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Sunday, May 06, 2007
Ind. Gov't - More on the $1,000 bonuses the Senate President Pro Tem put in the budget to reward each of his committee chairs
"Long raises bonuses; critics raise fuss" is the headline to an item in the Political Notebook, the weekly column by Niki Kelly and Benjamin Lanka in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
INDIANAPOLIS – Fort Wayne Republican Sen. David Long had a smooth run during his first session as president pro tem – until the last day.For more, see the last part of this ILB entry from April 30th, and this entry from April 29th.That’s when word hit that he had increased leadership bonuses in the Senate budget.
It wasn’t much money – about $18,000 in new money over the last biennial budget – but the news riled up House members nonetheless.
Some even wondered why the Senate’s overall budget is the same as the House’s even though the Senate has half as many members.
And it was especially noted that Long increased his own leadership pay by $500 to $7,000.
The House speaker continues to receive a $6,500 bonus though – and he’s ahead of the Senate president pro tem in the line of succession to the governor’s office.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the bonus increases come during the same session in which Long was intricately involved in passing a bill to double all lawmakers’ salary.
When asked about the bonuses, he said he would donate his extra $500 to charity
“It’s important that the speaker and I stay on the same level,” Long said. “I did this for the future.”
Long also gave his committee chairman $1,000 bonuses where in the past only those chairmen in charge of fiscal committees have received the extra cash.
This created another inequity with the House members, and Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis, even brought it up during debate on the two-year, $26 billion budget.
He referred to the Senate as the “House of Lords” and wondered why senators should get more money to ignore House bills.
The remark sent House Republican Leader Brian Bosma scurrying to the Senate to apologize to Long.
And it’s not even clear whether lawmakers are legally allowed to take the new money. A post on the Indiana Law Blog pointed out that the Indiana Constitution says “no increase of compensation shall take effect during the session at which such increase may be made.”
And lawmakers just changed the definition of compensation to include any “amount paid to an individual; or benefit provided an individual to compensate the individual for services provided as a public officer.”
That’s why, for instance, the base salary pay hike doesn’t go into effect until 2009.
“People are making more out of it than it is,” Long said on the last day of session. “The hard work is done in the committees, and I wanted to reward them. This is a small thank you for what they do.”
So what does Democrat House Speaker Pat Bauer think of the bonus brouhaha?
“I’m glad we didn’t do it is all I can say.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 6, 2007 11:10 AM
Posted to Indiana Government