Some things seem so obvious that you shouldn’t even have to talk about them.

Here’s one of them: If you are an elected official found guilty of violating the public’s trust, or some other serious offense in the course of your official duties, you should be required to surrender your taxpayer-funded pension.

Yet, last week, the narrowly divided board of the State Employees Retirement System voted 6-5 to restore the $246,000 annual pension of disgraced former Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow of Lackawanna County.

Yes, Mellow served federal prison time for his conviction on charges that he used his taxpayer-funded staff for work on political campaigns.

But, turning common sense on its head, Mellow’s lawyers successfully argued that his federal conviction didn’t compare to the crimes listed in Pennsylvania’s pension forfeiture law.

Having located that legal loophole, the 40-year veteran of the Senate drove leisurely through it, his $20,000-a-month retirement benefit restored. It was the first time in 11 years the board had made such a decision.

And you wonder why people hate politics and are cynical about their elected officials?

Fortunately, there is a solution: And all it takes is a vote by the House and Senate and a signature by Gov. Tom Wolf to make that change.

Legislation sponsored by Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin, would expand Pennsylvania’s pension forfeiture law to include all felonies.

In an op-Ed for PennLive last week, DiSanto noted that his proposal had cleared a Senate committee back in April. But eight months later, it has yet to receive a vote by the full 50-member chamber.

“It’s obvious to me and should be obvious to both elected officials and private citizens alike that public employees and public officials who are convicted of or plead guilty or no contest to any felony offense related to their employment should not receive a taxpayer-funded pension,” he wrote.

You’d think so.

But a spokesman for DiSanto said Monday that there are currently no plans for the Senate to vote on the bill during the handful of days remaining on its 2017 calendar.

Look, this one is a no-brainer. And it’s one of those rare instances where there appears to be actual bipartisan agreement. When’s the last time that happened under the Capitol dome?

Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf, in the wake of the Mellow incident, called on lawmakers to tighten pension forfeiture rules.

“Providing pensions to those who have committed crimes related to their elected offices is a betrayal of the public’s trust,” the Democratic governor said in a statement, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Public officials should be held to the highest possible standard and we should expect more out of them and our government.”

Pennsylvania’s 253 elected state legislators routinely waste their time on such trivial bills as bridge and highway renamings.

Or, they launch partisan attacks — such as a mean-spirited and entirely unnecessary bill now before the House limiting a woman’s access to abortion — that amount to little more than election year pandering.

With the DiSanto bill, however, Pennsylvania’s elected officials have a chance to take a measurable step toward reforming a system that is badly in need of it.

By the time senators leave town on Wednesday, they should pass DiSanto’s proposal; the House should get into position for a vote as soon as possible, and then it should send the bill to Wolf for his signature.

It may now be too late to hand Pennsylvanians a Christmas gift fixing their state government.

But lawmakers can still make sure that 2018 gets off on the right foot.