Category: default || By jt3y

Am I supposed to get all warm and runny over the fact that the Pennsylvania General Assembly gave back the pay raises that they shouldn't have given themselves in the first place?

Let no one lose sight of the fact that those state senators (in the Mon Valley, Jay Costa) and representatives (Paul Costa, Joe Markosek and Ken Ruffing) who voted for the pay raise --- and who have now voted to repeal it --- didn't change their minds because of an attack of conscience.

They only decided to give back the money because they got caught.

As villagers prepared effigies, boiled oil and sharpened the tines on their pitchforks, the brothers Costa, Mssrs. Ruffing and Markosek, and all of their cronies heard the rumblings of mutiny and said, "You know, maybe we can get by on $70,000 per year after all."

I don't call that altruism. I call it "saving their own hides," and I say, to hell with it.

I can almost admire the only two people in the Legislature to vote against repealing the pay raise --- Reps. Bill DeWeese and Mike Veon --- for their honesty.

Many of their colleagues wanted to stick it to the taxpayers as long as they could get away with it, but chickened out at the last minute. DeWeese and Veon stood up proudly, wrapped themselves in the Pennsylvania state flag, and defiantly gave their constituents the bird. Bully for them.

I'm a simple guy. So allow me to make a simple analogy: You have a small business and catch one of your employees stealing from the till. You confront them with their dishonesty, fire them, and threaten to call the police if they don't give the money back. They hand over the loot. Would you then re-hire them?

Of course not. Personally, I'd have a difficult time ever trusting them again.

Many, but not all, of our state legislators got caught with their hands in the state cookie jar. (It's worth noting that Mon-Yough reps Jim Casorio, Marc Gergely, David Levdansky and Harry Readshaw, along with senators Wayne Fontana, Sean Logan and Bob Regola didn't vote for the pay raise, and several of them were punished as a result.)

So, do you want to re-hire them when they're up for re-election?

I sure don't.

Besides, have you heard so much as an apology out of anyone? "Gee, I voted for the pay raise, but I shouldn't have. I'm sorry. We should be satisfied with our already ample paychecks."

Well, there haven't been many (or any) apologies because they're not sorry. And many of those legislators who voted to repeal the raise are mumbling that they only cast their votes because the "process" used to enact the raise was wrong.

In other words, they still think they deserve the money, and no one is ruling out trying to pass another pay raise in the near future.

If they voted for the pay raise in the first place, throw 'em out. The fact that they voted to do the right thing now --- at the point of a gun --- shouldn't make us forget what they did wrong in the first place.

Don't let them play you for a sap. Educate yourself. If you don't know who your legislators are, for goodness sake, find out. And find out if they voted for the pay raise.

Sure, they'll try to bribe you with cheap trinkets before their next re-election campaign --- jar openers and emery boards --- or try to impress you with constituent services (like driver's license forms) that they're required to offer anyway. Don't be fooled.

Because while they're handing you a free state highway map with one hand, they're picking your pocket with the other. And is a free map worth $100,000 a year to you? Personally, I'd just as soon join the AAA.

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Meantime, guess who attended the official state dinner at the White House held in honor of HRH Prince Charles? None other than "Mr. Lynn C. Swann, Commentator, ABC Sports Collegiate Football," and his wife.

If I'm Bill Scranton III, I'm jumping up and down on my hat and cursing right now. I get this sense that the Republican National Committee has tapped Swann as their chosen candidate to go up against Ed Rendell next year.

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On a happier note: Join Vince Sims of WPXI-TV and Dr. Curtiss Porter, president of Penn State McKeesport Campus, at a book sale tonight at the Westinghouse Recreation Center, Greensburg Pike in Forest Hills. Proceeds benefit the Carnegie Library of Braddock, which is in urgent need of your support. Numerous local authors will be there with signed copies of their work, and new and used books by other authors will also be on sale.