Family Life

08.16.10 | FL News Team

Pennsylvania lawmakers last year got their hands on tickets to the Super Bowl, orchestra concerts, the Philadelphia Flower Show and Phillies games -- all without opening their wallets. Those tickets are among at least $67,000 worth of freebies that state lawmakers accepted last year, according to statements of financial interest on file with the state Ethics Commission. 38 of the state's 253 senators and representatives disclosed receiving gifts such as yacht club memberships and travel to places as near as Philadelphia and as far as Rwanda. State Ethics Commission records suggest, however, that lawmakers accepted fewer and less-valuable gifts last year than they did five years ago. Their new behavior had its genesis in 2005, when an outraged electorate ousted many state legislators after the lawmakers gave themselves hefty raises in a surprise middle-of-the-night vote that July.