Even more galling to Pennsylvanians, lawmakers found a way around a constitutional provision barring them from collecting any salary increase during the term in which it is approved.
The pay raise bill, based on the authority of a court ruling nearly two decades old, lets lawmakers start collecting the raises 16 months early.
''I've never seen this kind of anger," said Senator Patricia Vance, a Republican who received critical e-mails even though she voted against the bill and declined to collect her raise. ''I've [been called] a lot of names."
Newspapers across Pennsylvania continue to publish angry editorials and letters from readers. A radio talk-show host is circulating a petition calling for the repeal of the raises, which also apply to judges and certain top executive-branch officials, and is organizing a protest for when lawmakers reconvene in late September.
Two websites have sprung up urging voters to overhaul the Legislature or toss out incumbents.
''Pennsylvania legislative leaders and every legislator who voted for a 16 percent pay raise should hang their heads in shame," William G. Williams wrote in a letter to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg. ''It was a scandalous example of greed gone wild."
The pressure is having some effect: As of Tuesday, nine lawmakers had declared changes of heart and said they would not accept the increase this term. But nearly 150 of the 252 sitting lawmakers are sticking to their decision to immediately take the raise of at least $950 a month.
Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat who signed the bill into law, said he has received nearly 1,000 letters, e-mails, and phone calls criticizing the decision. After having previously said only that the special payments were legal, he said Tuesday that legislators who turned them down ''did the right thing."
Politically, the big question is: Will the whole thing have blown over by next year's general election?
''The hope is do it, get it done . . . have people forget about it," said Don Kettl, director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.
