Homeless in Arizona

A pay raise for the crooks in the Arizona Legislator???

  OK, it's not a pay raise because they are not allowed to vote themselves a pay raise. But this seems like a way to sneak around that problem. It's a $10,400 cost of living increase.

Currently they are paid $24,000 for a part time job that only lasts 100 day a year. That pay would be $87,600 a year if the job lasted a full year. So year are certainly not paid poorly.

If you add their the proposed per diem pay of $16,400 to their part time salary of $24,000 that gives them $40,400 for a part time 100 day job. If the job were a full time job their effective pay would be $147,460.

For these so called "public servants" to claim they are underpaid is a bunch of rubbish. They are paid very, very, well for a part time 100 day a year job.

Source

Arizona Capitol likes pay hike for lodging

By Mary Jo Pitzl The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Feb 4, 2013 10:43 PM

State lawmakers are getting on board a bill that would nearly triple their per diem pay, saying the costs of maintaining a residence in the capital city outstrip the money they receive for such expenses.

The proposal, expected to be filed later this week with bipartisan support, comes as GOP leaders in the Legislature are cautioning against increased spending.

The measure would establish the per diem, or subsistence rate, at $164 a day for lawmakers living outside a 50-mile radius of the Capitol and $97 for those within 50 miles. Those figures are more than a 170 percent increase over the current rates.

The increases would mean, in a hypothetical 100-day session, a lawmaker from Pima County would collect $16,400 to cover food and lodging, compared with the $6,000 now available. In the Phoenix area, it would pencil out to $9,700 for “subsistence” from the current $3,500.

The bill also would increase the mileage rate 25 percent, to 55 cents from 44 cents.

The bill does not touch the legislative salary of $24,000 a year. Only voters can increase that, and the last time they were asked, in 2008, they rejected the idea with 64 percent of the vote.

Rep. Bruce Wheeler, D-Tucson, one of the sponsors of the yet-to-be-filed bill, said he believes there’s a strong case for the measure. It’s pricey to rent an apartment or house for the typical four-month session, he said.

“It is a hardship, and it’s been 28 years since it (the per diem) was raised,” Wheeler said.

He just finished signing a six-month apartment lease that he said works out to $1,000 a month, plus utilities. On top of that, he has other living expenses in Phoenix, plus the cost of maintaining a residence in Tucson.

Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, the other co-sponsor, said he’s spent an average of $1,500 a month for lodging since arriving in the Legislature four years ago. The $60-a-day rate didn’t cover all his costs.

He said the increases are pegged to about 60 percent of the average per diem rates paid to members of Congress.

The 50-mile radius was established to distinguish those lawmakers who are able to drive home and sleep in their own beds from those who must find temporary housing in Phoenix during the workweek, Stevens said. Within the 50-mile radius, members currently receive $35 per day.

Both Stevens and Wheeler acknowledged the hike might not look good to the public, especially because legislative leaders have signaled a hold-the-line stance on state spending.

But Stevens said the measure would not take any extra money out of the general fund. Instead, it would require the House and Senate to make room for the increased per diem within their existing budgets.

He noted there have been recent staff reductions, which freed up some money in the budget.

Besides, Stevens said, “(i)t’s voluntary. You don’t have to take the money.”

He said 45 to 50 of the 60 House members have already signed on to the bill, and he’s just started to recruit senators. Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, supports the proposal.

“I don’t think it’s exorbitant,” said Shooter, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Rural lawmakers, in particular, shoulder big expenses not only to stay in Phoenix during the week but also for travel within sprawling districts, he said.

Many local governments pay elected officials more than the Legislature. In Phoenix, City Council members make $61,600 a year.

Members of the Pima County Board of Supervisors earn $73,000; in Maricopa, the supervisors are paid $76,600.Maricopa County justices of the peace earn $97,000.

Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler, said he is sympathetic to the situation, but he can’t support it. After all, he said, the Legislature is designed to be part time and higher pay would put lawmakers on a path toward a full-time job.

House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, said he didn’t know if he would assign the bill, if indeed it is introduced, to a committee.

He acknowledged the cost of maintaining a residence in Phoenix is “painful” for many members. But, he said, lawmakers knew, or should know, what they’re getting into.

“The answer is everyone ran for office in November knowing what it (the per diem) was,” he said.


True statesmen would end per-diem piracy

Currently the Arizona lawmakers earn $24,000 for a part time 100 day job.

