Issue Position: Legislative Compensation

Issue Position

LEGISLATIVE COMPENSATION: SALARY SUPPLEMENTS AND REIMBURSED EXPENSES

Some constituents have inquired about legislative compensation including per diem/salary supplements for legislators and reimbursable expenses.

In 2009 I received $12,768 in per diem payments for the 2009 session, along with some forty other senators. I received $4,036 in per diem payments during the 2009 interim (per diem during the interim must be applied for and is subject to approval by the majority leader). I was reimbursed $837.70 for mileage expenses during the 2009 interim, $1,625 for communication expenses for 2009--internet, fax, cell phone (which included $125 for 2008) and $1,500 for intern expenses ($300 a month for 5 months of the 2009 session shared by two university interns). These expenses were vouchered and submitted to the Senate for approval.

I received no reimbursement for travel (there was a travel reimbursement freeze except under extraordinary circumstances) nor for lodging (only permitted for members in Greater Minnesota and which ranged in 2009 from $9,600 to $14,409).

In 2010, I received $11,136 in per diem payments for the legislative session. I declined per diem for the one day special session called by the governor for May 17.

Members of the Legislature receive just over $31,000 a year in base salary. This has not been adjusted for over a decade. The perdiem/ salary supplement in the Senate was adjusted in recent years to reflect inflation over that period and was set at $ 96 a day a few years ago. Information on salaries, salary supplements/per diems and other reimbursed expenses are available at the Senate website.

I support an independent commission setting the salaries of the constitutional officers and legislators. I believe the guideline such a commission should use is to make legislators compensation low enough so that no one runs for office to get rich, and high enough that no one is discouraged from running because of the overall compensation level.

No sitting legislator may vote to increase the base salary for members during the current biennium. Each body of the legislature has the authority to set the rate of the salary supplement, and limits on other reimbursable expenses.

The Senate has decreased its budget during the past sessions and took another cut in 2010 but neither the Legislature nor the Judiciary are subject to unallotment by the governor.

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