Be the change you want to see.

It’s good advice — even if it is frequently misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi. The idea is that if something is worth changing, don’t wait for someone else to lead the charge. Pick up the cause and start changing it yourself. It might be the kind of thing we think about in a self-help kind of way, but there’s no reason it can’t be applied in other scenarios.

Like government.

For two years, Spotlight PA and The Caucus have been investigating the ins and outs of the way money is shuffled around in the offices of state legislators.

There are reimbursements, which most employees who work for the private sector or other governmental bodies or even other areas of the state government would have to back up with receipts. That’s generally not an issue for a Pennsylvania legislator.

Then there are per diems — $178 lump-sum payments a legislator can take any time he or she travels more than 50 miles from home. With Pennsylvania’s two largest cities — Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — more than 100 miles from the capital, there are a lot of per diems being distributed. Most states, including Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio, don’t pay per diems.

But that’s not all. Election accounts are another way to take advantage of money outside the already generous salary of a state lawmaker. Expenses related to a campaign can be designated in lumps without any transparency, like $500 for meals without saying who bought what for whom.

While the reimbursements and per diems are usually inside the lines, however, campaign funds can be dicier, as former state representative Margo Davidson discovered last month when she was charged with misappropriation of funds. She also was charged with theft of taxpayer funds for claiming per diems when she wasn’t traveling.

So after two years, why isn’t there more movement on making this leaky system a little more watertight?

Leadership in Harrisburg has said it supports transparency. Yet little has changed, other than Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre County, updating his “It’s Your Money” page on his website. In May, he was called out for letting the page be six years out of date.

That could change soon with a new webpage from the Senate chief clerk, intended to report expenses including per diems and travel for senators and staff. It follows a bill introduced by state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-West View, earlier this year. It does not affect the House of Representatives.

The people deserve to know what is being spent, who is spending it and what it is buying. But more than that, they deserve to know there is accountability for how that money is spent — that the people who have been sent to Harrisburg to represent them are answerable for the nickels and dimes that add up to literally millions of dollars.

This is not all that is needed. Just reporting what is spent doesn’t change what is allowed. All Pennsylvania legislators, but the leadership of the two chambers especially, should be drafting or signing on to legislation to reform the system, because it needs reform. And if that’s not a change they are willing to make happen, you have to wonder why.

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