Editorial
Session Limits
After
spending 317 days in session, the General Assembly finally adjourned
the longest legislative session in state history last month, and as
the lawmakers hurried out of town I couldn’t help but think about
the poet who once said the world would end not with a bang but a
whimper. That’s how legislators left Raleigh. Not proudly; not with
heads held high, but like a carnival troupe hoping to disappear down
the road before the locals realize they’ve had their pockets picked.
The session, which convened on Jan. 24, should have ended around July
1 with the start of the new fiscal year. Given the practical and
political difficulties inherent with once-a-decade redistricting, it
wasn’t surprising when the legislature was still in session several
weeks later. But Labor Day came and went, and they were still there;
then Thanksgiving came and went, and they were still there. Finally,
just as Gov. Mike Easley was lighting the official state Christmas
tree, the House and Senate leadership unexpectedly announced that all
important business had been attended to and that the session would,
abruptly, end.
I think there are two reasons why this and many other legislative
sessions have lasted much longer than they reasonably should. First,
North Carolina is one of only a handful of states that doesn’t have
either a constitutional or statutory limit on how long the legislature
can remain in session. Second, the pay system for legislators
encourages them to remain in session — the longer they’re in
Raleigh, the more they make.
The base pay for a legislator is deplorable, only around $13,000 a
year. But don’t be fooled by that figure because legislators receive
a per diem allowance of $104 every day for long as they remain in
session. They get this money seven days a week even though the General
Assembly typically works a four-day week, Monday night through
Thursday morning. There were periods near the end of the session when
legislators actually worked only two or three days a week. The per
diem added up to $32,968 in extra income for each legislator, although
towards the end of the session many were too embarrassed to claim it.
In the past most legislators had jobs, and pay checks, back home. Now,
through, an uncomfortable number of them don’t; they consider
themselves professional politicians who can earn a decent living
serving in the General Assembly — as long as sessions last eight or
10 months a year, of course.
That must change, and I think it will. NCCBI has made passage of a
constitutional amendment imposing session limits its top priority for
next year, and NCCBI usually achieves its goals.
But the pay system also must change, and here’s my modest proposal.
Between their base pay and their per diem, legislators this year will
earn roughly $45,000 for their public service. Let’s do away with
the per diem system altogether, and raise the base pay. We’re going
to need 72 votes to get a constitutional amendment on session limits
through the House. Dangling a pay raise in front of the honorables
should make getting those votes much easier. -- Steve Tuttle
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