Where is the accountability?

Why is fiscal accountability such a far reach for state lawmakers? They routinely talk about the need to reform the current expense reimbursement system — which includes flat-rate per diems without any accompanying receipts — but nothing changes. Instead, they have left in a place a system ripe for abuse.

Now, with theft charges pending against a recently resigned state lawmaker, legislative leaders are again talking about holding hearings to review possible changes in how legislators file expenses. Frankly, the lawmakers need fewer hearings and more simple, direct action.

Paying a per diem for expenses without requiring receipts is a method that few private or public sector employers would accept, and for good reason. Yet in Pennsylvania, that’s how state lawmakers are reimbursed. Lawmakers, who are paid $90,000 a year (legislative leaders make more) can file for a per diem to cover food and lodging if they travel 50 miles or more outside their home district, including when they are in Harrisburg for voting sessions.

Those per diems have ranged from $178 to $200 per night over the past two years.

A recent series of articles by independent news outlets The Caucus and Spotlight PA highlighted the lack of accountability in how lawmakers are reimbursed for expenses. A prime example came in July when former state Rep. Margo Davidson of the Philadelphia area was charged with stealing from taxpayers and misusing campaign funds.

Ms. Davidson was charged with theft for seeking per diem reimbursements that were already paid by her election campaign. Law enforcement officials said nearly a third of her per diem reimbursements for hotel stays in Harrisburg from 2017 through 2018 were fraudulent. She is accused of either falsifying the hotel stays or collecting payment for them from both her campaign account and her per diem requests.

It’s another glaring example of a betrayal of the public trust, but it shouldn’t come as a total surprise given the lack of accountability demanded of state lawmakers. As the series of stories by The Caucus and Spotlight pointed out, per diems require no receipts, and expenses paid through campaign accounts are often vague and lumped together in general categories that make any sort of audit difficult.

State Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, who chairs the House State Government Committee, said he plans to call a series of hearings to review rules and procedures for how legislators file expenses. Mr. Grove should save everyone a lot of time and instead help advance some proposed bills already before the Legislature. Proposals from state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, and state Rep. Brett Miller, R-Lancaster, would force state lawmakers to do what practically everyone in the private sector does when requesting expense reimbursements — provide documentation.

This isn’t a complicated matter. If lawmakers want to be reimbursed for allowable expenses, file an expense report and attach receipts. It should be done electronically, and that information should be made available to the public — the taxpayers who are on the hook for paying those expenses.

State lawmakers routinely profess their commitment to openness and transparency in government operations. They should start with their own expense reimbursements.