State Rep. Patty Kim and state Sen. Rob Teplitz may be the new kids on the block in the Legislature, but both have picked up the knack for scoring points with their constituents.
Rep. Patty Kim, D-Harrisburg, wants to end the annual automatic cost-of-living raises state officials receive.
The freshman Democratic lawmakers from Dauphin County have introduced or co-sponsored legislation to put a stop to the automatic annual cost-of-living raises that state lawmakers receive.
Kim's support for a bill, sponsored by Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Luzerne, goes even farther. It ends the automatic raises for executive branch officials and judges too.
"The median household income of a Pennsylvania family is $51,000," Kim said. "That's the figure I'm working on increasing, not the annual salaries of public officials.”
Sen. Rob Teplitz, D-Dauphin County, wants to end mid-term cost-of-living raises for state lawmakers.
While the bill Kim is backing would repeal the state law that grants the automatic raises, Teplitz’s proposal would only tinker with part of that law that bases the annual change on the federal Consumer Price Index for the Mid-Atlantic region for the 12-month period ending in October.
His legislation would only allow the automatic raises to take effect at the beginning of a lawmaker's new term of office.
Teplitz also has introduced legislation to recommend amending the state constitution to make it clear mid-term raises for legislators are not permitted.
“There’s always a challenge in getting people to vote against their self-interest when it’s a legislator or anyone else,” Teplitz said.
“That’s why we crafted the bill the way we did. To reflect the fact there are increases to the cost of living and we tried to be realistic about people wanting to earn a higher salary to deal with those costs. But at the same time, we balance that against the outrage the public expresses whenever the salary goes up automatically.”
Teplitz said going about it his way, the public will know when they are electing a lawmaker, what they will be paying that person.
Kim, meanwhile, sees the House proposal as a way to redirect the money that is going into lawmakers’ pockets to helping the state’s neediest residents.
“Times are still tough for my district and I want to cut costs that we can live without like COLAs,” she said. “It’s what many struggling families continue to do to make ends meet. I want to be a part of a new generation of legislators coming in after the overnight pay raises and Bonusgate. Introducing these types of reform bills will save us money while slowly building the public’s trust back.”
Kim has chosen not to accept the cost-of-living adjustments granted on Dec. 1 to lawmakers and is returning that $1,776 to the state Treasury.
Teplitz took that increase but plans to only take the $83,802 salary attached to his office on Day 1 throughout the remainder of his four-year term.
Teplitz recently helped co-found a bicameral government reform caucus that he said has attracted eight to 10 senators. The growing interest indicates to him there’s an appetite amongst his colleagues for changes like the ones he and Kim are proposing.
"It certainly is timely in terms of everything we've seen over the last couple of years and even over the last couple of weeks," Teplitz said. "It's important to the people we represent and we're going to keep pushing."