HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell said it flat out. He said he will not sign a bill providing a pay hike for legislators without an increase in the minimum wage for workers. Rendell told reporters last week, "Certainly I would not sign or approve any pay raise without approval of the minimum wage (increase.)" Asked if he was linking a pay hike and minimum wage boost, Rendell said, "I wouldn't sign a pay increase without it." So that's it, right• That's his position. No, says Kate Philips, his press secretary. That's "not the case," she said. You've got to be kidding. Philips asked the governor after he talked to reporters if, the way he said it, this amounted to a "quid pro quo." He told her it didn't, Philips said. "I admit that's how it sounded," she said. Philips says Rendell was merely talking about issues that could come together before lawmakers recess later this month. I asked her then if the governor's position is that any increase in the minimum wage is not linked to any legislative pay boost. Philips responded, "Correct." Press secretaries don't make this stuff up. They typically do what they are told to do by their bosses. I wasn't at Rendell's impromptu discussion with reporters. But I listened to a tape of it. OK, so why should you care? 1. This is exactly what Republican legislative leaders have been talking about when describing the "mixed messages" they get from the administration in negotiating legislation. This incident lends credence to their claim. 2. A legislative pay raise does appear to be in the wind. These guys just got an automatic boost of more than 5 percent this year. They're paid $69,647. They missed getting a bigger raise last November when negotiations with Rendell fell apart on other things. A potential "vehicle" is in place for the pay hike bill, H.B. 1521. 3. Rendell favors a salary increase for state judges separate from the issue of the minimum wage. Supreme Court justices are paid $150,436. Rendell's salary is $155,572. 4. For either lawmakers or judges to get a pay raise, everyone, including top executive branch officials, will be included. It's always been done that way. 5. The state's minimum wage is now $5.15 per hour, same as the federal rate. Rendell supports gradually raising it to $7.15 per hour. 6. As a candidate for governor in 2002, Rendell's position was that the minimum wage should be increased at the federal level and that raising it in Pennsylvania would create an undue burden on business. 7. The GOP-controlled Legislature isn't likely to pass a bill increasing the minimum wage. 8. If Rendell held to the linkage of a legislative pay raise with a minimum wage boost -- in effect blocking a pay-hike bill - he could jeopardize his chances of getting a lot of what he wants legislatively before June 30. 9. Rendell speaks for himself, period. No offense Kate, but what he says is what counts. Rendell is a former two-term mayor of Philadelphia. Before that he served as district attorney for eight years. Whether or not you agree with him, this is a man who knows policy. I take what I hear from Ed Rendell about policy at face value. In my view, his position is what he says it is until he says otherwise.

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