Scandal's big benefit: Bonuses are gone
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The Bonusgate scandal is winding down in Harrisburg even as the list of convicted lawmakers grows, but there's still one item that isn't quite resolved: bonuses themselves.
The good news for taxpayers is that it has been about five years since any legislative staffer received a publicly funded bonus; spokesmen for both House Democrats and Republicans say such bonuses ended in 2007 and have never resumed.
So will we never again see the likes of $1.9 million in foldable gratitude being distributed to staffers who campaigned for House Democrats in 2006?
Don't bet your Pennsylvania statute book on that, critics say. Current legislative policy is just that; it doesn't have the force of law.
"We have our foot on the neck of corruption and people are afraid to break it,'' says Eric Epstein, leader of the activist group Rock the Capitol.
He's worried the old ways could return if the press ever backs off on the bonus issue.
Sen. John Eichelberger, a conservative Republican from Blair County, also doesn't think a mere policy handbook is sufficient. Since he took office in 2007, Mr. Eichelberger has been pushing a bill to make legislative staffers' bonuses illegal.
"Just saying 'We won't do it again' doesn't mean much in this town,'' Mr. Eichelberger said.
He beat longtime Senate leader Bob Jubelirer in the 2006 Republican primary on the promise to reform state government, and when the media brought light to the bonus scandal the following year, the freshman Eichelberger wrote then-Attorney General Tom Corbett asking him to investigate. Mr. Eichelberger didn't stop there, introducing a bill banning future bonuses that passed the Senate 48-0.
That bill died in the House, though, never getting out of the State Government Committee, then controlled by Democrats. Republicans control both the House and Senate now, but the leadership has other priorities.
In fairness, House leaders have seemed to bring publicly funded bonuses to a screeching halt with mere policy pronouncements. That's something. Bonuses were so much a part of the system, Mr. Epstein says, he isn't sure leaders even realized at the time that the massive 2006 payout was inappropriate.
Steve Miskin, spokesman for the House Republican Caucus, said he's "the only one publicly outed as dumb enough not to get [a bonus].'' The caucus no longer distributes bonuses, but even before they officially ended in 2007 they were never related to campaign work for the GOP, he said.
(House Republicans were more high-tech than the Democrats, spending millions in public funds on computer software primarily used for House GOP campaigns. Former House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, has pled guilty to eight counts of corruption and is cooperating in the investigation.)
Bill Patton, spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus, said bonuses were discontinued when Bill DeWeese was the House Democratic leader in 2007.
Mr. DeWeese was convicted on five of six corruption charges Monday, not for distributing bonuses but for using his influence to compel legislative workers to campaign on state time.
Publicly funded bonuses are a bad idea for legislative workers even if it's for legitimate state work. They're getting a salary to do a job and they ought to be doing that job without any extra incentives.
(The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported last year that some lawmakers were using political campaign accounts to give out bonuses to legislative staffers, but that seems OK. Using campaign contributions to reward staffers who do campaign work, or who do good work helping constituents with their problems, is entirely different than spreading around taxpayer money to help the boss and his colleagues keep their jobs.)
Mr. Eichelberger worries that, even with the far-reaching scandal generally described as Bonusgate on the front pages, this is no longer a hot-button issue. Less than five years after the Senate voted unanimously to pass a bill to ban bonuses, he can't get any traction on a new bill.
Leaders come and leaders go (sometimes in handcuffs). Mr. Eichelberger worries that if pressure is removed from the public and the media, expensive and corrupt habits could return.
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
