Pa. lawmakers fill up at your expense

Philadephia Inquirer reports:

When Philadelphia State Rep. Robert Donatucci pulls up to the pump, it costs as much as $102 to fill his state-owned 2004 Dodge Durango, an eight-cylinder SUV.

He and 72 others in Pennsylvania's 253-member General Assembly continue to drive SUVs at taxpayer expense despite efforts by Harrisburg to bring more fuel-efficient vehicles to the state fleet, an Inquirer analysis shows.

In many cases, they aren't paying $4 a gallon to top off their tanks on legislative business.

You are.

State House and Senate members, who enjoy one of the most generous public leasing programs in the nation, have grown accustomed to critiques of what they drive. Now, with the price of gas reaching new highs seemingly every week, the debate has also focused on miles per gallon and who pays.

"In the real world, workers pay the price to commute," said Eric Epstein, founder of RockTheCapital.org, a Harrisburg government-watchdog group. "You cannot feel the consumers' pain by driving a gas guzzler to the gas station and then fill your tank up with a taxpayer credit card."

It's not just legislators.

The list of cars leased by state appellate judges at the government's expense is full of high-end, poor-gas-mileage luxury models - Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes. And Gov. Rendell's newly leased 2008 Cadillac DTS sedan gets a paltry 15 m.p.g. in city driving.

They sure are special.