The Bonusgate scandal in Harrisburg has been making news recently, but on Monday voters were reminded of another scandal — the 2007 federal indictment of state Sen. Vincent Fumo.

Fumo's case, in which investigators allege that the Philadelphia Demo-crat used about $1 million in state funds or resources and $1 million worth of assets of a nonprofit organization and a museum for his personal and political gain, shares some elements with the Bonusgate affair.

Both Bonusgate, in which House Democrats are alleged to have spent millions of taxpayer dollars on re-election efforts, and Fumo's case involve state lawmakers using taxpayer funds for their own benefit. And this approach to life was something investigators say Fumo often espoused — using other people's money, or OPM, as Fumo liked to call it, whenever possible.

The latest development in the Fumo case occurred Monday, when a former top aide and computer technician pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired with Fumo to delete all potentially incriminating e-mails from the computers used by Fumo in his office and his home. Electronic mail messages relating to the federal investigation into Fumo's alleged misuse of state funds and Senate staffers, as well as misuse of staff and resources of Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a Philadelphia nonprofit organization to which Fumo was closely linked, were also deleted from Fumo's Blackberry.

Bonusgate began as an investigation into year-end bonuses, some as high as $20,000, paid to legislative staffers for what appears to have been campaign-related work. The investigation has expanded and it is expected that the first group of 12 people indicted will not be the last to face charges related to Bonusgate.

Details in the first indictments revealed a sophisticated and well-orchestrated program run by top House Democrats to use taxpayer money to help advance the candidacies of Democrats across the state. Former state Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver, and former top staffers to House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese were among those charged in the first batch of indictments related to Bonusgate.

Details of the case against Fumo, outlined in the 139-count federal indictment, provide evidence that Fumo used Senate staffers to work on his farm near Harrisburg, and to run errands for him and his family, including picking up clothes at the dry cleaners and taking his daughter to school. Investigators say that Senate aides also were assigned to oversee renovation of Fumo's 33-room mansion in Philadelphia.

Additionally, the grand jury indictment charges that Fumo had Citizens Alliance, his pet nonprofit, buy anything from tools to vacuum cleaners and even a bulldozer, and deliver them to one of his homes or his farm.

The indictment alleges that Fumo had Citizens Alliance staffers drive one of the nonprofit's vans to Martha's Vineyard so that it would be available to Fumo when he vacationed there.

This notion of using state workers to enhance a vacation is similar to the Bonusgate charge that Veon had staffers transport two motorcycles to South Dakota so that they would be available to him when he flew in for an annual event held in Sturgis.

The common theme running through Bonusgate and Fumo's fraud and conspiracy case is elected officials using taxpayers' money for personal and political benefit. Bonusgate and Fumo's case reek of arrogance, entitlement and people who prefer to serve themselves, rather than the voters who elected them to office.

Starting with the infamous pay-raise vote of 2005, the Pennsylvania legislature has produced a steady stream of scandal, revealing a culture of entitlement and arrogance. Though it predated the pay-raise vote, the 2001 pension grab is another example of the self-serving legislative leadership in Harrisburg.

As more Bonusgate revelations are reported — and as Fumo's corruption case goes to trial — there is a risk of "scandal fatigue." It would be understandable for some voters to say "they're all crooks" or "that's the way it is in Harrisburg, and it will never change."

But resignation and complacency must be rejected in favor of outrage and a determination to see real change — and new elected representatives — in Harrisburg.

The pay-raise vote, the Bonusgate scandal and Fumo's federal indictment are all gifts to Pennsylvania — if they lead to meaningful reforms and the election of men and women more interested in serving their constituents than themselves.