Returning to Harrisburg after their summer recess, state lawmakers are being peppered with questions about the $11,000-or-more pay raises they approved for themselves at 2 a.m. July 7 after no debate and no public discussion. Lawmakers, not surprisingly, don't want to talk about the controversial pay-raise vote, which has angered voters across the state.

In that vote, lawmakers demonstrated remarkable arrogance and disrespect for both the citizens of the state and the state's constitution.

Few, if any, lawmakers want to talk about the pay-raise vote.

When asked this week about the pay raise, House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, replied, "There's nothing to talk about. It passed on July 7." He then declared that Pennsylvanians were more interested in the "Golden Apple" awards and outsourcing of jobs to India and China.

The stonewalling strategy is bipartisan, with State Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna, telling a 72-year-old retiree who sent him an e-mail criticizing him over the pay-raise vote to "get a life." Mellow then simply declared he would answer no more questions about the pay raise.

Since lawmakers don't want to answer questions about the big raise they gave themselves, it might be helpful to speculate on what such a conversation might look like.

Citizen:

"Why did you pass a 16 percent to 34 percent raise for yourself and other government officials?"

Lawmaker:

"Because we believe we deserve it - and because we could do it."

Citizen:

"What makes you believe you deserve to make so much money and have such generous perks like a car allowance, insurance, health benefits and a unusually generous pension."

Lawmaker:

"Just look at what we've accomplished. We brought all you homeowners the tax relief that we promised and we can all be proud that as many as 60,000 slot machines are coming to Pennsylvania. Our tax policies and conservative state spending have contributed to stagnant job creation and have done nothing to stem the outflow of people leaving the state for better opportunities elsewhere."

Citizen:

"You might believe you deserve the raise, but why didn't you talk about the raise (and try to publicly justify it) in the days or weeks before voting to approve it at 2 a.m.?"

Lawmaker:

"Because we knew citizens of Pennsylvania - our constituents and bosses - would be opposed."

Citizen:

"Why did you leave for your summer recess immediately after passing the pay raise?"

Lawmaker:

"Because we knew people would be mad, and we figured they would complain for a few days or weeks, then forget about it."

Citizen:

"If you knew most people would be opposed to you giving yourselves a big raise, why did you do it?"

Lawmaker:

"Because it doesn't really matter what voters think. We continue to get re-elected at close to a 98 percent rate. Once elected, we pretty much have these jobs until we decide to retire. And, our ability to gerrymander voting districts so that they are secure for one party or the other has helped pretty much eliminate any serious competition for our jobs, which we view as jobs for life."

Citizen:

"But even if voters don't seem capable of voting you out of office for doing something they oppose, aren't you worried that a grass-roots movement could put a referendum on the ballot that would repeal the pay raise or impose term limits so that you don't have these 'public service jobs' for life?"

Lawmaker:

"That's not a problem in Pennsylvania. In about 24 other states, voters can place referendums or initiatives on the ballot, but not here. Any referendum appearing on the ballot in Pennsylvania must come through the legislature, and we certainly aren't going to allow anything on the ballot that goes against our own interests - like a pay-raise repeal, term limits, reducing the size of the legislature or a pension rollback. Those ideas would all be dead-on-arrival."

Citizen:

"Then you can pretty much do whatever you want and don't really have to care what voters think."

Lawmaker:

"That's right. Now, get a life and leave me alone. I've got a lobbyist waiting to treat me to a nice golf weekend at a five-star resort."

This fictional conversation might be a little harsh and certainly doesn't represent the feelings of all state lawmakers. But, it is not far from the truth when it comes to the more seasoned hands in Harrisburg where arrogance and disrespect for voters is clear.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg still think they can brush off questions, stonewall and get the whole pay-raise controversy to blow over.

Voters have the power to prove them wrong.