With the Pennsylvania General Assembly deadlocked over how to fund the 2017-18 budget, you might think the 253 legislators are burning the midnight oil. Well, you would be wrong.

In fact, neither the House nor Senate has any session days scheduled for August. Nice work if you can get it, right? Not only that, but the House has just 78 scheduled session days in all of 2017, while the Senate has 68.As legislators are quick to point out, they are still busy on nonsession days, handling constituent needs in their local offices, attending committee meetings in Harrisburg and elsewhere and meeting with lobbyists and other groups.Still, we wonder why both houses would not be in session nonstop to resolve the funding quagmire that the state faces. Oh, sure, we are told that the system doesn't work that way. A bill has to bubble up through the appropriate committee and go through a legislative gantlet before it comes to a floor vote in both houses.Even then, if it passes both, it has to get the signature of Gov. Tom Wolf, and it is no secret that Democrat Wolf and the Republican-controlled House and Senate don't see eye-to-eye on much, especially when it comes to funding the budget.Despite their overwhelming control in both houses, Republicans have had difficulty reconciling the differences between House and Senate leaders. Compounding these differences are the political undercurrents involving several key legislators who are contemplating a run for governor next year.To show you how convoluted things are in the Land of Oz, the Legislature passed and Wolf signed a spending plan before the June 30 budget deadline, but there was no agreement on how to pay for these expenditures.Fast forward a month and a half, and there is still no agreement in sight. Leaders from both houses say they are working on it. Republicans will not consider increases in the two major broad-based taxes - sales and income - so they have turned to trying to find other sources of revenue to make up a nearly $2 billion budget shortfall.Last month, the Senate approved a $600 million tax-hike package that would raise taxes on home heating, natural gas drilling, electricity and cellphone service. The bill comes to about $180 per family per year. So far, the absent House members have not weighed in on the legislation, although there have been calls for them to return to Harrisburg to get to work on this proposed package of bills.One analysis said these taxes, if enacted, would cost Pennsylvania families 3,600 jobs, $932 million in disposable income and $142 million in lost business investment in the first year.While this proposal is not an easy sell, the clock is ticking, and we are always concerned that in such an environment legislation is approved hastily without due vetting, and, invariably, requires a fix down the road.Pennsylvania's legislators earn $86,479.50 a year, second highest in the nation. California legislators get the most - $104,118. All 253 Pennsylvania legislators received a 1.3 percent increase last Dec. 1, and they will receive another this coming December - automatically. With last December's increase, the salaries of legislative leaders also have gone up and now range from $98,609 to $134,998. The only ranking committee leader from our area is Republican Appropriations Committee Chair Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, whose salary has been increased to $115,938 this year.Legislators also get $179-a-day expenses when in session. This per-diem amount covers meals, travel, lodging and incidental expenses.This state law also provides automatic cost-of-living adjustments for top executive branch officials and state judges that are based on the year-over-year percentage changes in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers for Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.These annual automatic adjustments are relatively small. Only twice in the past 10 years have they risen above 3 percent. When the cost-of-living adjustment shows no change or a negative change, state law provides for the salaries of these legislators and other officials to be frozen. That's what happened in 2015, making it just the second time in 21 years that they did not get a salary bump.You can understand why residents who are having trouble making ends meet are angry when they learn that legislators with just 10 years of service can retire at age 50 and start drawing pretty generous monthly pensions. They also have access to lifetime health benefits.Because of the way districts were reapportioned after the 2010 decennial census, most of our legislators are nearly guaranteed lifetime positions. About 98 percent of incumbents win re-election.They rarely fear reprisal or retaliation because of the favorable voting registration edge enjoyed by their party in their gerrymandered districts.By Bruce Frassinelli |

tneditor@tnonline.com