Size of legislature

==Background ==
Some think that the size of the legislative bodies, be it city council with nine members, or the PA House, with 203 members, is too large. 
== ==
* League of Women Voters on Size of PA House
* Public posting on size of PA's legislature from a forum from May 17, 2006
* Size of legislature-plank-Swann
* Size of legislature-planks-Babb from email discussion in October, 2006, as a candidate for PA House 
* Reform-opinion-Mulgrew
===Editorials===
* Size of legislature-column-O'Neill by Brian O'Neill, Post-Gazette in January 2007
==Links==
===Media===
====Legislature isn't likely to shrink ====
Friday, October 13, 2006
A panel DISCUSSION at Carnegie Mellon University last
weekend couldn't resolve whether cutting the size of
Pennsylvania's Legislature was a good idea.
So don't expect many lawmakers to sign onto the idea.
The League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh and
the H. John Heinz School of Public Policy and
Management organized Sunday's gathering, which
examined the question of whether Pennsylvania would be
better off with fewer legislators.
That's always an explosive topic in a state that has
the largest and most expensive legislature in the
nation.
Among those who attended the Carnegie Mellon event was
State Sen. John Pippy, a Republican from Moon who has
emerged as the champion of the smaller-legislature
effort.
Pippy has introduced legislation seeking a
Constitutional amendment to cut the state House from
203 members to 121 and the Senate from 50 to 30. He
said public sentiment for the proposal is higher than
ever due to lingering resentment over last year's pay
raise.
However, opponents pointed out that a smaller
legislature would create larger districts, meaning
campaigns would become more expensive and incumbents
would be more protected than ever from challengers.
Also, female and minority candidates could have a
tougher time gaining representation.
Pippy's bill has to be approved in two consecutive
legislative sessions before it can move forward, so
voters won't get to decide the issue until 2009 or
2010 at the earliest.
But we don't expect that to ever happen. After years
of watching Pennsylvania lawmakers, we can't imagine
they will ever pass a bill that costs some of them
their jobs.
We congratulate the League of Women Voters for
arranging Sunday's forum, but it's not encouraging to
note that the organization has been promoting a
smaller legislature since 1971. We're afraid the
League may have to push the issue for another 35 years
before anything gets done.
category:democracy