Looks like a swing and a miss on the new per diem policy in the Assembly.
Speaker Robin Vos has placed new limits on how much in per diems Assembly members can claim this year after the reimbursements for 2015 came in higher than 2013 under a new policy he put in place a year ago.
Altogether, members of the Assembly claimed $922,478 last year, compared to $858,524 in 2013, the last time the Legislature took up a state budget. That’s even as members claimed 10,368 days, 157.5 fewer than 2013.
Meanwhile, members of the state Senate claimed $284,988, compared to $304,761 in 2013. Senators claimed 3,510 days, 234 fewer than in 2013.
While worth noting, I always have to remind myself that the per diems are a tiny expense in terms of the budget. It’s something like 0.00001% of the budget. But it’s annoying because it’s going directly into the pockets of the lawmakers who voted to spend the other 99.9999% of our money.
Swing, miss, and Vos at least appearing to keep his word to take the new toys away if it got abused.
I guess here’s your chance to say things about Republicans that you’d gladly say about Democrats.
It’s takes time and effort to pass deeply unpopular laws that allow candidates to direct donations to campaign entities that can spend unlimited amounts of money and don’t have to disclose their contributors, not to mention exempting themselves from certain types of criminal investigations.
If there’s one thing Teapublicans know, it’s that you don’t get something for nothing.