This week, the portraits of three former state lawmakers received new identifying text below the paintings. The text on the new metal plates hanging from the pictures now includes information explaining that these three former state legislative leaders, former House speakers John Perzel, Bill DeWeese and Herbert Fineman, along with former Senate president pro tempore Robert Mellow, served time in prison after being convicted on corruption-related charges.

Some objected to the portraits of these lawmakers remaining in the Capitol’s hallways and one lawmaker suggested removing the portraits. The added text, a short sentence explaining their misdeeds and criminal convictions, was a compromise.

State Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York County, had proposed removing the portraits of convicted lawmakers. With the new text adding a description of the convictions for political corruption, Wagner said the new plaques “accurately represent the history of people in the portraits.”

Following that logic, a complete list of all the state lawmakers who supported two notorious legislative actions in 2001 and 2005 should be given broader public exposure.

The state lawmakers who engineered and voted for the 2005 pay raise vote and the pension increase of 2001 should be listed, and posted next to the four former elected officials tarnished by criminal convictions. It can be known as the Wall of Shame.

The 2001 pension grab and 2005 pay raise vote should be fully understood by voters and taxpayers. The name of every lawmaker who voted for those two notorious bills should be listed on a plaque in Harrisburg. Walker, who was elected to the Senate in a special election earlier this year, would not be on the list. But every lawmaker who voted for the pay raise and the pension grab should be identified. Some who voted for the pension grab and pay raise were defeated and some retired, fearing defeat at the polls. But some remain.

On July 8, 2005, Pennsylvanians awoke to news that state lawmakers had voted themselves a pay raise in the middle of the night. The pay increases ranged from 16 percent to 34 percent, and the vote was taken at 2 a.m. There was no debate or public discussion prior to the pay-raise vote. It was a shameful example of skirting normal legislative procedures, and of greed. It also described a General Assembly culture where a sense of entitlement prevailed and where many officials were self-serving.

Quickly, voter outrage and a steady stream of criticism in newspaper editorial pages and on talk radio programs pressured lawmakers to repeal the pay raise.

A few years earlier, another notorious vote that has proved to be very damaging to state finances was cast. It was 2001 and the stock market was riding the wave of the dot.com bubble. The two large pension funds for state employees had surpluses, meaning assets were valued at more than the pensions’ obligations.

Seeing the surplus, lawmakers decided to give themselves a 50-percent pension increase — a deferred pay raise is another way to see it. With stock prices high, they claimed the pension boost would not cost taxpayers a dime. But that proved false, as the stock market dropped soon after the vote. Now, taxpayers see that not only was the no-cost-to-taxpayers claim wrong, but the pension grab has contributed to the $50 billion pension funding gap now facing taxpayers.

On hearing about the sweetheart deal lawmakers gave themselves, other state workers objected and demanded their own pension increase. To quiet the storm, lawmakers quickly approved a 25 percent pension increase for most other state employees as well as public school teachers.

The 2005 pay raise vote and pension grab vote of 2001 should never be forgotten, just like the convictions of former state lawmakers should not be forgotten.