We were planning to congratulate the state Legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell for (more or less) completing a budget (more or less) on time.

Then we discovered that less, in Harrisburg reckoning, is so much, much more.

About $600 million more, it turns out.

One of Gov. Rendell's nonnegotiables in the budget deal was a $600 million slush fund for capital projects — $600 million that has to be borrowed, at an estimated annual debt service of $48 million, half for the lame-duck governor to dole out and half for the Legislature.

The Legislature finished the budget bill July 1. But Gov. Rendell threatened to veto unless lawmakers also gave him bills raising the state's debt ceiling and authorizing $298 million for his pet projects and $300 million more for legislators' earmarks. Those passed July 3.

Gov. Rendell's goodies include $10 million each for an Arlen Specter library in Philadelphia and a John Murtha policy center (in other words, a library) in Johnstown. We note that both Sen. Specter, who lost to Joe Sestak in the primary, and Congressman Murtha, who died this year, are Democrats, as is the governor. And Sen. Specter was Ed Rendell's first boss.

After first ducking questions about the capital spending, Gov. Rendell finally said the Specter and Murtha projects were both shovel-ready. But the Capitolwire.com news service reported that neither has raised the matching funds necessary to qualify for state aid.

Wait, there's more. The governor also wants to give $4 million for a new building in Cumberland County to Highmark Blue Shield (do health insurers really need state assistance?); $4 million for repairing an unnamed building in Harrisburg; $15 million to the makers of Tastykakes in Philadelphia for a building project; and $2.5 million for offices and stores near Lancaster's Franklin & Marshall College. Those are just the tip of the iceberg.

Of Gov. Rendell's $300 million, more than half of the spending will be directed to Philadelphia and its suburbs — no surprise coming from the "governor of Philadelphia." Many of the beneficiaries of his largesse were kept secret, even from legislators, a majority of whom voted to approve the projects anyway.

We can hardly wait to see what the Legislature comes up with for its $300 million.

Capital spending is a time-honored tradition in Harrisburg, and such projects can be shots in the arm for local economies. But $20 million to build monuments to the egos of politicians?

Advocates of government openness were outraged by the shenanigans, and for good reason. The secretive maneuvering does indeed remind us of the dead-of-night pay grab in 2005.

After the payjacking had to be repealed in the face of voter backlash, contrite politicians promised reform of the system in Harrisburg. If this is reform, save us from it.

The $28.05 billion state budget for 2010-11, which was adopted just one day after the June 30 deadline, slashes funding for some critical programs —public library support, for instance — but with the economy still in the doldrums, budgetary belt-tightening is a fiscally prudent move. And there's a potential $850 million hole in the budget; it includes that much in federal stimulus funds that haven't yet been approved in Congress.

So how can Gov. Rendell and our lawmakers justify another $48 million a year in debt service, partly to build "libraries" honoring politicians, while cutting public library funding? Especially since the state's indebtedness has skyrocketed during the Rendell administration.

More and more, we're convinced the only way Harrisburg will ever be reformed is through a constitutional convention.

Eric Epstein, of RockTheCapital.org, called the budget deal "a collective middle finger into the reform eyeball of every Pennsylvanian."

"Time for citizens to poke our leaders in the eye, don't you think?"