A deal circulating on Capitol Hill between Governor Tom Ridge and the General Assembly allows legislators a pension increase as payback from Ridge for passing his controversial $800 million stadium funding deal last year. Here’s the weasel part — the pension increase would be voted upon after the November General Election. Passing such a fat measure before voters hit the polls could prove dangerous to incumbents seeking re-election. Why be honest with voters? I imagine them thinking: "It’s not their money anyway, it’s ours, and we just told voters so. Go disagree somewhere else. Do you think this is your Commonwealth or something? Where do voters get these screwy ideas anyway?"

No wonder, according to the Council for Excellence in government, 54 percent of Americans say that government is no longer "of, by, and for the people".

From whence does such abundant boldness spring?

About one third of the legislators on the ballot have no opposition. Another one half has no financially viable opponent. Right now, the legislative behemoth is in summer recess (apparently not in summer slumber from the sounds of this deal).

Here’s one way out of the swindle. Each legislative session of the General Assembly lasts two years, the current one having begun in 1999. Business from the first year of a two-year session can be carried over into the second year. When the second year of a two-year session ends — called Sine Die — all bets are off. All bills must be re-introduced when the next session opens, in this case January 2001 when the carnival resumes its mischief.

MODE suggests a solution. There are only (about) 12 legislative days remaining in the session. They are tentatively scheduled (and this changes every 15 minutes in real life) for late September, early October and after the November General Election. Why not end the session — call it a Sine Die — before the November General election and thereby freeze the legislators voting record? This approach would put elected officials in the position of good school children everywhere — we expect you to take the Final before we give you your Report Card. This approach would either force them to pass the deal before the election or eliminate it altogether.

This isn’t Kansas, Dorothy. We must be in Pennsylvania.