Pennsylvania's day of reckoning over its multibillion-dollar pension promises to government employees and teachers has been pushed back for the better part of the past decade.

But long-expected increases in costs are scheduled to kick in three years from now, and meeting those retirement obligations could cripple state government and school boards.

Depending on what happens in the stock market, taxpayers could soon find themselves stuck paying more than $5 billion in additional annual payments.

The figure is a moving target. But in a March presentation to a state House panel, the state's two large public-sector pension plans estimated that the $821 million a year they currently get in "employer contributions" - the vast majority of it from taxpayers - will need to grow to $5.7 billion a year by 2012.

Even more frightening is that those numbers involve assumptions that could be overly optimistic. For example, the state government pension system's numbers assume it will earn 8.5 percent this year, but its 2009 investments are currently about 6 percent in the red.

Pennsylvania's state government may not be open and accountable enough as it handles federal stimulus money, the state's fiscal watchdog warned in a letter to federal officials that The Associated Press obtained Monday.

Auditor General Jack Wagner's letter to a U.S. Government Accountability Office administrator warned that internal controls are so weak that information about how stimulus funds are spent will be unreliable without oversight from an independent audit agency.

"We are extremely concerned about the potential for a lack of statewide government transparency and accountability in the use of these vitally important funds," Wagner wrote to Phillip R. Herr, the federal agency's director of physical infrastructure issues.

Wagner listed Medicaid, low-income heating aid and weatherization assistance as examples of federally funded programs administered by the state that have "significant internal control weaknesses." He said a significant issue was the limited scope of information provided for the audits his own office has performed.

Last year, a Lehigh County constable turned in expense reports for 76,000 miles of travel in one year. The constable averaged, he claimed, 208 miles in his car every day.

In Northampton County, a constable billed for 1,800 travel miles in one day -- an average of 75 miles an hour for each of the day's 24 hours.

Constables' mileage -- billed at 48.5 cents a mile in both counties in 2007, when both bills were submitted -- are usually paid by defendants but often fall to county taxpayers when defendants can't cover them.

The alleged overbilling here and a number of other billing and conduct problems across Pennsylvania highlight what state and county officials say is an ongoing problem with the county constable system: lack of oversight.

Now State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille has teamed with a state legislator from Berks County and they are poised to introduce the first set of reforms to a system they have called outdated and unwieldy.

''We would like to bring some organizational structure and professional control over their activities to make them more efficient and less costly,'' said Castille, who is working to institute one set of standards for all constables statewide.

Gov. Ed Rendell called for an investigation of a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board contract awarded to a top PLCB manager's husband, even as more details surfaced questioning the contract bidding process, including suspicions from competing firms that the award was "fishy" and seemed like an inside job.

The PLCB recently awarded a $173,000 contract to Solutions 21, a West End consulting firm whose president is married to a state store system regional manager. PLCB officials said the process was legitimate, but it led to calls from state legislators for an explanation, and Mr. Rendell yesterday agreed.

Arguing that Pennsylvania families "need help now" to weather the recession, Gov. Rendell yesterday said he would redirect millions of dollars for health insurance, mortgage assistance, home-heating assistance, and job-counseling programs.

Calling it "emergency economic relief," the governor said he would immediately offer coverage to an additional 16,000 people now on a waiting list for the state-subsidized health-insurance program for lower-income adults. More than 200,000 residents are on the adultBasic waiting list now - 25,000 of them added just last month.

Rendell said he also would move $5 million into an existing fund that helps recently unemployed residents pay their mortgage while looking for jobs. The money will help an additional 550 families, the governor said.

The governor said he was taking the actions by executive order after job losses continued to mount, adding that the rate in some counties had reached double digits. Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is 7 percent.

When it comes to teaching its employees good manners, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is keeping it all in the family.

The PLCB recently awarded a $173,000 contract to Solutions 21, a West End consulting firm whose president is married to the PLCB's Western Pennsylvania regional manager. The contract prompted demands for an explanation from two state senators despite assurances from an PLCB spokesman that the bidding process was entirely above board.

Buddy Hobart, president of Solutions 21, which is located at 152 Wabash Ave. in the city's West End neighborhood, is married to Susanne Hobart, the Western Pennsylvania regional manager for the state store system, the PLCB spokesman confirmed after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette received an anonymous tip about the relationship.

Neither Mr. Hobart nor Mrs. Hobart returned calls for comment, but Mrs. Hobart "had no role in the procurement process," said Nick Hayes, a spokesman for the PLCB.