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Jul 15, 2009 6:07 pm US/Eastern
Legislative Staffers Paid During Budget Crisis
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
While nearly 80,000 state workers are working without pay, one special group of state workers doesn't seem to be affected.
It's a group that's right in the heart of the budget crisis in Harrisburg.
KDKA Political Editor Jon Delano uncovered the disparity under which legislative staffers are getting paid in full.
On Tuesday, Bobbi Boyce of Mt. Washington was one of hundreds of state workers protesting no pay during the budget crisis.
Turns out on the very same day legislative staffers in Harrisburg got a full paycheck.
"It's appalling," says Boyce. "We all get paid, or none of us get paid."
It was a common reaction among local state workers.
"It's ridiculous," says Brenna Pikciunas of Dormont. "I think all state employees should be getting the same pay whether legislators or not."
But legislative leaders, Republican and Democrat, gave full pay checks to some 3,000 legislative staffers this week.
"It's a slap in the face," says Ken Kaib of Reserve. "Seventy to 80,000 state employees are not getting paid, but the people we voted in that are, in a sense, causing this impasse are paying their employees, I just think that's wrong."
Here's the way it works in Pennsylvania.
The executive branch of government -- and all the state workers -- are really under the control of the governor who's made it quite clear that neither he nor any state worker will receive a paycheck during this budget crisis.
But the legislature -- that's a separate branch of government -- and it's really up to legislative leaders to decide whether their employees are going to be treated the same as other state workers.
So far, they're treating them a lot better.
While legislators are not paying themselves, House Speaker Keith McCall defended full paychecks for their staff, issuing this statement:
"While the House and Senate workers are here with lawmakers working to solve the impasse -- ideally as soon as early next week -- the leaders saw no reason to arbitrarily hold the staff's pay when the money is available."
Not all legislators like it.
"If others aren't getting paid, nobody should get paid," says PA Sen. Jane Orie of McCandless, the Senate Majority Whip. "But this has been a long tradition, and I certainly was unable to change it at this point. But it is something that causes me consternation as well."
State worker Stephanie Reynolds of McKeesport had the definitive view of the situation.
"They do half the work I do in any given day. Yet they're getting a full pay check, and I work my butt off, and I'm not getting paid."
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