Heads should roll in Harrisburg

The Tribune-Democrat

July 18, 2008 01:29 pm

— Not to worry. There’s another scandal involving our state Legislature, but leadership has been quick to call for “reform measures” to stem a loss of our – the public’s – confidence.
That should ease our fears, our disgust and our anger – again. Right?
Fact is, we’ve got legislators – unfortunately, those who have been around long enough to accede to leadership positions – who play by their own rules. And although the names change from time to time, the games don’t, and probably won’t, no matter how many reform measures pass.
“The events of July 10 severely threaten to further erode public confidence in the General Assembly,” Republican Sens. Dominic Pileggi and Joe Scarnati wrote to House Democratic Party leader Bill DeWeese last week, asking him to press for action on seven Senate-passed bills.
The senators’ letter came on the heels of charges filed by the Attorney General’s Office against 12 current and former House Democrats and staff aides.
In a nutshell, tax money – workers’ hard-earned dollars – allegedly was used by legislators from 2004 to 2006 to pay the wages, even bonuses, for their employees to work the campaign trail and help get their bosses re-elected.
In some cases, the employees apparently went on leave while working on campaigns, but were allowed to retain state-paid benefits. Many times, the charges contend, the employees kept earning their regular taxpayer-paid salaries while doing campaign work.
Was all of this just a well-kept Democratic Party caucus secret? Or did others – in both parties – just look the other way?
We urge investigators to find the answers.
According to grand jury reports that revealed what is being called Pennsylvania’s biggest corruption scandal in years, hundreds of people who worked in House Democrats’ caucus offices in 2004-06 were involved in the scheme.
The attorney general’s office has filed multiple counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest against the 12 current or former legislators and aides.
We’re told more arrests are anticipated.
Here are some of the other charges:
n Some employees earned comp time for hours they stayed late working on campaign-related tasks. Some comp time was simply fabricated.
n While out on campaigns, caucus employees billed travel expenses to the state’s taxpayers.
n The caucus spent $1.2 million of taxpayer money to purchase the e-mail addresses of Pennsylvania residents to boost campaign outreach, as well as an additional $460,000 on contracts for a former caucus employee to send campaign messages to the e-mail addresses.
n Employees used state-owned equipment, such as telephones, computers, photocopiers and a machine that folded campaign mailers for envelope stuffing.
We’re angry and you should be, too. At this point, there is no telling how widespread the wrongdoing – exactly how many people and much money are involved.
We expect heads to roll.