Even if the proposal aimed at cutting the size of the Pennsylvania Legislature passes during the current legislative session — and there is no guarantee that it will — it’s hard to believe that the plan will ever be implemented.

The plan — a proposed amendment to the state constitution — still would have to pass the next two-year legislative session before going to the voters for approval or rejection.

In the end, it’s hard to imagine any groundswell of support within Harrisburg’s legislative chambers to eliminate some of their own jobs — despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s is the largest full-time Legislature in the country. It also is the second-most-expensive and em-ploys more support staff per lawmaker than any other U.S. state legislative body.

By any measure, the General Assembly in Harrisburg is bloated — and ineffective.

If the plan isn’t eventually shelved this year, it probably will be conveniently forgotten once the next session gets under way.

The bottom line: Pennsylvania lawmakers are trying to trick their constituents into thinking that they’re doing something productive when, in reality, their time could be better spent dealing with transportation and education issues and becoming more personally involved in the tough budget decisions that lie ahead, now and for the longer term.

If a plan to cut the Legislature’s size actually would go before the voters, based on current discussions, it would be a miracle.

A trimmed-down General Assembly would be more possible if a constitutional convention were convened. However, a convention is unlikely because it’s the Legislature that would have to approve such an exercise.

Lawmakers aren’t likely to jeopardize their state government futures by supporting something with results that they would not be able to control.

That’s why they prefer to address the issue by themselves, keeping open the possibility of, in the end, accomplishing nothing.

The current effort can safely be characterized as deception or lip service — about which lawmakers should be ashamed, but obviously aren’t.

The proposal being debated this week — to cut the state House to 153 members from 203 and the Senate to 38 members from 50 — isn’t going to happen, no matter what impression lawmakers are trying to convey.

House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, the proposal’s sponsor, said, “It (plan) will make this legislative body more effective in the sense of producing quality products out of the end of the legislative manufacturing line.”

He’s right in terms of that possibility, but making that scenario reality is another matter.

Any state resident who thinks that their tax dollars are being well-spent in the consideration of Smith’s plan probably has big expectations of what the Easter Bunny will bring them this weekend.