HARRISBURG -- State legislators have been even more generous to themselves than it seemed.

Starting in December 2006, an automatic cost-of-living adjustment will be tacked on to legislators' pay raises, state officials said yesterday. It means that for lawmakers who are elected in November 2006, the salary increase will be even larger than the previously reported 16 percent to 34 percent.

Under the General Assembly's new salary law, the base pay for all legislators who are elected in 2006 rises to $81,050 a year from the previous $69,647. That's a 16 percent increase in pay for the rank-and-file.

House and Senate committee chairmen, vice chairmen, caucus officials, party whips and floor leaders will make even more, anywhere from $83,000 for vice committee chairmen up to the top salaries of $145,000 for House Speaker John Perzel and Senate leader Robert Jubelirer, a 34 percent increase.

But in addition to the base salaries, the pay raise law contains an automatic cost-of-living boost that is set to take effect Dec. 1, 2006, House Parliamentarian Clancy Myer confirmed yesterday. A new COLA increase also will occur each successive Dec. 1, he added.

The pay raise law states that legislators' base salaries "shall be increased by the greater of" two alternative methods.

The first option is an increase based on the salaries of a state official's federal counterpart. For example, if members of Congress have increased their current $162,000 salary by that time, General Assembly members will make half of that pay. If Congress boosts its members' pay to $180,000 a year, the base pay for the General Assembly would be $90,000.

But if Congress hasn't boosted its pay, state legislators will get a cost-of-living increase on Dec. 1, 2006. It will be based on the inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index for the Philadelphia area. For example, the CPI increase in Philadelphia on Dec. 1, 2004 was 5.2 percent.

If the Philadelphia-area cost-of-living rises, say, 3 percent on Dec. 1, 2006, a legislator elected in November 2006 would make the base $81,050 plus an additional 3 percent, or $83,481.

A committee chairman, instead of making $85,000 in base pay, would make an additional 3 percent, or $87,550. Majority leaders such as House Republican Sam Smith, House Democrat H. William DeWeese, Senate GOP leader David Brightbill and Senate Democratic leader Robert Mellow, would make 3 percent in addition to their $134,000, or $138,000. Perzel and Jubelirer would make $149,350 instead of $145,000.

Legislators' cost-of-living adjustments are "just now coming to light because everything was worked out behind closed doors," said Matthew Brouillette, president of a Harrisburg think tank called the Commonwealth Foundation. "They never did a fiscal impact note on the salary changes, as should have been done."

The inflationary adjustments also apply to state judges and members of Gov. Ed Rendell's cabinet, but most of the public outrage over the hefty raises has been focused on the Legislature.

"This pay raise is a story that won't die," Franklin & Marshall pollster G. Terry Madonna said yesterday. "Every week there's a new facet or dimension to it that keeps it alive.

"Democrats punish their members for voting against it. Various groups come out against it. I can't remember an issue that so many people have been so vocal about. This has really struck a nerve."

Brouillette said legislators "are setting in motion pay increases that will grow by leaps and bounds beyond the average Pennsylvanian's salary." By continuing the automatic COLA provision, he thinks they're hoping "that they won't have to address the pay raise issue again.''

But that is what Rep. Perzel had said back in 1995, the last time an actual pay raise was enacted before the new law approved July 7. Cost-of-living adjustments had been used to increase salaries from 1996 to 2005, a period when the base rate went from $58,400 to $69,647.

Last month's pay raise vote was taken without discussion in the early morning hours of July 7, just before legislators broke for the summer. A number of groups and individuals are challenging the raises through the courts and are trying to persuade legislators to repeal the increases when they return next month.