While that sounds low, if the job were a full time 365 day a year job like most of us have the pay would be $87,600. And of course that pay rate is far higher then most of the people in Arizona earn.

When you add in the proposed per diem pay increases of $16,400 it will give them an effective yearly pay of $147,460 for the part time 100 day job they do.

Source

True statesmen would end per-diem piracy

With apologies to William Shakespeare, I come today not to bury our august leaders but to praise them and to offer them a golden opportunity.

Who knew they had such ingenuity, such cunning, such gall — to attempt another end run around the people who elected them in order to give themselves a pay raise?

Who knew that Arizona’s legislators could be this bold?

Yet there they are, with a little bill that would nearly triple their per diem pay.

It seems some (read: nearly all) of our legislators don’t feel they are properly reimbursed for their expenses.

“It’s a hardship,” Rep. Bruce Wheeler, D-Tucson, told The Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl.

Actually, I agree with Wheeler. He and certain of his colleagues are getting shortchanged. There’s an easy way that true leaders could fix that. But first, a little history.

It’s a sweet deal, per diem. Legislators started giving it to themselves in the early 1970s, to cover their expenses while at the state Capitol. A guy like Wheeler, for example, spends four months in Phoenix every year, helping his colleagues dream up several hundred new laws for us to follow. Giving him $60 a day for expenses seems a small price to pay.

The scam lies closer to home, with the 54 lawmakers who live in or near the Valley. They dominate the 90-member Legislature, so it is no surprise that they, too, collect per diem: $35 a day, seven days a week during the session, to cover their expenses.

Which prompts me to ask:

What expenses?

They already live here. They already eat. Unlike other state employees, they already collect mileage to and from work. So what expenses do Maricopa County and nearby Pinal County legislators have?

“I was down there 20 years,” said former Sen. Peter Kay, who represented a Phoenix district before retiring in 1988. “We had absolutely no expenses whatsoever. It was a boondoggle for half the Legislature because half of them came from Maricopa County.”

In 1998, Kay was appointed by Gov. Jane Hull to chair the commission that recommends legislative raises to voters … you know, the only people charged by the state Constitution with setting legislative pay. By 1998, voters had rejected every request for a raise in two decades. As a result, legislators were earning just $15,000 – plus per diem.

So Kay set out to make honest men and women of them. He proposed a 60 percent pay boost, to $24,000 a year, but with a catch: no more per diem. Instead, lawmakers would be reimbursed for their expenses, just like any other state employee.

Fifty-six percent of voters approved Kay’s plan that year. After the election, however, legislative leaders went to Arizona’s newly elected attorney general, Janet Napolitano, to ask whether voters could take away their per diem. Napolitano sided with lawmakers, as did the state Supreme Court, whose own pay and budget are in the hands of the Legislature.

The result: legislators got their 60 percent pay raise and kept their per diem and to heck with voters.

Fifteen years later, we still haven’t give them another pay raise. What’s that old saying, fool me once…?

So now comes Wheeler and Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, in search of relief. Their bill would nearly triple per diem to $164 a day for legislators living 50 miles or more from the Capitol. Valley legislators, meanwhile, would see their per diem boosted to $97 a day.

Is it any wonder our leaders are tripping over themselves to sign onto the bill?

“The Supreme Court gave them carte blanche,” Kay said. “It is absolutely outrageous because it’s a subterfuge to increase their salary any time they want. Why bother to have a (public) vote?”

Like me, Kay believes that out-county legislators deserve to be fairly compensated for the cost of staying in Phoenix while the Legislature is in session. Unfortunately, it seems the price of giving them what they deserve is handing the majority in-county legislators a 177 percent boost to their boondoggle.

Surely shamelessness has a limit. So here’s what I propose.

Be the statesmen that we all crave. Respect what voters wanted in 1998 and eliminate in-county per-diem piracy. Then use that money to more fairly reimburse your out-county colleagues for their reasonable costs of living here.

Is it really so much to ask, that you actually have expenses before you can collect for expenses?

Heck, it might even move voters to give you a real pay raise.


Arizona lawmakers working to double per diem allowance

Currently the Arizona lawmakers earn $24,000 for a part time 100 day job.

While that sounds low, if the job were a full time 365 day a year job like most of us have the pay would be $87,600. And of course that pay rate is far higher then most of the people in Arizona earn.

When you add in the proposed per diem pay increases of $16,400 it will give them an effective yearly pay of $147,460 for the part time 100 day job they do.

