Newspaper: Freebies for state lawmakers remain a problem

Pennsylvania legislators, already among the highest paid in the nation, are used to getting lots of free goodies from lobbyists and institutions looking for taxpayer dollars.

It's not a good practice, argues The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

From a recent editorial:

"It's a nice job if you can get it" ought to be the official motto of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Although the gravy train has slowed down since 2005 when public revulsion greeted lawmakers who had given themselves a big pay raise in a late-night vote, the freebies have not dried up.

That is depressingly clear from filings with the state Ethics Commission. As reported by the Post-Gazette's Tracie Mauriello on Sunday, 38 of the state's 253 legislators shared in at least $67,000 worth of goodies last year.

That doesn't include more than $18,000 in food and rental facilities for events hosted by lawmakers for constituents. And it doesn't include tangible gifts of less than $250, the overly generous threshold in the law above which filings on spending must be made.

In many ways, what legislators do receive is the same old, same old -- among the gifts reported were tickets to the Super Bowl, concerts and ball games, travel expenses, even yacht club memberships. The conflict of interest and the associated whiff of impropriety that comes with such freebies is reason enough to stop the gravy train dead in its tracks. For example, Verizon Wireless is not a charity, and taxpayers can fairly wonder what it got for the $9,786 worth of gifts, travel and hospitality spent on state officials and their families last year.

Read the full editorial," Money for nothing?: Freebies for state lawmakers remain a problem," at the newspaper's website.