How well do Pennsylvania politicians take care of themselves?

Robert Swift, Harrisburg Bureau Chief for The Citizens' Voice, reports that state Sen. Bob Mellow, the Democratic leader, will triple his current salary when he retires at the end of the year.

It sure beats working for a living.

From Swift's story:

HARRISBURG - Sen. Robert Mellow could be eligible for an annual taxpayer-funded state pension amounting to three times his $110,250 salary when he leaves office in November.

Mellow, 67, is eligible to collect the bulk of his pension through the state government's defined-benefit plan. In addition, Mellow can collect supplemental pension benefits to reach a minimum $313,000 annual payout he may be getting through the little-known state-run Benefits Completion Plan.

The combination of two pension streams will enable Mellow to have retirement benefits that greatly exceed his current $110,250 Senate salary as well as the incomes of average Pennsylvanians. In addition to generous pensions, state lawmakers enjoy top-level health benefits that cover medical care, eye and dental care and prescription drugs in retirement. Since 2006, current and retired senators contribute 1 percent of their incomes toward health benefits.

Mellow, D-Peckville, has said he won't seek re-election to an 11th term, wrapping up a career that began in 1970. Efforts to obtain comment from Mellow and his spokeswoman, Lisa Scullin, were unsuccessful.

The exact amount of Mellow's pension won't be known until early next year, and will be influenced by a variety of factors.

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

Have you opened your 401(k) statement lately? Don't bother. You've lost most of your money in the collapse of the U.S. economy over the past six months -- unless you're a government worker in Pennsylvania.

You can't lose because the taxpayers are obligated to pay your entire pension regardless of how much of that money is lost in investments.

What's so special about state workers, you say? Why should you bail them out?

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is wondering the same thing. The newspaper concludes in an editorial that state workers should have the same type of retirement plan as those in private industry. When the market goes up, everyone benefits. When the market goes down, everybody shares the pain equally.

The state must renegotiate existing public-sector pensions to make them defined-contribution plans and establish a unified statewide retirement system for public employees, the newspaper argues.

Otherwise, Pennsylvania residents will see huge jumps in property taxes to cover the costs of guaranteed lifetime pensions for state workers.

Read the full editorial, "The pensions crisis: Only one solution," at the newspaper's Web site.