Brad Bumsted, the outstanding state capitol reporter for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has been writing a lot lately about the costly "per diems" being collected by Pennsylvania legislators as they work to pass a state budget.

In addition to their regular salary, state lawmakers collect a $158 daily allowance for showing up in Harrisburg and with the state budget impasse going on for three months, lawmakers have been raking in the bucks.

From a new column by Bumsted:

Even when they are not voting on the House floor, most state legislators collect per diems worth $158 for food and lodging.

Those per diems may be for committee hearings, when they are summoned by the speaker or caucus leader, or just for staying an extra day in Harrisburg and working in their offices.

Some of them spent a lot of days in their offices over the past few months.

House and Senate members of both parties, about 170 in all, racked up $532,000 in per diems in July and August during the first two months of the ongoing budget impasse. It's money taxpayers would not have had to shell out if the budget had been completed on July 1, as required by law. And that's a conservative figure because some lawmakers didn't submit their per diems yet.

The situation is growing out of control now that Gov. Ed Rendell wants the Legislature to stay in Harrisburg until a budget is passed.

That prompted Bumstead to consider alternatives to "per diems," including the possibility of Pennsylvania taxpayers taking in lawmakers "like signing up for a foreign exchange student."

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