Pennsylvania’s legislative payroll is now the most expensive in the nation because of a pay raise that state lawmakers gave themselves earlier this month, according to a Harrisburg-based policy analysis group.

The state’s 253 lawmakers could earn nearly $20.5 million in base salary alone this fiscal year, a figure that does not include outside income, additional salary for top legislative officers or the possibility that some lawmakers will refuse the raise.

But according to the Pennsylvania Economy League, the base salary alone is enough to give the Pennsylvania Legislature the highest payroll — more than the nearly $17 million base payroll in New York and nearly $12 million in California.

The group, however, said it was making no conclusions as to whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from their legislators.

“It’s a decision that each voter is going to have to make for him or herself,” said Karen Miller, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League. “And it’s a decision that the General Assembly is going to have to make about how it runs its own processes and what it produces for the costs.”

Raise Approved

In the early morning hours of July 7, lawmakers approved a pay raise for themselves, judges and senior executive branch employees, at a total cost of about $16 million this year.

On top of the lawmakers’ $20.5 million in total base salary, scores of them will earn additional pay for committee or leadership duties.

Although the state Constitution prohibits any legislature from increasing its own members’ pay during each two-year term, the bill provides an end-run around that restriction. It allows legislators to begin collecting their raises right away through payments called “unvouchered expenses” until the next legislature takes office — and the raises officially kick in — in December 2006.

Rank-and-file legislators will see their base pay rise 16 percent from $69,647 to $81,050. Committee chairmen get an increase of 28 percent to $89,155 and vice chairmen get a 22 percent boost to $85,103. Majority and minority leaders get a 34 percent increase from $100,911 to $134,771 and the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore get a 34 percent increase from $108,724 to $145,553. —

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