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Rendell pressed to call Legislature to session on ethics

Rendell pressed to call Legislature to session on ethics

HARRISBURG -- A state senator from Harrisburg will ask Gov. Ed Rendell today to call a special session of the Legislature for September-October to revise General Assembly ethics and try to restore public confidence in the wake of the widening "bonusgate" scandal.

"We have a crisis of confidence in the General Assembly right now," Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, said yesterday, referring to the black eye resulting from public corruption charges brought Thursday by Attorney General Tom Corbett against former state Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver, current Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Beaver, and 10 current or former House Democratic staffers.

"The Legislature is under a huge cloud as a result of these charges," which allege a widespread misuse of taxpayers' dollars, said Mr. Piccola.

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"We should be working this fall, during the four or five weeks we're in session from mid-September to late October, on reclaiming the public's confidence," said Mr. Piccola, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee, which deals with election and governmental matters. He's also seeking re-election Nov. 4.

He said there are two ways to convene a special legislative session: Either the governor can call one or petitions can be circulated among House and Senate members.

Mr. Piccola said the fastest way would be for Mr. Rendell to convene one, as he has done twice in recent years, on property taxes and on energy. Mr. Rendell and his aides couldn't be reached yesterday on the matter.

If the governor doesn't call a special session, Mr. Piccola said he'll try to get the signatures of at least 26 of the 50 senators and 102 of the 203 House members. That would do it, he said.

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There are numerous items that could be discussed at the session, including:

• Whether to impose limits on how much campaign money can be given to a legislator.

• Whether to ban lobbyists from giving any amount at all in gifts, trips, sporting tickets, dinners, drinks etc. to lawmakers.

• Whether to call a constitutional convention for 2009, where subjects such as reducing the size of the 253-member Legislature or imposing term limits could be proposed. Mr. Piccola, plus Sens. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, and Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, have resolutions calling for a constitutional convention, which if held would be the first since 1968.

Tim Potts, a leader of Democracy Rising PA, a citizens group that strongly protested the 16 to 34 percent legislative pay raises enacted in July 2005 (and later repealed), also is pushing for a constitutional convention.

Adopting new laws and internal General Assembly procedures is fine, he said, but amending the constitution would go much farther to bring permanent reform and openness to the Legislature.

Mr. Piccola didn't think the public anger over the hefty bonuses given to some legislative staffers -- allegedly for political campaign work -- would fade any time soon. Mr. Corbett has strongly hinted that more charges could be in the offing as the result of a months-long grand jury probe, saying, "The investigation is continuing."

Public anger over "bonusgate" may not have reached the level of outrage in 2005-06 over the pay raises, Mr. Piccola said, "but it's going to get there, when it starts to sink in what [the allegedly illegal bonuses] amounted to."

"Say what you want about the pay raises -- call them greedy or whatever -- but at least they were legal," he said. "If these bonusgate acts occurred as the grand jury says they occurred, they weren't legal. They were criminal acts."

If Mr. Piccola circulates petitions aimed at a special session, he plans to list on his Web site the names of the House and Senate members who sign the petition. That means citizens will also be able to tell which legislators haven't signed, and thus, apparently, don't see a need to change things.

First Published: July 14, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

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