In Beaver County, a scandal involving excessive compensation paid to the wife of a powerful state senator raises questions about the nonprofit she headed. The compensation scandal suggests a problem with the board of directors and likely is evidence of state lawmakers playing favorites when party leadership's personal interests are involved.

The story involves the Volunteer Action Center, a nonprofit organization that functions primarily as a call referral center and booster of volunteerism in Beaver County. It was funded primarily by state grants and received $763,000 in such grants from 1998 to 2006.

The agency was headed by Darla LaValle, wife of state Sen. Gerald LaValle, D-Beaver. The agency had just two other employees, yet in 2005, VAC paid out about 56 percent of its revenue in salaries.

LaValle, who retired from VAC in March, reportedly was paid $619,607 in salary and benefits from 1998 through 2005, a period in which the agency's total income was $1.6 million, about half of that coming in the form of state grants. For 2005, LaValle was paid $102,076 plus a $9,695 pension benefit to run the agency and supervise two employees.

Most nonprofit agencies keep their expenses for salaries and administration costs at 15 percent of revenues or less. Operating efficiently and keeping expenses low allows more money to be spent on the organization's charitable purposes. That philosophy and financial guideline was clearly ignored at VAC.

Such apparent abuse of a nonprofit organization and the process of funding via state grants suggests a need for greater transparency in the awarding of state grants and for strict oversight to ensure that state funds are spend effectively.

The reports surrounding VAC, and a different Beaver nonprofit associated with LaValle's husband, the Beaver Initiative for Growth, along with the federal indictment against state Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, for alleged misuse of $1 million in public funds plus misuse of another $1 million in funds controlled by Fumo's pet nonprofit organization, reveal the desperate need for changes in the way Harrisburg distributes and monitors the spending of state grants. Funding to any nonprofit with ties to a state lawmaker should be closely scrutinized — or simply banned.

Instead of approving a redesign of the Sacagawea dollar, Congress should have voted to put the coin to rest.A dollar coin will never overtake the paper $1 bill as the dollar of choice. That was shown when the Dwight D. Eisenhower dollar, honoring the nation's 34th president, was minted between 1971 and 1978 and again with the cold reception received by the Susan B. Anthony dollar between 1979 and 1981 and, again, when the coin was revived in 1999.The new presidential dollar coins are seldom seen in routine transactions these days, having become more of an item for coin collectors rather than anyone else.The Sacagawea dollar won't be any better received with a new design than it was with its first design.

It is to be hoped that all members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Gov. Ed Rendell support state Rep. Jerry Nailor's proposal aimed at ending late passage of the state's budget.The Cumberland County Republican is proposing legislation that would require lawmakers, the governor and members of the governor's cabinet to forfeit their pay for each day past the June 30 deadline that a new budget has not been approved. Currently, their pay is suspended but they are reimbursed after a new annual spending plan has been signed.The guarantee that they won't lose pay opens the door to stubborn partisanship and refusal to compromise, among lawmakers themselves and between lawmakers and the administration. Imposing a financial loss for failure to carry out this basic responsibility on time would provide an incentive to avoid stalemates like the one this year.Lawmakers and Rendell missed the 2007-08 budget deadline by 17 days. They should have lost pay for those days, as well as the additional per diem allowance they receive for each day they work in Harrisburg.The political shenanigans, partisanship and resistance to compromise have gotten so out of hand that the function of budget passage — one of the most basic responsibilities of the state government — cannot be accomplished on time.If Nailor's measure becomes law, that no doubt would change.An editorial in the Harrisburg Patriot-News said, "Nailor's proposal would bring some much-needed discipline to the budget process and encourage an earlier start in budget negotiations."The Nailor legislation must not become lost in committee but instead should be brought to the full House and Senate quickly for what should be an affirmative vote.Hopefully, Butler County legislators will be at the forefront in pushing for that vote.