A record was set last week in Pennsylvania. But it’s not a record number of sports championships or jobs created — it’s a record number of former state lawmakers in prison.

A small article on Page 2 of Sunday’s Butler Eagle should be a reminder of the big story that erupted in Harrisburg a few years ago — widespread corruption among legislative leaders using tax dollars for their own personal or political gains.

On Friday, former state Senate Democratic Leader Robert Mellow was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Mellow was charged with using his own staff and other workers in other Senate offices to do campaign work, which is prohibited by law.

Mellow’s trip to prison after 40 years in the Legislature is a reminder of the other former lawmakers now serving time in prison for corruption, mostly involving the use of taxpayer-funded staffers for election work.

Mellow also used staffers and taxpayer money to recruit candidates for office, hold fundraisers, do “opposition research” on challengers and organize get-out-the-vote efforts on Election Day.

An earlier ruling in a corruption case against former state Rep. Jeff Habay established that elected officials using taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes were receiving a financial gain and could be prosecuted.

Former House Speaker William DeWeeese, D-Greene, is already in prison, serving a 2 1/2- to-5-year sentence for similar activities involving staffers.

Former Democratic Whip Mike Veon of Beaver is serving time in prison for his role in what became known as Bonusgate. That scandal involved House Democrats using $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars to pay bonuses to legislative staffers for working on campaigns. Veon was also convicted of misusing a portion of the $10 million in state funds allocated to a nonprofit organization he created and ran, called the Beaver Initiative for Growth.

On the other side of the aisle, former House Speaker John Perzel was convicted of using state funds to buy $10 million in computer hardware and software that was used primarily to analyze voter data to help Republicans win elections.

Former state Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, is serving time in federal prison after having been found guilty of more than 100 charges of misusing his Senate staff for mostly personal financial benefit.

Fumo also was found guilty of misusing funds and resources of a nonprofit organization he created called Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.

A handful of House staffers also were convicted on charges related to Bonusgate and are serving time in prison.

More recently, former state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, was found guilty of using paid staffers to do campaign work, similar to the charges against Mellow and DeWeese.

Noting that Pennsylvania has eight former legislative leaders in prison at the same time, Craig Holman, an analyst with Public Citizen in Washington, called it “stunning” and said it sets a record, at least in modern times.

Most of these former legislative leaders were also among those pushing to increase lawmakers’ already generous compensation. Many of the former officials now in prison orchestrated the notorious 2 a.m. pay-raise vote of 2005. That vote sparked such voter outrage that lawmakers reversed their raises.

A few years earlier, legislative leaders were successful in an action that might have been technically legal, but which will cost taxpayers far more than the $1.4 million in the Bonusgate scandal, or the $10 million computer software hardware. The 2001 pension grab saw lawmakers vote themselves a 50 percent pension boost along with a 25 percent pension increase for other state workers including public school teachers. That action, taken with no public debate, will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. And the impact, despite being delayed by some Harrisburg accounting tricks, will hit taxpayers in the next few years.

Pennsylvania lawmakers created a culture of privilege, featuring self-serving actions and greed. Taxpayers and voters should continue to pay close attention to the General Assembly’s actions, in case warning sent by recent indictments and convictions begins to fade.