County GOP slams pay-raise backers

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - The Republican Committee of Lancaster County Thursday voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution criticizing four of the area's state lawmakers for their July votes approving a 16 percent to 34 percent increase in their annual salaries.Among other things, the two-page resolution "renounces and condemns, in the strongest of terms, the vote of every senator and representative who voted against the express will of the people by voting him/herself a pay raise apart from any public input and scrutiny ... ."

The pay-raise bill also contained a loophole allowing legislators to take their pay hike immediately in the form of "unvouchered expenses." Under the state constitution, legislative pay raises cannot take effect in the term in which they're passed.

The resolution, authored by GOP committeeman Chuck Trupe of Earl Township and passed by a voice vote, calls on lawmakers who voted for the pay raise and took it right away via unvouchered expense accounts to pay back the money and support legislation to repeal the pay hike entirely.

But at least two local GOP officials who wished to remain anonymous said Trupe's resolution was nothing more than thinly veiled political opportunism geared to damage certain politicians so others in the party could take a run at them in the next primary.

Five of the county's GOP state legislators, including state Sens. Gibson E. Armstrong, David "Chip" Brightbill and Noah Wenger, voted for the pay raise.

State Rep. Tom Creighton voted for the pay raise, but now says he supports repealing it. And state Rep. Gibson C. Armstrong filed for the unvouchered expense, but then said he gave it back after changing his mind. Trupe's resolution, however, named only state Rep. Roy Baldwin and the state senators.

Of the four, Baldwin was the only one at Thursday's committee meeting, but he declined to comment on Trupe's resolution.

"I just came to hear the (proposed) changes to the bylaws and hear what people had to say," Baldwin said.

Wenger, who was in Maryland attending a Chesapeake Bay Commission meeting, said he has no quarrel with the county GOP committee and remains focused on working hard for Lancaster County residents.

"Throughout my legislative tenure, I have introduced legislation that sought to strengthen families, neighborhoods and communities," Wenger, a commission member, said. "I have strongly advocated for issues ranging from agriculture to programs that assist single and displaced homemakers who are unemployed, and I have worked tirelessly to address other issues, too, such as transportation, libraries, education and protecting the people who need help the most -- the elderly, the unborn and those who have special needs."

Wenger said he accepts the position of the Lancaster County Republican Committee regarding their views on the legislative pay raise.

"For me," Wenger said, "the reward of public service is found in making a positive difference in the lives of the people who elected me."

Trupe denied the charges that his resolution was designed to pave the way for GOP primary challenges and said the resolution was not designed to damage specific GOP politicians. Rather, Trupe said, his resolution calls on them to do the right thing.

"You know, if they do what we ask, it won't hurt them at all," Trupe said. "If they decide not to take the money, if they (support repealing) this law like Representative Creighton did, I think it would be a real positive thing for them."

When asked if he thought Creighton was "flip-flopping" -- supporting a repeal of the pay raise he voted for just two months ago -- in an effort to win re-election, Trupe said he doesn't think that's the case.

"He made a bad decision," Trupe said. "He was (supporting the pay raise) because he wanted (to get) a vote on another bill, which he admitted wasn't a good thing to do. But how can I say I'm upset with him for flip-flopping when I am asking one representative and three senators to do the same thing?"

This has been a very contensious issue here in Pennsylvania.

There is a petition circulated by a Harrisburg radio talk show. The last I heard it has around 60,000 signatures. It calls for the repeal of the pay raise.

I guess the parties are hearing from their members.

With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats! ;)

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