It's the kind of Special Deals for Politicians saga that can taint the whole institution: Texas lawmakers are accused of lying about their employees to obtain benefits to which those workers would not otherwise be entitled.

Some of the employees are former lawmakers; some are just favored staffers. The full-time designation qualifies workers for free health insurance that costs part-time employees hundreds of dollars each month. As it turns out, former state officeholders and state employees who want to pad their retirement benefits don't have to work full-time; a part-timer can get a full year's credit toward retirement with a minimal work load.

Political consultants — the kind of kids who grew up throwing spitballs from the back rows of their classrooms — will boil it down to something simple and sinister, and it won't be about the struggles over who's the speaker of the House. It'll be about padding benefits for former lawmakers and other employees who don't actually do the full-time work required of everyone else who gets those bennies.

The flap started with stories in the Austin American-Statesman, which pointed to three cases where current lawmakers were designating part-timers as full-timers, thus enabling those workers to qualify for health insurance usually reserved for people who put in 40 hours a week. The salaries were low, but the potential benefits were high. And in Austin, it's turned into a game of political tag centered on insider concerns, excuses, questions, and accusations.

• From the accused: "Everybody does it, and has for years. Why is this coming up now?"

• From foes of the Speaker: "All three legislators named in the first stories — Reps. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and Craig Eiland, D-Galveston — have been vociferous critics of House Speaker Tom Craddick. Who fingered them?"

• From some insiders, some outsiders, and sooner or later, from investigators and auditors: "The personnel papers that made those and similar schemes possible were approved by each House member and turned into Craddick's House Administration Chairman, Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas. Who in that food chain is to blame?"

• From Craddick's office: "We didn't know this was going on, and want to stop it from happening again."

• From his foes: "How is it possible that management didn't know? Goolsby himself hired short-term employees — lobbyists, even — in a way that qualified them for state benefits."

While the accusation and recrimination machine is churning, open record requests from political people and reporters are flying; this will involve the whole Legislature before it's over. Craddick has asked the House General Investigating & Ethics Committee to look into it, as well as the State Auditor's Office. Travis County prosecutors have inquired with state officials about the workers, the falsified work forms, and so on.

In the case of state pension benefits, it turns out that someone who wants to game the system doesn't have to lie. They just have to read the free handbook from the Employees Retirement System and follow the instructions.

For former legislators who served for at least eight years, each additional year on the state payroll is currently worth $2,875 annually, once they start collecting their pensions.

Those pensions are based on years of service multiplied by 2.3 percent of a state judge's salary, which is currently $125,000. Former lawmakers can start collecting their pensions at age 60 if they served for at least eight years in elected office, and at age 50 if they served for at least 12 years. (They have options as to how they get their benefits, but those are the basics.) A 65-year-old former lawmaker with 16 years in the Legislature, for instance, would be eligible for an annual pension of $46,000. If she worked for a state agency for two years on top of that, the annual benefit would increase to $51,750.

The regs say the beneficiary gets credit for a month as soon as that paycheck is recorded and the retirement benefit deducted from it. If our imaginary former lawmaker is on the books for $200 monthly, and allowed the $12 deduction for retirement each month, the benefits would accumulate. As long as she's on the payroll when the monthly checks are cut, she gets the pension bennies for that month.

She doesn't even have to work full-time.