Pittsburgh Tribune ReviewFebruary 4, 2007 Sunday

LENGTH:

817 words

HEADLINE:

The Susquehanna sewer backs up again

BYLINE:

Colin McNickle

BODY:

Just when you think the stench coming from Harrisburg can't get any worse,the sewage treatment plant overflows. As per usual, taxpayers are downwind.What started as the public exposure of the secret payment of hundreds ofthousands of dollars in "bonuses" to House Democrat staffers over the pasttwo years has blossomed into what should prompt a full-fledged investigation.Total "bonus" payments to all legislative staffers in 2005-06 now isreported to be at least $3.6 million.House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, first forced by the mediainto full deer-in-headlights mode, initially low-balled the "bonus" totals tohis party's lower chamber staffers. By a factor of four. Staffers received"bonuses" of $1.8 million in 2006 for a two-year total of nearly $2.3million.State House Republicans report two-year "bonus" totals of $919,271.Over in the Senate, Democrats reported two-year bonus totals of $76,000.But it was a different and quite interesting story for the Senate's GOPmajority.The Republican Senate leadership revealed it had paid $366,134 in bonuses.It was a practice previously undisclosed, one leaders now say they will stop.

But what makes the GOP Senate payments most eyebrow-raising is thespeculation -- flatly and repeatedly rejected by the politicos -- that someof the bonuses were paid not for the people's government business but forpartisan campaign purposes. And some of the latter, quite frankly, were nonetoo savory.People being reasonable and money being fungible, the question should beasked if some of the money was paid to reward those who either participatedin dubious legal maneuvering to undermine pay-jacking opponents orparticipated in tawdry smear campaigns against those good folks.If that's the case, it's an outrage. But, also, it's a buffoonish irony:They were paid for failing.There's nearly $31,000 in "bonus" money paid to Drew Crompton in 2005-2006. In 2005, he authored the infamous memo that suggested anti-pay-jackingforces be forced to register as lobbyists. Clear and simple, it was a blatanteffort to intimidate the very successful grassroots campaign againstlegislative larceny. His taxpayer-funded bonus that year: $11,300.Last year, and for about four months, he was a top policy adviser tounsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann. So, let's get thisstraight: Mr. Crompton was on the state payroll for about eight months in2006. And yet he received a taxpayer-funded bonus of $19,467?Crompton's old boss, defeated Senate President Pro Tempore Bob Jubelirer,defended the payments, reports Brad Bumsted, the Trib's Capitolcorrespondent. Crompton, Jubelirer says, was one of the "lowest paid staffattorneys in the building," refused pay raises and worked long hours on suchissues as -- hold down your breakfast, folks -- lobbyist reform.Bottom line: Taxpayers anted up a series of fat bonuses to a guy whoproduced a legal opinion designed to thwart taxpayers' efforts to reverse thepay-jacking molestation.And then there's the curious case of Mike Long, the former chief of staffto Mr. Jubelirer, one of the pay-jackers in chief who was voter-tested andvoter-rejected. Not only was Mr. Long paid $41,000 in "bonuses" in 2005-2006but, upon his leave, he received a check for at least $95,000. That's said tohave covered unused sick leave, vacation time and -- breakfast hold-downadmonition No. 2 -- "severance."