It should be very easy for state lawmakers to pass a law barring monied interests from giving the legislators what they euphemistically describe as “gifts.” Unlike in most public policy matters, there is no positive argument for policy allowing lobbyists, special pleaders and other narrow interests to give lawmakers anything beyond their lavish publicly funded compensation.
Yet lawmakers will not pass a law banning “gifts,” so legislators may accept just about anything from anyone as long as they report it when the booty reaches certain dollar thresholds — $250 for cash (cash!), and $650 in lodging, transportation or other “hospitality.”
Rabbi Michael Pollack, of the good governance group March on Harrisburg, recently expressed the frustration that all Pennsylvanians (other than “gift”-givers) should feel at lawmakers allowing themselves to be greased.
“Bribery is legal,” he charged. By his count, legislative leaders have refused 33 times in the past 20 years to allow votes on bills banning legislative gifts.
Taxpayers pay legislators a base salary of more than $90,000 a year, more than cover their expenses even if they don’t have any, provide them with Bentley-level health coverage, and fund pension benefits for them that would make Willy Sutton blush.
Yet legislators can’t bring themselves to ban “gifts.” Even a pending House bill would cap “gifts” at $250 rather than eliminate them. And, as Pollack pointed out, it would ban gifts only for “non-governmental use,” an undefined term and a loophole through which influence-seekers undoubtedly would drive truckloads of legislative “gifts.”
The open invitation to bestow “gifts” on would-be public servants is part of the commonwealth’s foundation for poor governance, along with unlimited campaign contributions, historic gerrymandering, limited legislative transparency, lax lobbying disclosure, and on and on.
Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a “gift” ban on the executive branch in 2015. But too many legislators apparently saw that as leaving more for them.
Pennsylvanians pay legislators to work in the public interest. Lawmakers never can prove that they do so as long as they legally can accept “gifts” from narrow interests.
— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS
