The Pennsylvania Legislature is failing its residents. Always partisan, in the past its members have at least been able to meet budget deadlines, approve measures designed to protect the public and give county and local governments enough liberty to be self-sustaining.

No longer. It has become a bloated, inefficient body that rarely agrees with itself.

That, in turn, has forced local governments to draft a patchwork of laws where one uniform state law would suffice.

Last week, West Mifflin Borough in Allegheny County became the 22nd municipality in the state to pass a lost or stolen handgun reporting law. It joins Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Wilkinsburg, Aliquippa and other municipalities that have done so as a way to attempt to stem wayward gun use in cities.

On Dec. 1, a law went into effect in Philadelphia that prohibits hand-held cell phone use while driving within city limits. Harrisburg officials are ready to follow suit.

Officials in those municipalities acted to improve safety within their jurisdictions as is their responsibility. They were forced to act because the state Legislature has failed to do so.

Surveys indicate that people in municipalities across the state support commonsense laws that require people to report stolen or lost handguns. They support bans on hand-held cell phones while driving. They support allowing counties to assess a 1 percent sales tax increase that would offset property taxes.

All the while, legislators fiddle as municipalities pay a heavy toll, dispatching emergency responders to shootings and accidents while trying to balance budgets based almost exclusively on the backs of property owners.

Last month, a pamphlet produced by several groups operating as Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention Commission, called for a state constitutional convention. Those groups included Common Cause/PA, the Commonwealth Foundation, Democracy Rising/PA and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.

Those groups argue that the state Legislature:

nNo longer acts effectively or efficiently in the interests of its citizens;

nNo longer has the trust of the public due to ongoing scandals; and

nLacks provisions for important aspects of governance, such as filling the office of the lieutenant governor when a vacancy occurs.

A constitutional convention would allow people to address systemic shortcomings in Harrisburg to improve state government. It could propose a smaller, more efficient Legislature. It could establish term limits. It could reduce, if not eliminate, unfunded mandates the state imposes on local governments.

A constitutional convention can only recommend changes to the state Constitution. The public would then vote on those proposed changes in a referendum.

Pennsylvania's last constitutional convention took place in 1967-68, but it addressed only five changes to the Constitution. The last full rewrite of the state's Constitution occurred in 1873 - long before automobiles, wireless communication women's suffrage or electronic voting.

The state Legislature is large, expensive and, as residents have seen during the past 18 months, corrupt.

Those who are interested can sign a petition online at democracyrisingpa.com or by writing to Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, P.O. Box 618, Carlisle, Pa. 17013.

It's your chance to make this a government of, by and for the people of Pennsylvania.