Beaver County Times editorial

A matter of trust

10/29/2007If misery loves company, Democrats in the state House caucus should be giddy with anticipation.Last week, state Attorney General Tom Corbett subpoenaed their Republican counterparts as part of agrand jury investigation into $3.6 million handed out to House and Senate legislative aides in 2005 and2006.Corbett is trying to determine whether the extra payouts were merit-based bonuses for legislative work or rewards to staff members who worked on election campaigns. The latter is illegal.House Democrats should have been thrilled with the news because their caucus had seemed to be thesole target of the grand jury's inquiries. Now, their bitter rivals will be joining them.There is a downside to this, though, for the Democrats. Up until the attorney general went after therecords of House Republicans, they could accuse Corbett, a Republican, of being on a political witchhunt. These subpoenas take the air of out that charge.That anti-Democrat charge didn't carry much weight to start with. Corbett focused on House Democrats because, to cite bank robber Willie Sutton, that's where the money was. The bonuses handed out byHouse Democrats were four times those given out by the other three caucuses combined. That's adisparity that would catch anyone's attention - outside Democratic leaders in the state House, that is.While the grand jury looks into the bonuses, lawmakers are moving on another front to cover their political rear ends. The state Senate has passed and sent to the House a bill that bans bonuses for stategovernment employees.The measure does allow annual "incentive payments" for employees who meet specific performancegoals written into employment contracts or labor agreements.That provision has drawn the attention of Auditor General Jack Wagner. He wants to see it dropped because it could allow the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency to continue awardinghuge bonuses.In an interim report released earlier this month, Wagner disclosed that PHEAA spent more than $7.5million on employee bonuses since July 2004 and $108,000 on an amusement park outing for employees in April.The bonus flap shows Pennsylvania's elected and appointed officials' penchant for taking a good ideaand ruining it. Paying bonuses to employees who go above and beyond their duties - basically,rewarding high achievers - is justifiable in business and government.Unfortunately, politics, not professionalism, appears to be the incentive that fuels bonuses, and perception and reality are often the same thing in Pennsylvania politics.