Crooks in legislator want to increase their salaries and double their per diem allowance

Source

Arizona lawmakers working to double per diem allowance

Posted: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 5:54 pm

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services

State lawmakers are moving to pave the way to more than double their living allowance -- and do it in the way to avoid ever having to vote on the potentially embarrassing issue again.

A measure being crafted a Southern Arizona legislator would scrap the current per diem payment of $35 a day for lawmakers living within 50 miles of the Capitol and $60 for everyone else. Various efforts over the past two decades to vote to boost that have fallen short.

The measure, however, would not set a new figure, instead putting in its place a formula tied to the allowance the federal government provides for travel for its employees.

Out-of-area legislators would get the full rate, about $163 a day now. But even those closer to the Capitol would automatically be entitled to 60 percent of that figure, or close to $98.

And they would get that seven days a week for every day the Legislature is in session, even though lawmakers usually only meet four days a week at the beginning of every year. Lawmakers also could get allowances for coming to the Capitol for special meetings or other official business.

Barring any last-minute hitches, the measure should sail through the House. Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, claims to already have 45 of the 60 House members, all of whom would be affected, signed on in support.

Stevens now is lining up votes among senators.

"It's not a salary increase,'' he said of lawmakers, whose last pay hike, to $24,000, was approved by voters in 1998. "It's just a living expense.''

There is broad bipartisan consensus that the legislators who have to find lodging in Phoenix during the session need more than the $60 a day.

"I think the biggest problem is the out-of-county people,'' said House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix.

But that still leaves the question of whether lawmakers who get to go home each night should get paid $98 a day -- or even $35 -- for driving to their own jobs.

Campbell said that, personally, he does not need more than $35 a day for coming to the Capitol. "And I don't hear many complaints from in-county (lawmakers).''

Rep. Lela Alston, D-Phoenix, who has been in the Legislature off-and-on since 1977, said the cleaner way of dealing with the issue would be to increase the pay. That, however, requires voter approval. And recent proposals to boost it to $36,000 or even $30,000 have gone down to defeat.

"Our reputation is not sterling with the voters,'' Alston said. But she called the proposal "a legitimate request for the people who have to have homes in two locations.''

Rep. John Allen, R-Scottsdale, agreed with Alston's assessment that the real issue is that $24,000 salary.

"You wish that we could convince the public that we're worth it,'' he said. But since that has not happened, Allen said there needs to be a recognition of the costs.

"This is an economic hardship job,'' he said.

Rep. Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, also questioned why a plan would provide an allowance increase for all legislators and not just those who have to rent apartments or homes during the session.

"What I receive is plenty for me,'' he said.

But Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Scottsdale, said some increase for local lawmakers is appropriate, though he said what Stevens is proposing is "a little bit higher than I would have suggested.''

Kavanagh said it's also wrong to look at the allowance as simply paying local lawmakers to drive to the Capitol.

"Year round we have expenses,'' he said.

"Our constituents expect us to go to their evening events, to go to their evening meetings, to communicate with them,'' Kavanagh said. "So, overall, it's not cheap being a legislator, although the reimbursement unfortunately is cheap.''

House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, is one of the out-of-area legislators who would get the bigger hike. But Tobin, while acknowledging the increasing costs of everything from rents to gasoline to himself and others, was less than sympathetic to the plan.

"I just question whether this is the right time to do that,'' he said. Anyway, he said, there's no evidence that the current formula is creating a problem.

"We didn't have any shortage of candidates running in November,'' Tobin said. "And everybody knew what the rules were.''

Rep. Bruce Wheeler, D-Tucson, conceded the point.

"And I would run again even if this didn't pass,'' he said. "But I think it's basically an issue of fairness, of fair compensation.''

Stevens said he crafted the bill as an all-or-nothing measure. That means a single vote to increase both the local and out-of-area allowances rather than letting legislators vote separately on the merits of each.

Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, said that, at least for legislators from outside the Phoenix area, the move makes sense.

"I don't think it's unreasonable,'' said Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma.

"Rents and lodging is more expensive,'' he said. "I'm sure food's more expensive.''

Shooter said he figures being a legislator costs him $500 a week. But that includes not just out-of-pocket expenses but also what he called "opportunity costs of what I should be doing instead of what I'm doing.''

"I don't know that we have to get rich or even make a decent living,'' Shooter said. "But I don't know that we should be required to contribute our own money to taking the job.''

 
Homeless in Arizona

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