Money & Politics With Jon Delano

      Nothing increases the cynicism of government than different rules for the same cast of characters.

      Yesterday, I stood in the midst of more than a hundred state employees protesting during their noon lunch hour outside the State Office Building in Downtown Pittsburgh.  Chief among their objections was the fact that they are required to work, even though they will NOT be paid for that work until the budget crisis is resolved.

      It's hard to imagine what that is like for a worker, but each of us can put ourselves in those shoes.  What if our boss said, 'You must come to work every day.  If you don't you will be fired.  Oh, by the way, you won't be paid for that work until sometime in the future when I cut a deal with XYZ."  It would certainly be difficult for me -- and my family.

      The only comfort, I suppose, is that every state worker is in the same boat.  Well, not exactly.  Today I learned that 910 Senate staffers and 2,110 House staffers have received FULL paychecks this week.  Not surprisingly, local state workers with whom I spoke are outraged.

      The state legislature, a separate branch of government, has at least a $200 million surplus, and the use of that money is up to the four caucuses -- House and Senate Republicans and Democrats.  They are all in agreement that legislative staffers should be paid in full, just as they agreed not to pay themselves.  House Speaker Keith McCall issued this statement to me:

      "Leaders from all four caucuses decided that legislative staff will be paid because the funding is coming from the independent legislative accounts. By design those accounts were created to allow operations to continue and the House and Senate to remain an independent branch of government during an impasse like this one. The lawmakers themselves will not be paid, even though the account would allow it. While the House and Senate workers are here with the lawmakers working to solve the impasse – ideally as soon as early next week --  the leaders saw no reason to arbitrarily hold the staff’s pay when the money is available."

      That explanation does not sit well with state workers because it seems to suggest that the work of legislative staffers is more important than that of the thousands of state workers.  On this point, state workers are right.  If the legislature and the governor cannot reach a budget agreement on time, the rules should be the same for everyone -- either all get paid, or none!   What do you think?