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Guest column |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State Rep.
Matthew H. Smith State Rep. Mark Mustio R- Allegheny
State Sen. John Pippy R- Allegheny/Washington
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We Must Continue to Cut General Assembly Costs
By Reps. Matt Smith and Mark Mustio and Sen. John Pippy
As everyone knows, the negotiations surrounding Pennsylvania's 2009-10 budget extended for an unacceptable period of time.
Although the current budget has been passed, we view this as a bipartisan opportunity to enact the fundamental cost-savings reforms that we have been pushing for over the last few years. This crisis was caused by several factors, but one of those is that Pennsylvania state government and the General Assembly must go through a long-needed right sizing. There are two areas that we have been aggressively advocating for cost-savings measures in the Pennsylvania legislature. We hope that, in light of the need to continue efforts at reducing waste, these two legislative initiatives will gain additional steam.
We are strong proponents of cutting both the size and the cost of the General Assembly. For instance, Sen. Pippy's bill, S.B. 201, would cut the size of the Pennsylvania Senate to 40 members and the House of Representatives to 161 members. We believe there are several ways a reduction in the size of the General Assembly would add value for taxpayers. First, there are obvious cost savings to this measure. The total cost savings amounts to well over $100 million in operating the legislature. This would also add value in that we believe greater efficiency and participation would be achieved by reducing the number of legislators involved in the process.
Another issue that can be addressed immediately is to continue reducing the legislature's budget via the annual state spending plan. As stated, this year's budget reduced the legislature's appropriation by approximately 6 percent, but we believe that figure can be increased substantially. Rep. Smith joined last year with our Republican colleague Rep. Randy Vulakovich (R-Shaler) to call for a 20 percent reduction in the legislative line item. This would result in approximately $66 million in savings to taxpayers and it is a step that we can and should take at the earliest opportunity. Although this year's budget puts us on the right course toward cost reductions, we must accelerate this pace and achieve further reductions in next year's budget.
This year's budget negotiations demonstrated that significant budget reform is necessary. While we reduced state spending from the prior year for the first time in four decades, we join in aggressively pushing for greater efficiency in the General Assembly going forward. The decreased legislative appropriation and belt tightening was a good start, but that is exactly how we view it - as a starting point rather than a finish line. The work towards further cost savings with the 2010-11 budget begins today.
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