$30-a-day expense increase easily passes Senate

In an unusual vote hailed by bipartisan leaders as a victory for government transparency, state senators on Wednesday overwhelmingly ratified a 45 percent increase in their daily expense allowances.

The vote of 59 to 7 upheld a $30-a-day boost in so-called per diem payments, to $96, that most senators already have been collecting for weeks. Legislators receive the daily allowance each day they are in session, without having to show actual expenses.

Fifteen Republicans joined all 44 DFLers on the prevailing side. Under the resolution, the seven GOP senators who turned thumbs-down will have to file public written requests to claim any per diem from now on.

"This has been a strange and peculiar process that shows disrespect for the members," said one of the naysayers, Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie.

An hour of debate couldn't clarify the actual effect of the vote, the first in memory by a full chamber of the Minnesota Legislature on expense allowances. Such decisions have traditionally been completed in committee.

Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, said defeat of the resolution would have ended all per diem pay. But Sen. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, whom Pogemiller hailed for pushing the issue to the floor, said the vote he had called for would have changed nothing. "Lack of action does not undo what the committee ratified," Vandeveer said.

Equally murky is the political impact of the controversy on senators' reelection bids nearly four years from now. But some Republicans suggested that fatter expense accounts for legislators are a harbinger of tax and spending increases in the next state budget.

The debate highlighted the delicacy of discussions about compensation for most legislators. Legislative salaries haven't budged from $31,140 a year since 1999, largely because votes of the full House and Senate are required to raise them. But expense allowances for mileage, housing and hotel lodging in addition to per diem have been increased by committee action in recent years.

A salary raise instead?

Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, voted against the resolution Wednesday, saying that legislators should wait until they've done more work this session before raising their pay. "If we believe we need more compensation, let's do it through salary," he said. "I don't know how we spend $96 a day on meals. That's a pretty healthy diet."

He said salary levels should follow recommendations of the state Compensation Council, which most recently called for raising legislators' pay to $45,956 a year -- a bump that would more than triple the per diem increase for most senators.

But no one else dared to suggest what legislators ought to be paid. Both Pogemiller and Minority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, instead stressed the openness of the proceedings.

"For us, it wasn't a matter of dollars so much as creating an open process," said Senjem, who voted for the per diem raise both in committee and on the floor. "There is always some political gamesmanship in everything that happens here, and it seems that the wording of the resolution was meant to shame anyone who chose to vote against it."

Pogemiller denied that, saying written requests for per diem payments from the no voters would simply clarify their intent for Senate paymasters.

Conrad deFiebre • 651-222-1673 • cdefiebre@startribune.com

HOW THEY VOTED

For the roll call, go to www.startribune.com/a2344.