HARRISBURG — The prospect of taxpayer-funded bonuses between 2004 and 2006 expanded the ranks of legislative staffers willing to volunteer to work on political campaigns, a former House Democratic aide testified Wednesday at a government corruption trial focused partly on those payments.

"It was obvious in 2005 that there were more volunteers," Eric Webb told a Dauphin County jury that will decide the fate of former House whip Mike Veon of Beaver County and three other one-time aides whom state prosecutors have charged with theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.

Webb, then the director of member services for the House Democratic caucus, said he helped recruit legislative staffers to work as campaign volunteers. At the direction of Mike Manzo, the former chief of staff to then-House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, Webb kept detailed spreadsheets of the volunteers and devised a system for grading them — "rock star" was the highest — on the work they did for the campaigns.

Webb said Veon and Brett Cott, one of the aides on trial, also were instrumental in directing staffers who volunteered for campaign duty. Over the three years, prosecutors say, $1.4 million in bonuses was paid to state workers for campaign activity that helped the Democrats reclaim a House majority in 2006.

Webb, who testified for the prosecution and has not been charged, said he was surprised by the generosity of his own bonuses, which equaled one-quarter of his salary by 2006. Manzo instructed the recipients in a letter with the bonus checks to keep the payments confidential, but word leaked out, Webb said.