A statewide investigation of secret bonus payments to legislative staffers last year is headed for a state grand jury next week.
Two sources, one of whom received a subpoena and another with close ties to the law enforcement community, confirmed that witnesses have been called to appear before a grand jury in Pittsburgh. Attorney General Tom Corbett is investigating $3.6 million in bonuses paid to legislative staffers in 2005 and 2006.
A spokesman for Corbett declined to discuss the progress of the probe.
"I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation," Kevin Harley said.
Corbett began investigating the secret program in February, after legislative leaders released records showing bonuses paid to House and Senate staffers swelled from $800,000 in 2005 to more than $2.4 million during last year's contentious legislative races. Those elections culminated in the replacement of 20 percent of the 253-member General Assembly.
Party leaders, who doled out the generous bonuses, defended them as legitimate payment for extra services performed during the wrap-up of the Legislature's two-year term.
As much as the payments themselves, the four-fold increase in bonuses to House Democratic staffers from 2005 to 2006 raised questions with the state's top prosecutor. When the attorney general announced his investigation, a Corbett spokesman said investigators would attempt to determine whether the bonuses were compensation for campaign work or work outside the staffers' official public duties.
Top staffers and lawyers for the House and Senate Democratic and Republican caucuses were called to meet with investigators to discuss procedures for granting the bonuses.
The special payouts came to light in January, after the Harrisburg Patriot-News obtained a letter House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese mailed with the 2006 bonuses. In the letter, DeWeese called the bonuses "extraordinary" and asked those who received the payments "not to discuss this with any other staff person or member."
Shortly afterward, legislative leaders released detailed information revealing that over two years, House Democrats paid $2.27 million in bonuses and House Republicans paid $919,269. During the same period, Senate Democrats paid $76,000 in bonuses and Senate Republicans, $363,710.
Although many legislative staffers routinely received what were described as Christmas bonuses ranging from $50 to $400, some top staffers received far more. In the House alone, 99 staffers received bonuses exceeding $5,000. Among the top House Democratic staffers, one received a $28,000 bonus last year; another received a $25,000 bonus last year; three more received bonuses in excess of $20,000.
Three top GOP House staffers received $16,000 bonuses, and six Senate Republican staffers got bonuses of $20,000 or more.
Many rank-and-file lawmakers said they had no knowledge of the large bonuses, which Gov. Ed Rendell called "stunning."
Auditor General Jack Wagner, who is precluded from auditing the General Assembly, urged his former colleagues in the Legislature to outlaw the practice. Wagner, a Pittsburgh Democrat who served in the state Senate for 10 years beginning in 1994, said he does not give bonuses and members of his Senate staff did not receive bonuses.
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