John Baer: A pop quiz on how Pa. leaders opt to spend your dollars

TIME for a Pennsylvania political pop quiz.

I'll make it easy: true or false.

1) The Legislature doled out $3.7 million in questionable staff bonuses and paid (so far) $6 million in legal fees and expenses related to an investigation of the bonuses. This $9.7 million is just about the annual cost of operating Scotland School for Veterans' Children in south-central Pennsylvania (attended mostly by Philly kids), scheduled to be closed in June to save money.

2) This same $9.7 million in tax dollars for bonuses and lawyers (so far) is more than it costs to run the Scranton School for the Deaf, founded in 1880, serving more than 100 students, also scheduled to close to save money.

3) The $3.7 million in questionable bonuses, some in the five-figure range, is more than the cost of the Governor's Schools of Excellence, a program offering free study to outstanding students in a state that is last among the mid-Atlantic states in per capita college degrees. The program is slated for elimination to save money.

4) Parents of bright kids, parents of deaf children, parents of kids who qualify for the Scotland School or anyone who believes that government should serve people first and not itself first, find that the first three questions of this quiz really tick them off.

5) Half a dozen members of Philadelphia City Council, the body making rules that Philadelphians live by, are positioned to rake in payments ranging from $190,000 to $571,000 under the city's Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP). They do this even though the program never was intended for elected officials, and despite the fact that such cash grabs amount to five to 16 times the median household income of the city residents who elected them.

6) Long before state Sen. Vince Fumo was convicted for looting a nonprofit he created using corporate money, Gov. Rendell was asked about the setup and said, "Gosh, I'm outraged I didn't think of it first."

7) In a time of government cutbacks and possible layoffs of state workers, a period in which government travel allegedly is restricted, four officials of the state Gaming Control Board felt that a planned junket to Rome, including stays at a $400-a-night hotel, pool bar and limo charges, was a good idea and went anyway.

8) Speaking of $400, a current $400-an-hour attorney for state House Democrats (paid with your money) sued a former attorney for House Democrats (who was paid $1.3 million with your money) in an effort to get some files. The files relate to the corruption probe initiated by the payment (with your money) of bonuses to legislative staffers.

9) The state Liquor Control Board, which has been in existence as a monopoly seller of booze for three-quarters of a century, gave a $174,000 contract to an outside consultant married to one of its managers in order to help its store clerks with "sales skills."

10) Rendell's state-employee hiring freeze "with exceptions" includes exceptions for a defeated House Democrat (tourism job at $95,000 a year), a former aide who also did work for convicted former Sen. Fumo (Rendell spokesman at $100,000 a-year) and a former top aide and lobbying partner of indicted Democratic Rep. Mike Veon (senior deputy secretary for legislative affairs at $102,500 a year).

If you answered "true" to all these questions you're a connoisseur of Pennsylvania politics and earned a perfect pop-quiz score.

For extra credit, ask yourself if you did well because of your own commendable civic awareness or because in Pennsylvania it's all too easy to believe the abusive and inane. *

Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.

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