Citizens Can’t Challenge Pa. Government Pay Raise

(CN) - The 3rd Circuit rejected a citizen challenge to a Pennsylvania law that boosted the salaries of all three branches of Pennsylvania government by more than 50 percent.

The state chapter of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters objected to midnight passage of Act 44. The law increased the salaries of the governor, legislators and judiciary by more than 50 percent.

The plaintiffs also complained that the General Assembly negotiated with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the passing of a court-funding bill in exchange for judicial decisions favorable to the Legislature.

Judge Ebel of the Philadelphia-based federal appeals court upheld the district court's dismissal of the case, ruling that the plaintiffs lack standing.

"Plaintiffs failed to allege how this legislative process actually injured them directly," Ebel wrote. "Instead, they alleged a generalized, abstract grievance shared by all Pennsylvanians."

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