HARRISBURG - The base salary for state lawmakers will automatically increase 2.2 percent to $83,802 effective Dec. 1 and a number of lawmakers said they won't accept it.
Many have not taken the pay raise since the recession hit.
The hard economic times and high unemployment rates in Northeast Pennsylvania resulting from the national recession that started in 2008 are cited by several lawmakers as reason for forgoing a salary hike in 2013.
"Our area has the highest unemployment rate in the state," said Rep.-elect Kevin Haggerty, D-112, Dunmore, on Tuesday. He plans to return the amount to the state Treasury.
"In the midst of an ailing economy, families in the 117th Legislative District and across Pennsylvania have had their pay reduced or frozen," said Rep. Karen Boback, R-117, Harveys Lake. "I have always returned the money to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and this year is no exception."
Lawmakers will need to take a proactive step in the weeks ahead if they want to avoid the cost-of-living adjustment pay raise, either by writing a refund check to the state Treasury sometimes on a monthly or quarterly basis or by giving the amount to a charity. The annual automatic hike, pegged to a percentage increase of 2.2 percent in the U.S. Consumer Price Index in the Philadelphia metro region which reflects inflation, is provided under a 1995 state law.
This increases the base salary for the 203 House members and 50 senators from the current $82,026 to $83,802 during 2013.
That amount will translate to $147 in extra pay a month and $1,775 for the year, said Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-28, Pittsburgh.
Legislative leaders earn a range of $10,000 to $47,000 in additional salary above the base amount.
Among area lawmakers, Rep. Sid Michaels Kavulich, D-114, Taylor and Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke sponsored bills to repeal the COLA, but these saw no action this session.
Kavulich plans to refund the amount to Treasury keeping his salary at the same level when he took office.
Yudichak said he plans to donate the extra amount to public libraries and the United Ways in the Wyoming Valley, Greater Hazleton and Carbon County.
Top state officials, including the governor, and state and county judges are also slated to receive the 2.2 percent increase effective Jan. 1. Gov. Tom Corbett plans to keep his salary at the $175,000 level set when he took office in 2011 instead of accepting an $187,000 salary, a spokesman said.
The 2013 salary levels for the judiciary will range from $86,639 for district magistrates; $173,271 for county judges; $188,000 for state Superior and Commonwealth Court judges; $199,606 for Supreme Court justices and $205,415 for the Supreme Court chief justice, said Art Heinz, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
However, the legislative salary usually draws the greatest public attention because of lingering controversy over an abortive effort in 2005 to hike the base legislative salary while keeping the COLA.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate require members to pay 1 percent of their salary to cover the cost of health care. But this amount remains far below what most employees in the private sector pay - a percentage of their actual health premium costs.
A Capitol activist said the automatic pay increases come when the median household income of Pennsylvania families was $49,288 in 2010, a decline of three percent from the 2008 median income of $50,713.
"Raises throughout state government ought to be pegged to accountability, merit markers, and performance milestones," said Eric Epstein, co-founder of Rock the Capital.