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HARRISBURG -- More than two-thirds of state lawmakers who immediately took a self-approved pay raise -- before it was repealed -- are keeping the money, House and Senate officials said Thursday.

Exactly who they are isn't clear. The House refused to release a list of its 34 members who repaid the money, which they received over the past four months as "unvouchered expenses" to circumvent a state constitutional prohibition against mid-term salary hikes.

The Senate on Thursday released a list of 13 senators -- including Sen. Barry Stout, D-Washington County -- who repaid the money.

"I thought it was responsible to return the money to the Commonwealth," said Stout, who voted for the pay raise and supported the repeal. "I felt, as a result of supporting the repeal, I had an obligation to return the money."

The July 7 pay raise hiked salaries by 16 percent to 54 percent for state legislators. The pay raise triggered a taxpayers' revolt and the General Assembly relented last month by voting to repeal the law. The repeal law, however, did not require legislators to repay the unvouchered expenses.

Statewide, in the 253-member General Assembly, 131 House members and 27 senators initially took the unvouchered expenses.

Subtracting the 47 who repaid the money, that means there are 111 members of the House or Senate who received unvouchered expenses and didn't return those payments. That's 70 percent of the 158 who initially took the money.

"Cut the crap. Pay it back," said Russ Diamond, of Lebanon, an outspoken pay hike opponent advocating the defeat of incumbents.

The House's decision to withhold the names of lawmakers who returned the money also sparked outrage, inside and outside Pennsylvania.

Rebecca Daugherty, of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a national organization that monitors open records and first amendment issues said that even though Pennsylvania law does not subject the Legislature to the disclosure requirements of the Open Records Act, the House's position was surprising.

"We keep hearing the reason legislatures don't make themselves subject to open records laws is because most of what they do is in public. That's obviously not the case in Pennsylvania," she said.

"It seems the most contentiously egregious decision to make in a situation where you automatically benefited at the public's expense," Daugherty said.

House officials claimed the names might be available next month in payroll and expense records. That amounts to a burden on average citizens who want the information, said Eric Epstein, coordinator of RockTheCapital.org, an anti-pay and legislative reform Web site. "They are certainly not making it easy," he said.

Lawmakers who fail to pay back the money eventually will be listed on the group's Web site, but Epstein said numerous hurdles exist for getting a complete picture.

Some lawmakers said the House should make the information available immediately. Rep. Tom Tangretti, D-Greensburg, who voted against the pay hike and didn't take the money early, said caucus leaders of both parties should get together and agree to release the information.

Several House officials said the decision against releasing the names was made by Brian Preski, chief of staff to Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia. Preski is temporarily serving as the House's chief clerk. He did not return several phone calls and e-mails over the past three days.

"I would assume this should be open to the public," said Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, a "no" vote on the pay raise. "I think it should be."

Rep. Frank Pistella, D-Bloomfield, set the money aside early on, because he recognized a storm was brewing. He said he paid back the unvouchered expenses in a lump sum of $4,204 on Nov. 23.

Several lawmakers who took the unvouchered expenses said it went to pay for home repairs, charities, or, in Sen. Jay Costa's case, student scholarship funds.

"It's still my plan," Costa, D-Forest Hills, said. "That's what I am going to do with the money I received earlier from the pay raise."

Diamond sees no room for compromise.

"I don't care if you bought a water heater, chimney, paid off your (department store) account or gave it to the Girl Scouts. Pay it back," Diamond said.

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