Kent Williams is concerned about
legislators claiming too much
per diem during the fall recess.
(Photo: Tennessee General Assembly)
The Tennessean ran a story on Sunday about the per diem expenses of legislators and the fact that some Tennessee General Assembly members have run up inappropriately high expense bills. Decades upon decades of Democratic dominance in the House and Senate produced little discussion in the mainstream press over known abuses of the Legislature's longstanding system of paying legislators for their expenses while in Nashville on public business. The political parity created in large part by the 2008 General Election in the Volunteer State has suddenly spurred discussion of procedural issues that establishment media sources long thought were simply the perview of the eternal (Republican) opposition in this State.
Media attention on the issue of Tennessee legislative per diems finally came to the fore as a result of a July 17th letter from House Chief Clerk Burney Durham sent at the request of State House Speaker Kent Williams asking that legislators please keep their out-of-session per diem days to a minimum in light of our present economic and fiscal crisis. The 106th General Assembly has adjourned until January, but members do have some committee work outside of the legislative session.
There is little question that many legislators have abused the privilege of per diem, especially those who live in Davidson County and can go home every night. It is quite legitimate to question whether Davidson County legislators ought to receive expense payments. Those members who do not need per diem in order to do business in Nashville should not be able to claim it. I will, however, defend the notion that legislators who travel to Nashville from other parts of the State for some six months out of the year-putting away their professional and personal lives to do it-ought to be paid per diem, and it should be roughly the same amount they are currently paid.
That isn't a popular position, but it is reflective of reality. Spend a week at a time at the Capitol following legislative business, and a person will learn firsthand about the personal expense of doing business on the Hill. Even with the steep legislative discount that some hotels close to the Capitol give members of the House and Senate and some staff, the cost of a room plus three meals and any personal incidentals that traveling always will incur eats into a legislator's per diem pretty heavily, and depending on the cost of their hotel or the rent on their apartment (those of you who might live or have lived in Nashville should know something about rent anywhere remotely close to Charlotte Avenue) it might very well take the entire day's allowance. The legislative per diem allowance is based on how much the federal government says that it costs a person to live in Nashville per day.
Many critics rightly point out that legislators usually pocket their office allowance, as many have no real need to open an office in their districts (most are readily accessible in the community, especially outside of Nashville or Memphis. This is a perk which should only be reserved for those members who actually do intend to open district offices, as it is simply a means of additional income the way the system now works. If members are pocketing that office allotment as income and being taxed on it, either work it into the base salary of legislators or eliminate it altogether as money to be given.
It should not be seriously proposed that the Tennessee General Assembly should be made full time. Some States do have legislatures that are officially full time and it is a recipe for legal, social, and political mischief and thoroughly rotten government (see Congress, United States). The longer any legislative body is in session the greater the chance exists to impose tyranny upon the public in the name of popular sentiment. However, asking legislators to serve part time is a sacrifice on their part, and should be seen as such both by legislators and constituents. The majority of our elected legislators are personally decent people, but if you think there are some bad apples now, take away per diem allowances and see what happens. Doing away with per diem would keep the decent folks out of the Legislature (they couldn't afford it), and give us a General Assembly made up of a collection of the independently wealthy and the scoundrels trying to find a way to graft their expenses. If you thought Tennessee Waltz was bad, we would have the Waltz times ten without per diem.
As it stands now, our General Assembly gives us a few people from nearly every walk of life in Tennessee-lawyers, doctors, businessmen and women, firefighters, salesmen, teachers, farmers, accountants, property developers, and many others. We should endeavor to want to keep it that way for the sake of the public good. The Speaker of the House is right to want to limit any per diem collected when the Legislature is not in session to essential business but it should not be completely eliminated.
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