The Legislature’s per diem is more than sufficient to serve its purpose: to cover citizen lawmakers’ expenses during a session.
It isn’t designed to help lawmakers supplement their part-time $16,116-a-year state salary. The pay is modest, but lawmakers knew that going in — when they chose, willingly and under no duress, to pursue public office.
An Associated Press story from last week suggests that two Canyon County senators took advantage of the Legislature’s per diem rules. We’re not talking big bucks — just an unacceptable practice.
Sens. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, and John McGee, R-Caldwell, applied for and received the state’s $122 allowance for daily expenses. That amount is supposed to cover out-of-town lawmakers’ expenses, including rent. (Lawmakers who live in or near Boise, and commute to the Statehouse, receive a $49 per diem.)
What did the Canyon County non-commuters do with their extra money?
McKenzie, who slept on a couch in his Boise law office, says he used the money to help his rental expenses. As McKenzie told the AP, “We could have gotten a much cheaper rent somewhere else.”
But as long as taxpayers subsidize his rental, why shop around?
McGee said he sometimes slept at his parents’ Boise home. He declined to tell the AP whether he paid his folks rent — which normally would be a family matter, were public dollars not involved.
But wait, as any late-night TV huckster worth his or her salt would say, there’s more. The per diem is taxable income, boosting the pension payments lawmakers will receive when they retire. The $122 per day is a gift that keeps on giving.
In fairness, some lawmakers actually follow the spirit of the rules. Rep. Darrell Bolz — like McGee, a Caldwell Republican — likes to avoid the daily commute because he sits on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, a budget panel that keeps a grueling schedule, with daily meetings and work sessions starting at 7 a.m. As a result, he puts his $122 per diem toward a $50-a-night motel room in Boise.
Since $122 is a set rate, Bolz is not gaming the system. But the system is far too loose and badly in need of scrutiny. Especially when adult Medicaid patients have seen their benefits cut, when college students and their parents are paying ever-higher tuitions, and when many local property owners are digging deeper to replace dollars cut from public schools.
Those realities seem to matter little to McKenzie and McGee, the Senate’s “How to Represent Canyon County on $122 a Day” crowd. To watch them, it’s as if happy days are here again. Or perhaps they’ve never left.
“Our View” is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman’s editorial board.
