As much as I love investigative journalism, this seems like a bit of “gotcha” – there’s no rationale given for why these workers have state vehicles.

Some employees are explicitly permitted to use their state cars for personal use, said Gov. Ed Rendell’s spokesman Chuck Ardo, who was assigned his own state vehicle last week.

With gasoline approaching $4 a gallon, driving to and from work has become a costly endeavor for most people.

But not for 3,650 state employees
In addition to providing vehicles for full-time use by Cabinet officers, deputy secretaries, chief counsels, bureau directors and state troopers, among others, taxpayers pick up the cost of maintaining, servicing, insuring and fueling those vehicles.

The annual cost to taxpayers is about $15.6 million, according to an investigation by The Patriot-News as part of a look at how state tax dollars are spent. That figure is based on the state’s $4,274 yearly cost-per-vehicle figure included in the governor’s budget.

Casinos, private clubs and smaller bars and taverns appear to be winning their fights for exceptions from a bill to ban smoking from most indoor facilities in Pennsylvania.

Sources close to talks said all three groups might escape the statewide ban.

But smoking could be banished at restaurants, offices and other workplaces, and public facilities such as stadiums or government buildings.

These are the elements of legislation being developed by a panel of six lawmakers from the state House and Senate.

The committee postponed a meeting Wednesday, but the panel is expected to vote on legislation Monday. Sources said it could go back to the House and Senate next week for votes.  read more »

For the past year and a half, lawmakers have batted around ambitious proposals to rein in Pennsylvania’s largely unfettered campaign financing system.

Many people believe there is something fundamentally unfair about a system in which donors have to write checks of five figures or more if they want to be noticed.

Yet the appetite for tangible reform appears meager, and the prospects are not encouraging for those seeking to reform the system…  read more »

I can see both sides of this issue, John. If lawmakers are doing public business they should be able to bill that to the taxpayer. The problem is that there’s little or no oversight of that and they fall out of touch with the real world.

It’s simple.

Unless or until elected officials take action to bring down obscene (compared to oil company profits) gas prices, let’s stop allowing elected officials to charge their gas to us.

Oh, you didn’t know or maybe forgot that you pay your honorables’ gas bills? You do.

You pay for gas for members of Congress. You pay for gas for members of your Legislature.

Pennsylvania state legislators flew to foreign lands, cheered on pro sports teams from the stands and even paid some criminal defense legal bills last year without having to crack open their own wallets.

Lawmakers collected about $22,000 in gifts and $89,000 in subsidized travel in 2007, according to an Associated Press analysis of their annual Statement of Financial Interests forms.

The forms were due at the State Ethics Commission on Thursday.

Free or partially free travel took them to Ireland, Poland, Taiwan, Mexico, Las Vegas and beyond. They reaped free tickets to watch Penn State’s football team and NASCAR races in the Poconos, not to mention the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies and 76ers. Ski passes were covered and greens fees were gratis.  read more »

Yes, Virginia, there really is going to be property tax relief from slot machines this year — a statewide average of $190 per homeowner.

The biggest winners in southwestern Pennsylvania are property owners in the Washington School District, each of whom will see $406 shaved from the tax bills they get this summer.

In second and third places are Central Greene and Southeastern Greene, where taxes will be reduced by $362 and $348 respectively. They’re followed by the Aliquippa School District, with $347 in tax relief, and Big Beaver Falls Area, at $345.  read more »

State legislators trying to negotiate a compromise bill banning indoor smoking say they do not have an agreement ready.

As a result, they canceled a committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, and said they will keep talking.  read more »

This is a good question…

Does anyone have a picture of the poster that was distributed to polling places by the Allegheny County Board of Elections proscribing any photography inside the polling place? ...

I’ve looked around online but haven’t found any ordinance or mention in the home rule charter or any other instructions at the state level proscribing photography inside the polling place. “Am I missing something?”:http://progresspittsburgh.net/?p=458