A state lawmaker serving Lycoming and Union counties wants to see legislation passed into law declaring that, if a budget is not passed by June 30, the legislator does not receive his or her paycheck.

“You don’t take the benefits and you don’t take a paycheck when a budget has not passed,” said state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport, representing the 83rd House District. That includes Lycoming County and Gregg and White Deer townships in Union County.

Flick supports and is a co-sponsor of H.B. 1682. The prime sponsor is state Rep. Jill Cooper, a Republican who represents Westmoreland County in the 55th District.

“It says if you don’t pass a budget by June 30, you as a state representative don’t get paid until the budget does pass,” Flick said, who added he abides by that and has not accepted paychecks if the budget has not passed. The bill has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee.

Two of the four years Flick has served in the House, the budget did not pass on time. In his first year, the budget was stalled until December, with a June 30 due date by law. Last year, the budget did not pass until November.

“I’ve gone five months my first time without a paycheck,” Flick said, adding the paycheck is withheld. “I don’t want people to think I don’t get paid.”

“You feel the pain that libraries are feeling, or that colleges are feeling and that human services providers, the Joinder Board and West Branch Drug and Alcohol Commission feel,” he said.

Flick said he is the only one that has consistently done that out of the 203 state representatives.

If there is another prolonged budget battle, as there has been in the past two years, Flick said he is prepared to again have his paycheck withheld.

“I wish the budget would be a two-year budget,” Flick said. “Then we wouldn’t be working on it 10 months a year,” he said.