Last summer's disclosure about lump-sum bonuses of more than $100,000 each awarded to seven executives of Pennsylvania's student-loan agency raised more than a few eyebrows across the commonwealth. Deservedly so. That is money that could have been better spent benefiting students who would have been eligible for those funds.

Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) has provided more cause for eyebrows to be raised. It's also time for anger to be vented in a way reminiscent of taxpayers' outrage over the excessive, middle-of-the night pay raises approved by state lawmakers last July 7 without notice or debate.

If the 5.9 percent salary increases granted to the agency's top executives this month aren't considered excessive, despite the less-than-vibrant pay-raise environment most other workers in the state are forced to endure, people should think otherwise regarding another round of six-figure bonuses the seven executives are targeted to receive this coming July.

Being a top PHEAA official has become not only a pedestal for largesse, but also a pedestal of arrogance and disrespect for the best interests of public funds.

It is time for PHEAA executives, as well as the board that governs the agency, to begin displaying some conscience regarding the way top executives are enriched. At this time, conscience appears to be a missing entity, despite the fact that a number of state lawmakers sit on the agency's board and should have learned a lesson from last year's pay-raise brouhaha.

With the 5.9 percent base-salary increase, PHEAA's chief executive officer, Richard Willey, will now make $290,007, a $16,368 increase from last year. The other six executives' salaries were increased to $218,427 — $12,186 higher than in 2005.

Move ahead to July. Willey is eligible for a performance bonus of up to $174,004, or 60 percent of his salary, which would bring his total compensation to $464,011. The other six executives' total compensation would be $327,641 after their bonuses were applied. The bonuses, if they go unchanged, would amount to 50 percent of their pay.

It would seem that by now a couple of voices of fiscal reason would have begun emerging from the PHEAA boardroom, but there has been no evidence of such a refreshing development.

In 2005, PHEAA wasn't in the news solely regarding executives' compensation. The agency was criticized for spending nearly $885,000 over five years for agency officials' retreats at luxury resorts around the country, including Maryland's Eastern Shore, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in southwestern Pennsylvania and Napa Valley, Calif. Then, in late summer, the agency filed suit against reporters seeking agency spending records, using the argument that, because a number of lawmakers are members of the PHEAA board, the spending documents being sought were "legislative documents" and, thus, exempt from the Right-to-Know Law.

PHEAA does much good. That cannot be questioned.

However, that doesn't exempt PHEAA from always making spending decisions that can pass the test of scrutiny.

The 5.9 percent pay raise, although well above the current rate of increase in the cost of living, is not unconscionable. That can't be said regarding the bonuses that might be on the way, agency officials' penchant for VIP resort accommodations under the guise of business, and the desire to remain secretive.

It's time for PHEAA to rethink its current course, and for the state legislature to condemn that troubling direction.

— J.R.K.