State Government
News
Record-long
session boosts legislators' pay
By Steve Tuttle
Staying
in Raleigh for the longest General Assembly in state history made life
harder for members of the General Assembly, but they compensated
themselves in the wallet by accepting up to $12,000 in overtime pay.
The extra income for legislators comes from the $104 per diem
allowance they are entitled to by law which they get seven days a week
even when actually meeting three or four days most weeks. Those $104
days add up when the session stretches out 17 weeks longer than the
comparable 1999 session.
The extra per diem income pushed legislators’ pay up to an average
$56,034 in the House and $50,333 in the Senate. Those figures are up
at least $10,000 higher than the last budget-writing long session of
the General Assembly, which adjourned on July 21 compared to Dec. 6
this time. The extra pay makes up for the small base salary
legislators receive of only $13,951.
Senators earned less because they didn’t claim per diem for roughly
a month during the drawn-out debate over redistricting. After the
Senate passed its plan, the House remained mired in partisan politics
for weeks. Tired of waiting, President Pro Tem Marc Basight sent
senators home until the House acted. The Senate’s powerful statement
for good government and efficiency came at the loss of nearly $5,000
in income for most senators.
Over in the House, 92 of the 120 House members said they were on the
job all 317 days of the session and claimed the maximum $32,968 per
diem pay. On average, House members took $32,719 in per diem; the
Senate average was $27,746.
Serving in the General Assembly was even more rewarding for the four
House and four Senate members serving in leadership posts. At the top
of the legislative pay list was House Speaker Jim Black
(D-Mecklenburg), who took home $92,543.90 for the year. Basnight was
second at $87,908.20. Both positions receive a base pay of $38,151
plus $16,956 in office allowance. But Black took 317 per diem days
while Basnight took 270.
In third and four places are the No. 2 men in the House and Senate,
House Speaker Pro Tem Joe Hackney (D-Orange) and Senate Deputy
President Pro Tem Frank Balance (D-Warren), at $64,482 and $60,006.20,
respectively. Those positions pay $21,739 a year with a $10,032 office
allowance.
Rounding out the leadership positions are the Democratic and
Republican majority and minority leaders in both chambers, who get
$17,048 in base pay and $7,992 office allowances. Rank and file
legislators get an office allowance of $6,708.
The salaries of legislators’ office assistants are paid out of the
appropriations budget. Legislators also get an $1,800 biennial
telephone allowance plus free stationery. Because most of the costs of
running their offices already are covered and because rules don’t
require members to turn in receipts showing how they spent their
office allowance money, the IRS considers it income. Legislators,
except those who live in Wake County, also are reimbursed for their
travel to and from home, at 29 cents a mile.
The total expense for legislators’ pay and expenses during the 2001
session was $8,921,627, which works out to a payroll of a little more
than $28,000 a day, seven days a week, for the 11-month session.
Records kept by staffers in Basnight’s office claim that the Senate
saved the taxpayers $412,000 by shutting down during October and
November in reduced per diem pay and savings from fewer hours worked
by office staffs.
The savings indeed would have been dramatic if the General Assembly
hadn’t stayed in Raleigh through the end of summer and through the
fall. The long session is supposed to wrap up by July 1, the start of
the new fiscal year. Even if lawmakers had left town on July 21, as
they did two years ago, per diem expenses potentially would have been
about $2.4 million less than the $5.3 million actual for the year.
Return to magazine index
|
|
