Republicans, who will have full control of both the legislative and executive branches of Pennsylvania government in 2011, have the opportunity to engineer significant savings for this fiscally strapped state.

Time will tell whether the money-saving messages they preached during this year’s elections will come to pass. In 2012, when many of them will be up for re-election, they’ll have some serious explaining to do if the promises they made this year about fiscal responsibility haven’t been fulfilled.

A good starting place when the new version of the General Assembly gets down to business would be the immediate elimination of the 1.7 percent cost-of-living pay raise to which the state’s top officials, including legislators and judges, are entitled under a 1995 law that made such adjustments automatic.

After doing that, either repeal of the 15-year-old law or passage of a new law ending automatic raises for everyone covered by the 1995 measure should be next. Legislators and the new governor, Tom Corbett, should think back to July 2005, when lawmakers passed a big middle-of-the-night pay hike that triggered a firestorm of voter protest, eventually resulting in the defeat of a number of powerful lawmakers in 2006.

At a time when the state’s 2 million Social Security recipients are facing a second consecutive year without a cost-of-living increase, at a time when many state residents either are jobless or enduring reduced wages and benefits, and with the state in serious financial trouble, officials shouldn’t be rewarded with a salary hike.

The “new” Legislature should take note of the message of Timothy Potts, co-founder of Democracy Rising PA, that “most of the members in the General Assembly today have never had to vote to raise their pay, but they get the benefit of a law now 15 years old.”

Especially in tough economic times like now, many of the lawmakers who gladly will accept the coming increase would be more reluctant to want a pay raise if they were required to vote for one.

Meanwhile, most of those entitled to the coming increase pay none, or only a small fraction, of the health insurance coverage they receive from the state. Most state residents don’t have such generous benefits.

John Baer, a Philadelphia Daily News columnist, wrote last week that “beyond money, stopping this raise is a powerful gesture, a chance for Republicans to take a step toward repairing the Legislature’s reputation for self-serving greed.”

An announcement Monday by President Barack Obama should provide additional incentive for Pennsylvania lawmakers to pause to examine their consciences. Obama has proposed to freeze the pay of civilian federal employees for the next two years. According to Obama, a two-year freeze would save $2 billion for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011, $28 billion over the next five years, and more than $60 billion over the next 10 years.

Eliminating the 1.7 percent increase wouldn’t have a huge impact on the Keystone State’s financial troubles, but eliminating the increase would be a notable starting place from which Republicans could launch other cost-saving initiatives and hard choices.

Considering the dire financial straits in which Pennsylvania is mired, higher pay for lawmakers and other top officials should be the last thing on anyone’s mind. But one of the first things should be the need to ax the 1995 law.

It only will take weeks for state residents to see whether the new in-control Republicans really want to keep their campaign promises and save every dollar that they can.