The Butler Eagle has asked candidates in six contested races to answer questions about their campaigns.

Today's is the second installment is the race for the 50th state senatorial District seat between incumbent Republican Bob Robbins and Independent challenger Roberta Biros. The second part of the questionnaire deals with how the state government should be run. The 50th district includes the following communities in Butler County: the townships of Lancaster and Worth.

Candidates for the 10th and 12th state House District seats will be featured this weekend and next week.

QUESTION: Do you support a constitutional convention to consider increasing a House member's term from two to four years and to limit the number of terms?ROBBINS: I would support an initiative to put a proposal before the voters to increase the length of a House member's term. This would help stop the endless campaign cycle they are caught in. Frankly, I believe we have term limits called elections. Voters have been doing a good job of removing elected officials they believe are not responsive.

BIROS: Yes, I fully support the calling of a constitutional convention in order to decrease the size of government.I fully support term limits. I prefer a limit of eight years, but would also support a 12 year cap. I also pledge to apply an eight-year term limit to myself regardless of state policy.Increasing the length of the term of House members is also important as it would limit the amount of time representatives would spend politicking. However, the change to a four-year term is not a priority to me as compared to term limits in general.

QUESTION: Do you favor transparency in how the millions of dollars in special leadership accounts are spent?ROBBINS: Yes, all public dollars should be open to public inspection and scrutiny.The Senate has opened these accounts to public inspection and every expenditure can be reviewed by the public. That is the right and proper way to handle all public expenditures, including, but not limited to, the Legislature.

BIROS: The money that is in "special leadership accounts" is still taxpayer money, and the taxpayers deserve to know how every dime is spent. I support full and complete transparency of all elected officials, and there should be no special exceptions to that rule. Accounts should be closely tracked and should be available online for easy access by taxpayers. In much the same way that taxpayers have the ability to search campaign contributions and spending, they should also have the ability to see how money is spent by their elected officials and especially Senate and House leaders.

QUESTION: Should per diem payments to legislators be stopped, or tied to actual expenses?ROBBINS: Per diem amounts are set by the IRS based on costs in various locations for lodging and meals.If the Legislature moved to actual expenses, that would be fine by me.

BIROS: I understand that there is a great deal of expense for legislators that travel great distances to Harrisburg. I agree that there should be some allowance for base expenses like travel, lodging and some meals. However, those payments should be directly tied to actual expenses and those per diem expenses should have a set limit.I've worked in the private sector all my life. I've had numerous jobs that required excessive travel. I was required to document every expense, and I was forced to make decisions regarding travel, lodging, and meals that met certain limitations. Those limitations were set because I was spending "my employer's money." The same holds true with elected officials. They are spending their "employer's money," but the employers just so happen to be the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.

QUESTION: Do you support halting all payments and benefits to staff members while they are on leave to work on a political campaign?ROBBINS: The Senate of Pennsylvania has followed that policy for as long as I have been there. Any employee on leave for a campaign gets neither salary nor benefits for that time, period. I believe that is the way it should be.

BIROS: If Bonus Gate proved nothing else, it illustrated that elected officials are misusing their staff for political purposes and the taxpayers are left with the bill. I would take the issue a step further and I would demand that staff members be prohibited from being involved in political campaigning at all. As a paid employee of the state, they have no business being involved in any type of political campaigning. The only way to completely eliminate the problem and remove all appearance of impropriety, is to not allow the practice at all.

QUESTION: Do you support halting per diems to legislators if the budget is not passed by June 30?ROBBINS: Yes.

BIROS: It is the responsibility of the Governor and the Legislature to pass a budget on or before June 30. If they fail to fulfill this requirement they should receive no per diems or salary until the budget is finalized.Each year a budget is proposed by the Governor before the end of February. Every year (for the past eight years), the legislature has taken their time to address the budget. They work part-time from February through May with long holiday breaks. They don't begin to take the budget seriously until late May and early June. I suggest that they take the budget seriously at the moment it is made available by the governor. Putting it off every year has done nothing but create a crisis where none should exist at all.

QUESTION: Do you support a small, perhaps part-time Legislature?ROBBINS: I will support whatever the taxpayers who sent me to Harrisburg to represent them support. Personally, I believe the Legislature could be made smaller, but keep in mind each Senator already represents 265,000 people.My only concern about going part-time is that unelected staff and bureaucrats would have increased authority rather than elected officials that can be replaced by the voters.

BIROS: Our legislators effectively work a part-time job now. Their time spent in Harrisburg in session is actually quite limited. Many of our legislators claim to put in full-time hours at their district offices, but in reality they spend a great deal of time politicking and shaking hands at local events. They go to these events not as "public servants" but as politicians looking for a photo op. This should not be considered work.A switch to a part-time legislature would do two things. First, legislators salaries would be decreased accordingly and this would save the state quite a bit in taxpayer money. Second, a part-time position with a part-time salary would appeal less to "career politicians" and it would attract more "public servants." A change in the type of people involved in politics would change drastically and in a positive way.

QUESTION: Some of proposed changes suggested in the preceding questions would require a constitutional convention. Would you support calling for such a convention?ROBBINS: I have very serious reservations regarding a constitutional convention. Although many talk about a "limited" constitutional convention, with the huge numbers of urban representatives, once a convention is established and delegates are chosen, there is little or no control over the direction the convention takes.I have received very few calls from my constituents in favor of a constitutional convention. Most understand there could be serious unintended consequences.BIROS: I feel that calling a constitutional convention should be a priority. It is for that reason that we need new faces and independent thinkers elected to office. It will only be through the election of public servants committed to good government that we can change our government and give more power back to the people.