Senators on Thursday complained that state gambling regulators too often operate out of the public view and alleged the Gaming Control Board isn't doing enough to protect taxpayers.

Board Chairman Mary DiGiacomo Colins said her agency has been "very transparent" and is free from improper influence.

"I have to believe that if there's any state agency that ranks lower than the governor or the Legislature in (public trust), I'm looking at it," Sen. John Rafferty, R-Montgomery County, said during an often-contentious hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The board wants the Legislature to increase its $33 million budget by $2.4 million. Gov. Ed Rendell, seeking to close a $2.3 billion state budget gap, proposed freezing the board's budget. Little about the board's finances came up during the hearing, as lawmakers unleashed pent-up frustrations on a board many of them say is unresponsive and opaque.

Seven in 10 Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly oppose Gov. Ed Rendell's proposal to allow counties to levy another 1 percent sales tax as well as his plan to consolidate the state's school districts, according to a Tribune-Review poll released Thursday.

The responders rejected by a 71 percent to 26 percent margin Rendell's suggestion to give 65 counties an add-on to the state's 6 percent sales tax. Three percent of those polled didn't know.

Allegheny County and Philadelphia, which charge a percentage point, would not get to levy more.

The poll by Franklin & Marshall College surveyed 644 adults between Feb. 17 and Sunday. It has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.

By a 70 percent to 21 percent margin, with 9 percent unsure, residents said they oppose Rendell's idea to consolidate 500 school districts into 100 as a way to reduce costs.

Via John Micek:

The AP reports this morning that appeals officers for the state House and Senate think that Magnifying-glass Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law does not give the public the right to review correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists.

On Tuesday, the two chambers rejected the AP's request for communications last year between registered lobbyists and the four floor leaders: Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware; Sen. Bob Mellow, D-Lackawanna; Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene; and Rep. Sam Smith, R-Jefferson.

The caucuses denied the requests last month. The AP then appealed to House Parliamentarian Reizdan Moore and Senate Secretary Mark Corrigan, the designated House and Senate appeals officers.

Moore and Corrigan both found that lobbyist communications are not covered by the law's definitions of the types of "legislative records" that the public can get.

One of the problems here, at least as I see it, is that the appeals officers have a vested interest in the privacy of the House and Senate. We need independent appeals officials who aren't beholden to House and Senate leadership.

Two Republican Senate leaders on Tuesday introduced a bill aimed at curbing "pay-to-play" practices that enable large campaign contributors to win state contracts.

The aim is to eliminate even the appearance of a conflict of interest, said Senate Majority Whip Jane Orie of McCandless, a sponsor.

"The citizens of Pennsylvania demand honest and transparent government," Orie said. "The bill will open processes which have taken place behind closed doors for too long."

Orie introduced the bill with Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi of Delaware County.

A similar bill won Senate approval by a 50-0 margin last year but it died in the House.

Coming soon: a mixed martial arts fight near you.

The State Athletic Commission has sanctioned the bouts, sometimes called "extreme fighting," which mix kickboxing, boxing, wrestling and martial arts. They're featured on Spike TV through the Ultimate Fighting Championship series.

Rules governing the sport take effect Friday, lifting a ban on such contests in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania joins a growing number of states that permit mixed martial arts, including Nevada, New Jersey, Maryland, California, Florida and Ohio.

State Senate Republicans on Monday had harsh words for Gov. Ed Rendell's budget makers, questioning whether his spending plans could create an even bigger problem than the one he's already facing, resulting in ''disaster.''

Rendell's top budget and revenue aides appeared in front of the Appropriations Committee on the first day of what will be four weeks of hearings to study the state's finances amid a massive projected shortfall.

In Harrisburg, scores of legislative staffers make more than lawmakers

Our friend John Micek at The Morning Call brings us a detailed account of the money our legislators spend on staff :
It's not often the average worker makes more than the boss, but in the Pennsylvania Legislature it happens all the time.

Seventy-three House and Senate staffers received more than $100,000 last year, well above the lawmaker base pay of $78,314, according to records obtained from the chief clerk's office in both chambers.

Legislative employees do everything from answer the phones at your local lawmaker's district office to shape the state budget and policy priorities that become state law.

Forty House employees made more than $100,000 in 2008 (the most recent year for which data was available), as did 33 in the Senate, the records show.

At a time the state faces a $2.3 billion budget deficit, the proposed elimination or reduction of scores of programs and the prospect of layoffs for hundreds of state employees, lawmakers and their top aides insist they're doing all they can to stretch the public's buck. They defend the salaries paid to top staffers as just compensation for invaluable experience and expertise.

See Also: FULL LISTING: 2008 Pennsylvania House and Senate Salaries

The Pennsylvania legislature has burned through $5.8 million in taxpayer money so far on legal fees and other expenses stemming from an investigation into staff bonuses and potential misuse of public resources.

The total was calculated yesterday after House Democrats disclosed that their costs had reached $2.6 million. They would not release the information without a formal Right-to-Know Law request, which the Associated Press submitted Jan. 9.

Senate Republicans have spent $1.4 million, House Republicans $1.8 million, and Senate Democrats just $5,000. Senate Democrats also distributed the smallest amount in bonuses.

"On a personal level, I'm just kind of disgusted that the actions of a few have cost taxpayers so much," said House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (D., Luzerne). "Clearly the number is large."

Gov. Ed Rendell on Wednesday said he would consider expanding his proposed $550 million tuition relief plan to include state-related schools such as the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University.

The program he proposed would include assistance for as many as 170,000 low- and middle-income students who attend one of the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education or one of the 14 community colleges.

"We would welcome that and think that it is appropriate to treat all public higher education institutes the same way," said Pitt spokesman John Fedele.

Rendell wants to pay for the program by legalizing video poker machines and taxing them at a rate of about 50 percent. An estimated 17,000 machines operate illegally in the state. The state imposes a 55 percent tax on slot machines at casinos.

Pennsylvania's two major public-sector pension plans on Tuesday told state lawmakers that together their investments lost more than $28 billion in value last year.

Officials who oversee the separate funds for state workers and public school employees also warned that a sharp increase in taxpayer subsidies looms because stock market losses will make a long-anticipated 2012 rate spike much steeper than recently projected.

The two funds' percentage losses on investments were similar. The value of State Employees' Retirement System investments dropped 28.6 percent in 2008, while Public School Employees' Retirement System investments fell 29.7 percent.