Pennsylvania legislators who don’t take a gift ban seriously are insulting the people they claim to serve. Pennsylvania already has some of the loosest rules in the country for receiving and reporting gifts from lobbyists. Tightening those rules would be wildly popular, but state politicians are too addicted to the meals, tickets, trips and other perks to change. Their shameless, self-serving behavior further undermines the public’s trust in the political system.

The aggressive good-government organization March on Harrisburg tried to recruit an unnamed legislator to force a vote, through an arcane parliamentary procedure, on a gift ban bill. Unhappily, the anonymous legislator apparently had second thoughts and didn’t follow through. That shows the grip these perks have on legislators. 

Here’s the tale of the tape: If you collected state legislators’ gift reports from 2018, you’d find only about $40,000 in itemized gifts from influence peddlers. But if you collected lobbyists’ disclosures, you’d find $1.5 million in spending on politician perks. Lobbying firms spread the goodies among their many clients, allowing legislators to avoid the $250 reporting threshold for gifts and $650 threshold for hospitality.  

The system works well for political insiders in Harrisburg, but not for people outside the club.  Lobbyists can dole out treats like luxury meals and exclusive event tickets willy-nilly, and legislators can claim enjoying these perks is part of public service. In fact, that’s exactly what Democratic House Whip Jordan Harris of Philadelphia said in 2019, when another version of a gift ban was percolating: “There’s a tension at the meeting table that doesn’t happen at the dinner table, and it’s because of that that people are actually able to get things done.”

In other words, the only way for politicians to do the people’s business is over prime rib and Rob Roys.

A bill bravely introduced by Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Luzerne, would ban lawmakers from receiving gifts amounting to $250 in value from a single source in a year — meals exempted. It would take a big step in the right direction. Interestingly, it’s co-sponsored by some of the legislature’s most left-wing and right-wing members.

The politicians furthest from the ideological mainstream are least likely to be committed to the institutional status quo. And that’s exactly why they’re succeeding at the ballot box.

As for the more centrist institutionalists, it may be in their best interests to acquiesce to a gift ban, or at least some stricter gift limits, sooner rather than later. It’s that or risk losing not just a few perks, but their jobs.

First Published: September 16, 2022, 8:13 p.m.