Scott Bremner

Yea, yea, I know.

You’re not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

Be grateful for what you get.

Still, something rankles when looking over the efforts of some Pennsylvania lawmakers to return their cost of living allowances for the year.

It’s a nice touch in a tough economy, but…this COLA is a little off-tasting.

The problem is that the increase is not being rescinded through legislation, which would wipe the pay boost completely off the books.

Instead, the pay raise is going through, but then those lawmakers who wish like D’s Pat Harkins and Flo Fabrizio from this corner, can choose to give those dollars back.

That’s an increase of somewhere in the ball park of $1500 dollars a year, and multiplied over hundreds of lawmakers could save the taxpayers millions.

And I do hesitate to continue to stare at the chompers of that proverbial nag, but..

By leaving the bump on the books, those lawmakers have cleverly scored a PR coup while leaving the door open for those wages to return next year, and the increase in pay will also be reflected in the future when figuring out pension payments.

Taxpayer ire over the attempt to pass a midnight pay raise two years ago led to a number of representatives being shown the door.

The survivors remember that, so in a year when the budget axe is loping off millions and some state workers are looking at pay freezes and perhaps even furloughs, the onus weighs heavily on the legislative body to do something.

Some lawmakers are doing something and I suppose for that we should be grateful.

But they could have gone beyond the window dressing to do so much more.