News that former Rep. Mike Veon's campaign debt of $40,000 was paid off by the House Democratic Committee in Harrisburg was a reminder of the clubbiness of state lawmakers and a disregard for rules.

It's important to note up front that the money paid to retire Veon's debt from his unsuccessful re-election campaign was not taxpayer dollars. The fund controlled by House Democrats comes from lobbyists' contributions, and from politicians themselves who sometimes shift some of their own campaign dollars to the committee fund to help other Democrats get elected.

But that is the point some members of the committee make in objecting to the payout to Veon. Several top members of the campaign committee say they were not consulted about the Veon deal.

One committee leader noted that the function of the campaign committee is to help Democrats get elected, and suggested that helping pay off old campaign debts for a defeated lawmaker does not fit that mission.

But the chairman of the committee, state Rep. Todd Eachus of Luzerne County, said he decided on his own to give the money to Veon, which records show was transferred in November and December.

The founder of the reform group Rock the Capital, Eric Epstein, called the payments to Veon an "in-your-face move" that paints the Democrats as saying "we're not going to change how we operate."

He's right.

The use of funds designated to impact the outcome of an election to pay off a defeated lawmaker's campaign debt looks bad. It's not a waste of tax dollars, but it reminds voters of how some career politicians treat taxpayers' dollars — simply as "other people's money" to be spent any way they desire.

This $40,000 payoff of campaign debt adds to House Democrats' public relations headaches. Already, House Democrats are seen as the most egregious abusers of bonus payments to staffers. An investigation by state Attorney General Tom Corbett into the $1.9 million paid to House Democratic legislative staffers following the 2006 elections has produced the appearance of incumbent politicians using taxpayer dollars to fund their own re-election campaigns, a practice banned by law.

And Veon's return to the news reminds voters of the nonprofit organization co-founded by Veon called the Beaver Initiative for Growth (BIG), which was the recipient of more than $10 million in taxpayer money in recent years, while Veon was the second-ranking Democrat in the House. Veon and retiring state Sen. Gerald LaValle of Beaver helped funnel state grants to BIG, where they served as the only two members of the board of directors and determined how the money was spent.

Newspaper reports have revealed that most of BIG's money was spent on staff, administrative overhead and on consultants, some of whom happened to also have been campaign contributors to Veon and LaValle.

The Attorney General's investigation into what's being called bonusgate has also brought state investigators to look into the operation of BIG.

Veon's being back in the news over his campaign debt being paid off by former Democratic colleagues in the House only serves to remind voters that some of the bad old ways of doing business are still being practiced in Harrisburg.