Three state lawmakers representing parts of Chester County say a Constitutional Convention is the only way to fix the mess in Harrisburg.

The most effective way to pass the reforms that have become stuck in the state legislature is to hold a constitutional convention, state Rep. Curt Schroder, R-155th, told The West Chester Daily Local News.

"Reform seems to have stalled in the General Assembly," Schroder told reporter Dan Kristie. "It's time to hand it over to the people of Pennsylvania."

Schroder recently sponsored a bill — the Citizens Constitutional Convention Act of 2008 — that would put a question on the 2009 municipal election ballot asking voters whether the state should convene a constitutional convention, according to the newspaper.


Two other local legislators — Barbara McIlvaine-Smith, D-156th, and Duane Milne, R-167th, — co-sponsored the bill.

The surprise here is McIlvaine-Smith, a freshman Democrat who only recently discovered reform. McIlvaine-Smith spend most of her first year in Harrisburg rubber-stamping every bill Democratic Party leadership pushed for.

The Bonusgate scandal involving use of public money for political work has given the reform movement a new lease on life, Schroder said.

"The odds are still long, but I think they're improving every day with every new revelation that comes out," he told the newspaper.

Read the full article at the newspaper's Web site.