As expected, House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, has moved to bury two bills designed to repeal the controversial legislative pay raise.

Perzel could have sent the bills to the House Government Committee, where public hearings on the bills - and even a vote - would have occurred, according to committee chairman, Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks County. Instead, Perzel decided to move the two bills to the leadership-controlled Rules Committee.

Since leadership, including Perzel, is widely believed to have orchestrated the pay-raise vote and subsequent use of unvouchered expenses, the leadeship's control of the Rules Committee is a clear signal that the handful of the most powerful lawmakers in Harrisburg plan to use every tool at their disposal to derail any efforts to repeal the pay raise.

Russ Diamond, a leader of the pay-raise revolt, has called the Rules Committee a "bottomless pit," adding, "Unless Perzel says it's coming out, then it isn't coming out."

So, once again, the most powerful politicians in Harrisburg are defying the will of the people, who overwhelmingly oppose the pay raise - and the secretive way it was handled, with no advance public announcement and no floor debate, leading up to a 2 a.m. vote for approval.

Reform-minded legislators, including Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, say they have their own plans to keep the pay-raise-repeal bills alive.

Rep. Tom Creighton, R-Lancaster, another supporter of the pay-raise repeal, says there are 50 co-sponsors of the bill and he will move toward blocking leadership's attempts to kill the repeal bills.

Perzel's actions are a reminder that Pennsylvania's legislature is controlled by a few self-serving, arrogant lawmakers who think that state government is theirs to control. So far, they are right.

But voter anger over the underhanded and under-the-cover-of-darkness pay raise has been building since the July 7 vote - and that anger shows no sign of fading anytime soon. Perzel's predictable actions intending to flout the clear will of the people on the pay-raise vote is further illustration of leadership's arrogance and belief that voters will be too lazy to express their disapproval in the next legislative election in November 2006.

Voters must prove Perzel wrong and soundly defeat a significant number of incumbents - particularly top members of leadership of both parties. Otherwise, lawmakers might as well go ahead and give themselves $1 million salaries and chauffeur-driven limousines, because voters will have demonstrated their laziness and powerlessness.