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http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1452313.asp

House bill to rescind raises has momentum
The state Senate majority leader says his chamber will abandon its amended measure to consider the new proposal, which deals only with the controversial pay increases.
By Kori Walter
Reading Eagle

The curtain goes up Monday on Week 3 of the legislative pay-raise repeal drama in Harrisburg.

And lawmakers are hoping a fresh script will help the feuding cast in the state House and Senate settle their differences.

Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill, a Lebanon County Republican who represents part of Berks, said lawmakers plan to work on passing an entirely new pay-hike repeal bill that was introduced in the House.

That means a Senate pay-hike repeal bill volleyed back and forth between the two chambers since Nov. 2 will be abandoned.

Brightbill said lawmakers are starting with a fresh bill because of concerns that the courts could strike down the Senate version.

That's because the repeal effort started when the Senate gutted a bill dealing with revenue-collection regulations and inserted language to repeal the pay hikes for lawmakers, judges and the executive branch.

While the practice of changing legislation is common, lawmakers don't want to risk the courts ruling that the Senate bill was improperly amended, Brightbill said.

The new House bill deals exclusively with the pay-raise issue.

“As this has developed, it is more important than I suspected, both to the Senate and the House, that we make as good an attempt as possible to repeal (the raise for) all three branches,” Brightbill said.

The House could vote on the new bill as early as Monday and the Senate could consider the measure on Wednesday, he said.

Of course, lawyers for both chambers still are working out language regarding the repeal of the judges' pay raises.

A disagreement between the House and Senate on how to interpret a state constitutional ban on reducing a judges' salaries midterm has been the major sticking point in repealing the pay raises.

State Rep. Dennis E. Leh, an Amity Township Republican, denied claims that House members are scheming to pass a bill that will result in a court ruling restoring the pay raises.

Leh said voters already agitated by the 16 percent to 54 percent pay hikes lawmakers approved for themselves July 7 would not let the Legislature get away with a ploy like that.

“There's no way that we are even going to try to get it (saving the pay raises) through a back-door method,” Leh said. “I'd rather stand out on the Warren Street Bypass in the middle of rush hour. I'd have a better chance of staying alive.”

Voters vented their frustration over the pay hikes Tuesday by denying a second 10-year term to Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro.

Brightbill said that stunning defeat will give a boost to pay-raise repeal efforts.

“If there were people who had second thoughts about this (repeal), they don't now,” Brightbill said.