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Midnight Pay Raise
In the early morning hours, the PA General Assembly passed pay increases for judges, state lawmakers, and top executive-branch officials. The vote took place around 2am without public commentary or review and the governor at the time, Ed Rendell, signed the bill into law. The raise increased pay from 16-34% depending on the held position. -
Governor Repeals
Governor Rendell signed a repeal of the pay raise after a majority vote. -
Corbett Investigation
Tom Corbett, PA Attorney General at the time, began investigating $3.8 million in bonuses paid to legislative staffers in the PA General Assembly. -
List of Bonuses
The Senate Republican became the first caucus to release a list of their staffers who received bonuses. The next day, Senate Republicans ended giving out bonuses altogether. -
House Republican Caucus
House Republicans received subpoenas seeking personnel reocrds. Sam Smith, House Republican Leader, claimed that some staffers worked for campaings but they were not paid with taxpayers' money. -
LaGrotta
Frank LaGrotta, former Democratic member of the House of Representatives, was brought to trial in Harrisburg for two corruption-related felony charges. He used his position to have his niece and sister paid over $26,000 from state funds.
On December 20th, he pleaded not guilty but later plead guilty on February 3rd, 2008 for having ghost workers on his payroll. -
Extended Investigation
Attorney General's office officially extended its investigation to the Senate Republican caucus. The Senate Republicans have retained two Philadelphia law firms as legal advisers. -
Smith Re-Election
Barbara Smith announced that she would not run for re-election in 2010 due to the progress of the post-pay raise but ended up running anyway and lost to Dan Truitt. -
Veon Guilty Verdict
After a week of deliberation, a Dauphin County jury found Whip Mike Veon, former Democratic State House, guilty on 14 counts related to using tax-paid bonuses to reward state workers for campaign efforts and for various other occasions. -
Veon Imprisonment
Whip Mike Veon was sentenced to 6-14 years in prison by Common Pleas Judge Richard Lewis.
