Letter to the editor: Taxpayers deserve accountability

I read the article “Pa. lawmakers spend millions of tax dollars on private lawyers but often don’t reveal why” with sadness and frustration. It appears the system is set up to encourage corruption. Effective government must have transparency and accountability. We must challenge the practice of redacting. Pennsylvania voters deserve to know how and why their taxpayer dollars are being spent.

Spending $750 per hour on lawyer fees is outrageous. These same lawmakers refuse to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, but are willing to spend 100 times that amount for their own lawyers. To add insult to injury, that $750 per hour was spent on a frivolous lawsuit that never should have been brought in the first place. There should be strict guidelines on when and why legislatures hire lawyers, and how much of the taxpayers’ money they spend.

Not only did Mike Turzai, past Republican speaker, spend excessively on lawyer fees, but he is also guilty of the revolving door scam. He gave the fracking industry a sweetheart deal, then quit the government and took a lucrative job with the industry.

We must demand that our legislators promote and support bills to correct the corrosive influence of pay to play, revolving doors and secrecy.

Julia Bojalad

North Huntingdon