Amid the question of whether Pennsylvania lawmakers are permitted by the state constitution to collect a pension has come news about a couple of pensions that defy common sense.

Instead of a reasonable pension that would amount to 50 percent or even 70 percent of their top salaries, former Senate Democratic Leader Robert Mellow of Lackawanna County, who left office last month, is eligible for a maximum pension payout of $330,915 a year — nearly three times his final average salary.

The other big winner in the pension sweepstakes is former Rep. Frank Oliver of Philadelphia, who is eligible for a maximum yearly pension of $235,686, according to an analysis by the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Mellow served for 39 years in the Senate; Oliver compiled 37 years of House service plus 16 years of other credited government service.

Longevity shouldn’t translate into something unreasonable for the taxpayers, which pension figures like these certainly are.

More reasonable pensions wouldn’t help the state’s budget morass in a significant way, but the state still should not waste money on excessive pensions.

Even the new pension reform law that applies to incoming state lawmakers doesn’t go far enough to fix the injustice exemplified by Mellow and Oliver. The new law bars incoming legislators and state workers hired after Jan. 1 from receiving pension benefits exceeding their final average salary.

That law should have set a limit of 70 percent. Even 50 percent is not unreasonable.

But beyond Mellow and Oliver, three other outgoing lawmakers — former Sens. Raphael Musto and Barry Stout and former Rep. John Perzel — also will be eligible to draw pensions exceeding their final annual salary. Of those three, Perzel and Musto — both under indictment — face the possibility of losing their pensions if they’re convicted.

Perzel, the former House Speaker from Philadelphia, is accused of using taxpayer money and resources to finance election campaigns. Musto, a Democrat from Luzerne County, allegedly sought $25,000 in cash and other benefits from an unnamed contractor in exchange for government grants and loans.

Both ex-lawmakers maintain their innocence.

But the issue of whether lawmakers are permitted by the state constitution from receiving any pension whatsoever is why a few lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Folmer, a Lebanon County Republican, have opted out of the pension plan.

Folmer and his like-minded colleagues are adhering to a section of the state constitution that limits legislative compensation to salaries and mileage and no other compensation.

Folmer and Tim Potts, co-founder of Democracy Rising PA, a government reform group, adhere to a similar view that lawmakers ought to amend that section of the constitution either through the legislative process or by way of a constitutional convention.

That idea makes sense.

Potts also makes another good point:

“If they (lawmakers) took care of citizens of Pennsylvania as well as they take care of themselves, we’d be in nirvana.”

Meanwhile, Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, in also signing on to the opinions of Folmer and Potts, has said that he sees nothing that would prevent lawmakers from setting up a pension system that would include no taxpayer-funded contribution.

State residents also must not forget about the overly generous health care benefits, for which pols pay nothing or next to nothing, that lawmakers and their spouses receive, even after the lawmakers leave office.

The pension and health care benefits issues show how state lawmakers over the decades capitalized on good times to excessively burden the taxpayers, particularly in bad financial times — like now.

Some state residents will fondly recall Mellow, Oliver, Stout and others for the service they rendered during their long legislative careers. But at the same time residents should not fail to acknowledge that they’ll still be paying in a big way for the comforts and benefits those ex-legislators will be enjoying during their retirement years — while their own retirement benefits will be meager by comparison.