For a gang that could hardly be more flinty when discussion turns to raising the stateâs paltry minimum wage, Pennsylvaniaâs state lawmakers have few qualms about padding their own accounts â at state taxpayer expense, no less.
The countryâs largest full-time Legislature, whose membersâ $88,000-a-year salaries are the third-highest salaries in the nation, pads its coffers through an additional measure thatâs largely unavailable to Joe and Jane Public: per diems.
These daily reimbursements â a generous $178 on days legislators are conducting state business more than 50 miles from home â are not only exorbitant, theyâre poorly monitored. Receipts? State lawmakers donât need no steenkinâ receipts! They simply apply for reimbursement.
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EDITORIAL: Rein in Pa. legislative per diems
York Dispatch editorial board
For a gang that could hardly be more flinty when discussion turns to raising the state’s paltry minimum wage, Pennsylvania’s state lawmakers have few qualms about padding their own accounts at state taxpayer expense, no less.
The country’s largest full-time legislature, whose members’ $88,000-a-year salaries are the third-highest salaries in the nation, pads its coffers through an additional measure that’s largely unavailable to Joe and Jane Public: per diems.
These daily reimbursements a generous $178 on days legislators are conducting state business more than 50 miles from home are not only exorbitant, they’re poorly monitored. Receipts? State lawmakers don’t need no steenkin’ receipts! They simply apply for reimbursement.
YEADON â A Wreaths Across America ceremony will be held Saturday, Dec. 19, at the Naval Asylum Plot on the Yeadon, Delaware County, side of Mount Moriah Cemetery, along Cobbs Creek Parkway. The wreaths will be placed at 10 a.m. and the ceremony starts promptly at noon in conjunction with all WAA events across the country and will happen rain, snow, or shine. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place, the ceremony will be limited to a small group of people. Everyone else can still honor fallen military through video and photos that will be posted on the Friends of Mount Moriah Facebook page (www.facebook.com/groups/fommci).