Gene Stilp: Will anything change in Harrisburg?

Some of the names in legislative leadership positions are new, but Gene Stilp isn't very optimistic about major changes in the culture of Harrisburg during the coming year. Here are his thoughts about the state of our state government:

By Gene Stilp

The new Pennsylvania Legislature was sworn in on Tuesday. That is exactly 3½ years since the 2005 legislative pay raise started the outside effort to reform a rogue Legislature.

Most of the 55 new members who promised reform last session took as much as they could get their hands on as soon as they said "I promise to uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution." Health care, cost-of-living increases, WAMs, cars and per diems were gobbled up like free candy.

Then the Legislature reached a new low with the Bonusgate scandal. Millions of taxpayer dollars in bonuses for campaign work and millions of taxpayer dollars spent on outside law firms for legal defenses before the grand juries. A dozen were indicted and many more will probably take that walk very soon.

Last session ended with a failing grade. Outside reform groups had to fight for every inch of change and in the end the reforms could be counted on a few fingers.
Even with 28 new members, this new session does not promise much and the Legislature still doesn't realize that hundreds of millions of dollars in slush funds must go.

Although the Legislative Accounting Committee presented simple balance sheets, a real audit has never been done for the more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds that have passed through the legislature during the past 3½ years. The only hope for a true understanding of what happened to all the money will be if Attorney General Tom Corbett pieces together a forensic audit as part of the Bonusgate investigation.

The depth and breadth of the economic crisis in Pennsylvania will show Pennsylvanians the inability of this Legislature to respond when the chips are down and the chips are really down now.

If job losses are not high enough, Pennsylvania residents and employers face 40 percent to 60 per cent increases in electric costs in the near future. Who can blame a company for not wanting to open a business or expand a factory in the Keystone State. Businesses have to plan years in advance.

It is time for the Legislature to show the way with a 10 percent pay cut in their own salaries along with a law to rescind the recent and future cost-of-living increases for the Legislature which incidentally met for only nine days in the past six months. It is also time to discard the entire incumbent protection system which costs tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year.

Where will change come from?

Change will be forced by the future indictments and testimony in the upcoming Bonusgate trials that will show how the Legislature really operates.

Change will come from an active executive branch that must ignore the lame duck label that some will try to paste on it.

Change will come from a vigorous debate among all the candidates for the governorship and U.S. Senate who must begin to put forth ideas and leadership and not point fingers of blame as they start their campaigns.

Change will come from a handful of legislators who must step up and reject the methods practiced by Fumo, Deweese and Perzel.

And change will start as it always does — it will start with the constant badgering from outside reform groups and individual citizens who usually lead the way.

Political activist Gene Stilp is coordinator of Taxpayers and Ratepayers United Inc., a Harrisburg-based citizen reform group.