 |
Legislative
Payroll |
Base
Pay |
Per
Diem |
Travel
Expense |
Office
Allowance |
Total
Comp.* |
| Average
House member |
$13,951 |
$32,746 |
$3,228 |
$6,708 |
$56,517 |
| Average
Senate member |
$13,951 |
$27,747 |
$3,022 |
$6,708 |
$51,428 |
|
*
Totals may not add due to rounding. Source:
Legislative Services Office |
Special Report
Many
legislators
got $12,000 in overtime pay for record-long session
Staying
in Raleigh for the longest General Assembly session in state
history made life harder for members of the General Assembly,
but many legislators compensated themselves in the wallet by
accepting up to $12,000 in overtime pay. The extra income
stems from the $104 per diem allowance legislators are
entitled to by law which they get seven days a week even
though they actually meet 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 $56,517 in the House and $51,428 in the Senate. Those
figures are up at least $10,000 from 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 $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 $32,746
in per diem; the Senate average was $27,747.
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 Ten 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 over $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.
Story, chart on
legislative leaders' pay
Story, chart on pay for
rank and file House members
Story, chart on pay for
rank and file Senate members
Return to Page One
|
