Harrisburg - State Sen. Jeff Piccola (R-Dauphin) reached into a shopping bag, taking out a package of bacon representing the pork projects (known in Pennsylvania as walking around money or "WAMS") legislators frequently initiate.

When these legislators use taxpayer money to "bring home the bacon" to their districts for "economic development" he said at a panel called "The Impact of 'Special Interests'" at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg on Friday, they clog up the state's economic engine the same way bacon clogs up human arteries.

He then took out a container of Quaker Oatmeal to represent the tax and spending reductions as well as the investments in the state's decrepit infrastructure that he said will clean out the state's economic motor just as oatmeal cleans human blood vessels. State lawmakers, he averred, need to stop bringing home the bacon and "bring home the oatmeal."

"The basic principle I live by is that government does not create jobs or economic development," Mr. Piccola, chair of the Senate Committee on State Government, told the audience.

The state of Pennsylvania government growth won't cheer those who accept the senator's maxim. Since 1970, according to the Commonwealth Foundation, the state budget has expanded by 168 percent after adjusting for inflation. But in that time the state's job market has grown more sluggishly than 48 other states.

Mr. Piccola noted that business and other special interests have generally served to exacerbate what he considers a serious problem. Entities like PNC Bank and Comcast have gotten grants upwards of $30 million from the commonwealth, and they have plenty of company in so doing. Legislators secure millions every year for other businesses that locate in their districts.

A problem with this notion of spending, ostensibly to spur job growth, Mr. Piccola said, is that "friends [of powerful officials] get picked and people who aren't friends don't get picked."

Other panelists lamented the influence of another interest that, while moribund in many regions of the U.S., retains much of its power in Pennsylvania, namely labor unions. Brian Johnson, director of policy at the Alliance for Worker Freedom, noted that Pennsylvania ranks among the states most hostile to the principle that workers should be free to determine whether or not they join a union.

He urged audience members to take account of which federal lawmakers from Pennsylvania take the most money from unions, noting that Democratic congressmen Jason Altmire, Chris Carney and Patrick Murphy all derive barely under a third of their campaign cash from labor unions.

Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us.