As first-year Gov. Tom Wolf and state legislators continue to hammer out next year’s state budget, several key issues have emerged. Education funding, privatizing the state liquor monopoly, pension reform and property tax reform are among the hot topics under debate.

Another issue, which hasn’t gotten much notice, should be regarded as a thorn in Pennsylvania’s big toe, and that’s legislative per-diem payments awarded without submission of any receipts.

In addition to their base pay of $85,339 per year, state representatives and senators are eligible for $170 per day for lodging, meals and travel expenses whenever the Legislature is in session or they must attend committee meetings.

They qualify for the full per diem for any travel of more than 50 miles and can claim the expense of meals even when they eat the motel’s free continental breakfast or attend a meeting where lunch is provided free.

Legislators should be entitled to reimbursement for legitimate expenses related to their state employment. But what they should not be entitled to — and what makes Pennsylvania’s per diem policy unfair to taxpayers — is their practice of collecting the money without submitting any receipts.

The system practically invites abuses.

There’s the infamous case of former state Rep. James Wansacz, who spent his per diems on a house in Harrisburg that he never lived in. He rented it to other legislators, who paid Wansacz with their per diem money.

All told, Wansacz collected $162,904 in per diems. And when he left the Legislature in 2010, he sold the house for $43,000 more than he’d paid for it.

One Erie-area legislator recently boasted that he stays at Motel 6, not a palace by any measure, and he dines at McDonald’s. While his sense of thrift is admirable, it doesn’t matter if he’s still eligible to collect the full per diem.

No one in the business world practices such a policy. In fact, tax records demand a full accounting — by receipt only — to claim business expenses. In other words, the state politicians who require receipts of their taxpaying constituents don’t require the same accounting for themselves. That stinks of hypocrisy.

It should be noted that not all legislators take the full per diem. Sen. Randy Vulakovich, R-40th, does not take the per diem rate, instead requesting the exact reimbursement for hotel stays.

Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, received $47,385 in per diems and mileage reimbursement between Oct. 1, 2012, and Sept. 30, 2014. Hutchinson’s website includes a page titled “It’s Your Money,” where he discloses his salary, use of per diems, mileage reimbursement and cost of his office leases.

“I try to be as open as I can. It is the people’s money, I do believe that,” Hutchinson said.

That should be a rallying cry for the men and women who collect and spend our tax dollars. But as long as this double standard persists, their work suffers from an unmistakable tinge of cynicism.

Let’s eliminate the no-receipt policy and require our lawmakers to adhere to the same fiscal standards that are imposed on the rest of us. Make submission of receipts a legislative standard.