Anyone who's paid even a little bit of attention to Pennsylvania state government in the past five years or so knows that Harrisburg is dysfunctional and that many state political leaders are self-serving and content with a system rigged in their favor. Most incumbents benefit from the status quo and don't want to see reform, even if they give it lip service when running for re-election.

The wake-up call for most people came in 2005, when state lawmakers approved a 34 percent pay raise for themselves in a 2 a.m. vote. That pay raise vote set off a wave of outrage across the state that resulted in the pay raise being reversed.

The outrage was further fueled by reported abuses of per diems and unvouchered expenses, the 2001 pension grab and the various Bonusgate offenses in which lawmakers used state taxpayer funds or state resources for their own political re-election purposes.

Now, the Bonusgate grand jury, which for two years has heard testimony about the inner workings of the General Assembly, has issued a stinging report outlining legislative failures and abuses, and concluding that a constitutional convention is the only remedy. The grand jury's report argues that the state Legislature's self-serving and abusive culture is so widespread that reform from the inside will not happen.

As damning as the grand jury's report is, it is nothing new. Still, every voter should understand its message — state government is badly broken.

The fact that the grand jury produced such a report is noteworthy because it is so unusual. But Commonwealth Court Judge Barry Feudale, who supervised the Bonusgate grand jury, said the report's tone reminded him of the character in the movie "Network" who proclaimed he's "mad as hell" and is "not going to take it anymore."

The grand jury's report is a reminder to all Pennsylvanians that they should be mad as hell, too.

The report noted that campaign-related work is a big part of the job done by many state employees. It also points out that if the Legislature limited itself to legitimate state business, and not political work, it could function as a part-time body, noting that the House convened only 72 days in 2006, 115 days in 2007, 72 days in 2008 and 147 days in 2009.

Making the Legislature part-time would allow for lower salaries and reduced or eliminated pensions and other fringe benefits. Some of these perks are the primary reason so many state politicians view their positions as jobs for life.

The report also finds fault with the notorious multimillion-dollar leadership accounts, which are spent at the discretion of party leaders and with little accounting or accountability.

The grand jury suggests the leadership accounts be ended or, at minimum, all expenditures be made public.

Hearing the Bonusgate testimony led the grand jury to suggest that a nonpartisan human resources department do all legislative hiring, instead of letting the four caucuses hire their own partisan people.

The grand jury report offered a reminder of the wasteful level of staffing for the most expensive state legislature in the United States. With 2,800 legislative staffers in Harrisburg, there are nine aides supporting each House member and 17 for each senator. Bonusgate testimony supports the idea that extra staffers are needed because too many are doing politics instead of their jobs

And when it comes to what lawmakers call constituent services, often meaning expediting a driver's license or vehicle registration, the grand jury recommends shifting those services from state lawmakers to the state Department of Transportation — something that former state Rep. Pat Carone of Cranberry Township advocated.

The grand jury report breaks no new ground — the issues have been brought up before. But like the grand jurors themselves, voters — and taxpayers — should be mad as hell about the corruption and abuses of power in Harrisburg.

Every candidate on the ballot for state office should be expected to pledge to support a constitutional convention, the only way to fix a system that is so rigged in favor of party leadership that internal reform is impossible.

After the controversial pay-raise vote, most state lawmakers assumed that voters would be upset for a few days, then forget about the scandal or just accept it as business as usual. But the pay raise controversy did not go away, and voter anger forced the pay hikes to be reversed.

Like the members of the grand jury, all Pennsylvanians should be mad as hell — and should stay mad — until a constitutional convention makes most of the overdue changes outlined in this report a reality.