(For years the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy has advocated various government reform proposals. In this special guest opinion by State Senator Jeffrey Piccola, Senator Piccola outlines steps needed to be taken to help bring about various reforms that the Susquehanna Valley Center supports.)

Several weeks ago in the Capitol Rotunda I said that Governor Rendell should be ashamed of himself for unnecessarily threatening to furlough 25,000 state employees during a budget impasse. On July 10th, even greater shame rained down on our historic capitol building as Attorney General Tom Corbett and the 28th Statewide Investigative Grand Jury made a presentment that, if proven true, will make furloughs and pay raises look petty by comparison.

It is never possible to completely separate government and politics as the two are inexorably linked in our democratic system. But when politics and more particularly political campaigns use government, government employees, government time, government offices and government equipment all paid for by the taxpayer in such an exclusive and blatant way to perpetuate the power of incumbents and party leaders it reminds one not of American Democracy but of a “banana republic.” In a banana republic all the pieces and appearances of democracy are present, but the junta uses them to keep themselves in power.

Pennsylvania is not yet a banana republic but we are not far off when the citizens feel such a disconnect from their elected leaders. The reaction to the 2005 pay raise should have been a wakeup call, but in spite of a significant turnover in the General Assembly very little has changed. Some Rules of the House and the Senate have changed, and we have enacted a long overdue update to the Open Records Law, as well as delinking state judicial salaries from those of federal judges thus eliminating the last vestige of the infamous pay raise. But this is all we can claim as accomplished reform, precious little to get out from under the cloud of suspicion over the state legislature.

The Statewide Investigative Grand Jury has enlarged and darkened the cloud that hovers over us. Only the legislature itself can clear the cloud away. That is why I am calling for a Special and Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly to address the need for government and ethical reform. In the event the Governor fails to issue such a call I am circulating a petition in accordance with Article II, Section 4 of our state constitution. If a majority of the House and the Senate sign this petition the Governor will be compelled to call such a Special and Extraordinary Session. This session should last only 4 or 5 weeks this fall before the elections. We should be in session 5 days a week and pass bills that will start to restore the people’s confidence in state government. The following are but a few of the subjects we should act upon:

- Require annual and outside forensic audits of all legislative accounts
- Establish an Office of Inspector General for the General Assembly
- Prohibit bonuses for any Commonwealth employees
- Ban gifts to legislators from lobbyists and their principals
- Campaign finance reform
A number of reform amendments to the state constitution have been proposed such as:
- Eliminate sine die (lame duck) sessions
- Reduce the size of the legislature
- Initiative and referendum
- Reapportionment reform
- Term limits

None of these constitutional proposals have advanced very far in the current session. In addition, because the Special Session will be within 90 days of the General Election, they could not be considered due to time constraints contained in our state Constitution. However, this Special Session could call for a Constitutional Convention to consider these structural reforms to state government. In my opinion the only hope of ever enacting any of these constitutional reforms is a Constitutional Convention.

This is far from an exhaustive list of the issues that could be considered by the Special Session. The General Assembly does in fact have many good women and men who are there for the right reasons. They have many good ideas, big and small, that could and should be showcased and considered in a Special Session devoted exclusively to real reform. It would be a shame if we failed to do so.