- Pennsylvania Among 'Terrible 10' Most Regressive Tax States
- February 4 Non-Partisan Training: HOW TO RUN FOR ELECTION BOARD IN 2013: HOW TO RUN FOR COMMITTEEPERSON IN 2014
- Republican Governors Opt-In to Medicaid Expansion
- The Reports of Unions' Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
- Ask Allyson Schwartz to run for Governor
- Mind the gap: Opting Out of Medicaid Expansion Leaves Low-income Families Behind
- Jan. 14 Workshop:HOW TO RUN FOR ELECTION BOARD IN 2013; HOW TO RUN FOR COMMITTEEPERSON IN 2014
- Seth Williams on Guns, Jasmine Rivera on School Closures @PFC Meetup Wednesday
- PA Revenue Strong Midway Through Year; Tax Cut Could Have Big Impact
- What to Make of the Fiscal Cliff Deal?
Citizen Power and the Voter Referendum
Submitted by Ben Waxman on Mon, 07/18/2005 - 8:04am.
Still seething with anger about the legislative pay raise last week, Inquirer columnist John Grogan wants to take direct action. According to him, the decision by Pennsylvania lawmakers to raise their own salaries is such an outrageous abuse of power that our elected officials need to be punished. His strategy? Voter referendum.
We wouldn't ask the legislature or governor. Heck, no! We would gather signatures and get this puppy on the ballot. We would let voters decide.
Simple. Clean. Beautiful.
Alas, it was not meant to be.
As it turns out, Pennsylvania law is squarely in the politicians' corner on this front. Unlike California and 25 other states, Pennsylvania does not allow statewide voter initiatives.
Allow me to quote from the Referendum Handbook, put out by the Department of Community and Economic Development: "Unlike many other states, Pennsylvania has no general constitutional or statutory provision for voter initiative and referendum at the state or local level. Any statewide question in Pennsylvania must be authorized by a separate act of the legislature."
I have no doubt that if such a question was put on the ballot, voters would overwhelmingly reject the pay raise. However, I think there are serious issues that Grogan overlooks when offering this as a sound strategy.
Now, I'm not as fired up about the pay raise as some people, but I still regard it as a pretty big error. I don't have a problem with our elected officials making good money, but I strongly object to a pay raise when the minimum wage remains low, when Medicare is being cut, and public transit is on the edge of oblivion. If lawmakers can find the political courage to raise their own pay, they can certainly save vital public services and provide low-wage workers with a path out of poverty.
However, would regular citizens be more empowered if they had access to ballot initiative? I don't think so. In state after state, the ballot process has been manipulated by large corporations and other wealthy interests to pass bad laws that couldn't gather enough support in the normal legislative process. Many special interests have spent millions of dollars to roll back affirmative action, force school voucher programs and limit revenue collection from state governments.
I'm in favor to electoral reform and punishing legislators who raised their own pay without thinking about the least among us. However, I'm totally against ballot initiatives coming to Pennsylvania. The record shows that they rarely empower ordinary citizens and simply provide another arrow for the quiver of the privileged.
I agree
Referendums (referenda?), like those in California, are really a double edged sword.
While I am amazed by how disconnected our State Reps are to the anger over their raise, I dont think referendum is the answer. In California it has basically been used as a tool for special interest groups to do a number of things, from legalizing medicinal marijuana, to banning affrimative action and property taxe hikes, to preventing immigrants from going to the friggin emergency room. (And, of course, the quasi referendum, of a right wing funded drive to recall the Governor.) Sometimes propositions can be used for good, but generally, my sense is that they are simply a way for special interests to wage high priced campaigns to get what they want.
Referenda and the Legislative Process
I agree with DanielUA that having voting referenda is, in operation if not in principle, a bad idea becuase it makes the passage of legislation directly dependent on the amount of money at one's disposal, and that is a standard that works generally works against progressive interests. Rederenda also empower the state supreme courts, which become the ultimate judge of their constitutionality. The right wing drive to take over state supreme courts is in part due to their pivotal role in the state referenda process.
To those who feel that John Baer and John Grogan are great populist heroes because of their outspoken opposition to legislative pay raises, I suggest the following. Call them up and congratulate them.
Tell them you agree with them about the poor distribution of income in Pennsylvania. Ask them to break their silence and demand raising the minimum wage. Ask them to break their silence and demand repeal of legislation imposing enormous penalties on late payment of utility bills. Ask them to break their silence and demand meaningful consumer education and protection legislation, so people will not be trapped into paying exraordinarily high interest rates. Ask them to break their silence and demand raising benefits for the poorest members of society. Ask them to break their silence and demand increases in unemployment compensation and workers compensation. Ask them to break their silence and demand legislation making it easier for workers to join unions.
Many of us in the legislature have devoted many years of our lives working on distribution of income questions. The general silence or nitpicking that typifies media coverage of these issues undermines these efforts. Let's try to get something positive to improve the welfare of our citizens out of the media rhetoric on legislative pay raises.
Hey Represenative Cohen, how
Hey Represenative Cohen, how long you been in office?
Pay raises
Just for clarification, I'm in favor of going after people who raise their own pay while screwing over low-wage workers and people without healthcare. I tend to agree with most, if not all, of what Rep. Cohen has posted on the subject. Most of the anger at our elected officals seems to be just at the idea that they might raise their own pay. It's not necessarily connected to anything else in state politics. For me, I'm only angry if they give themselves more money while screwing over working class people and the poor.
Isn't this blog supposed to b
Isn't this blog supposed to be Young Philly Politics...why don't you take the fat pay raise you voted yourself and go start posting on "Philly's Old Political Hacks" Blog!
I personally think Mark adds
I personally think Mark adds a lot to the site. His comments are always detailed and have a logical flow to them. Good arguments too. And if you think Mark is a hack, well, you really don't know much about Philly politics.
well
1) They get COLA increases, big per diems, free cars, and were already amongst the highest paid legislators in the Country.
2) They certainly violated the spirit of the law that says you cannot give yourselves pay raises for the immediate term, even if they technically did not break it.
3) They are now the 2nd highest paid State Reps in the US. With City Council, Philly has to be paying more to their elected officials than anyone else. Do we get the best governance because of that? If so, I have some wonderful oceanfront property in Arizona....
4) They gave themselves a huge raise at a time when the minimum wage has not been adjusted for years, when they are slashing programs for the poor, etc.
5) They use a rationale that they are "doing a good job," so they deserve it. Does that mean that the thousands upon thousands upon thounsands of PA residents are not doing a good job, because they dont get raises? They make more money than most PA residents, have a million perks, great benefits, summers off, etc.
6) They seem to think that this is just a newspaper columnist driven uproar. The fact is, I disagree with John Baer on many things. But, the fact that he and much of the public agree on this issue does not mean the anger comes from Baer. It is plenty organic.
Again, like I said in an earlier comment, what saddens me is that a lot of good reps voted for this without thinking twice. And, they simply repond with anger when talking about it. This is not a monetary issue; it is a symbolic one, and they just don't get it.
31 years
He's been in office since 1974, 31 years: his bio. his bio also states:
I've seen that he voted for the pay raise.
He was one of the reps trying to get the minimum wage up to $7.15 since January [five news releases to read], but they were shot down.
From what I've seen and read of Rep. Cohen in the past few months, I think he's one of the good guys looking out for us.
Agreed
Mark is always welcome on this site.