taken the unvouchered expenses," said Erik Arneson, the chief of staff to the Senate's Republican leader, David J. Brightbill of Lebanon County.
Brightbill, for one, said he will give back the approximately $11,300 he was paid from August through November. But Reps. H. William DeWeese and Michael R. Veon, the top Democrats in the House, do not plan to return their $21,760 in unvouchered expenses.
Last week, DeWeese and Veon cast the only "no" votes when the House and Senate approved competing bills to repeal the pay raise.
"They still think it was the right decision," said DeWeese's chief of staff, Mike Manzo.
Judicial situation
There is little talk of forcing the state's more than 1,000 judges to pay back the money, since the constitutionality of such a move is in doubt. The law boosted judicial salaries by 11 to 15 percent.
The repeal legislation remains stuck on the question of how to write legislation to rescind the judicial pay raise, given a constitutional provision that guards against laws that lower judicial salaries.
The four months of higher salaries for lawmakers and judges likely cost the state more than $5 million. As of Nov. 1, when the latest legislative paychecks were issued, 129 lawmakers accepted the unvouchered expense payments, and the other 124 did not. Another 29 lawmakers initially accepted the payments but later changed their minds.