A tough budget season got tougher on Wednesday, with the state’s Independent Fiscal Office announcing that a $500 million shortfall in April tax collections means the state’s budget shortfall will likely approach $1.5 billion.

State officials on both sides of the aisle have signaled a willingness to address the problem of balancing the budget through government reforms and cost-cutting. But are they doing enough? It certainly doesn’t seem like it.

It’s nearly impossible to get through budget season in Pennsylvania without hearing Republican lawmakers hold forth about the state’s loose wallet. Pennsylvania has a spending problem, the argument goes, and that needs to be the focus.

This is absolutely correct, but not quite in the way they intend.

Enter former state Sen. Robert Mellow, a Lackawanna County Democrat who lost his retirement benefits in 2012 after he pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. Federal prosecutors accused Mellow of using Senate staffers to raise money and work on political campaigns. Mellow, who is 74, was released from federal custody in 2014.

Mellow, who forfeited his $20,509-a-month pension upon pleading guilty, wasted little time in trying to reopen the spigot of taxpayer dollars. He appealed to the state retirement board, arguing that because his plea occurred in federal court, Pennsylvania’s Pension Forfeiture Act didn’t apply to his crimes. The board began reviewing the appeal this year.

The tactic has worked before. In 1999 a Commonwealth court ruled in favor of a state corrections officer who pleaded guilty to federal charges but, the court ruled, shouldn’t have to lose his pension. Apparently lying to a federal grand jury isn’t the same thing as a state-level charge of perjury, which would have resulted in the officer losing the pension.

Will Mellow prevail? It’s likely too soon to say. But the fact that this matter can’t simply be rejected out-of-hand means that Republicans are absolutely correct when they say the state is fiscally irresponsible.

Pennsylvania obviously has a spending problem if we are sending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars each month to convicted felons.

Does anyone in Harrisburg believe that’s a responsible expenditure?

Pennsylvania is facing serious fiscal questions that are likely to impact the state’s ability to adequately fund public education, social services and other vital public initiatives in the years to come. And ferreting out wasteful spending is an important part of bringing the state’s budget back into balance.

So why aren’t lawmakers pursuing reforms that could save taxpayers from paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to disgraced former officials who exploit legal technicalities even after their crimes are exposed and punished?