Editorial | Shrinking Harrisburg

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, May, 2007

A move in the Pennsylvania Senate to trim the size of the legislature is like wielding an ax when a diet would do the job.

A bill approved by a Senate panel would shrink the General Assembly from 253 members to 201. The House would go from 203 lawmakers to 161; the Senate from 50 to 40. Sponsors claim that tossing out so many legislators via legislation would save taxpayers $70 million per year.

The idea, apparently, is to placate the people still seething over the legislative pay-raise furor of 2005.

Pound for pound, the General Assembly  is  one of the costliest legislatures in the nation. Its annual budget is about $300 million, ranking the legislature first in the nation as a percentage of the...