HARRISBURG — House Democrats are mounting a legal challenge to state prosecutors' investigation of taxpayer-financed bonuses for legislative staffers.

Lawyers for the House Democratic caucus and seven of its employees who were identified as having received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury have filed appeals with the state Supreme Court since last week in an attempt to block the subpoenas. None had been decided.

Also, the Democrats' attorneys filed papers with the grand jury's supervising judge seeking the return of "privileged documents" taken by agents of the attorney general's office, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported Thursday. The agents served a search warrant on the House Democratic Office of Legislative Research last month and seized some of its records.

The grand jury, whose proceedings are confidential, is examining nearly $4 million in bonuses that the four legislative caucuses paid to their employees in the 2005-06 session. But the main focus appears to be on the House Democrats, who paid out $1.6 million in bonuses just in 2006, when they won the majority of House seats for the first time in 12 years.

At issue is whether the taxpayer-paid bonuses were illegal rewards for campaign activity, which all four caucuses deny, or legitimate incentives for hard work on behalf of the state government.

By Associated Press