HARRISBURG — Spotlight PA is reporting…Within weeks of the first coronavirus cases last spring, as large swaths of Pennsylvania’s economy shut down, the state legislature followed suit, allowing most of its members to vote remotely. Lawmakers said they were confident they could carry on the business of the people without gathering inside the General Assembly’s ornate chambers — where desks are spaced fewer than six feet apart — and, in some cases, without being in Harrisburg at all.
But that didn’t stop many of them from cashing in on expenses. A Spotlight PA analysis of legislative records found lawmakers requested and received $726,877 from the beginning of March — as the pandemic emerged — through the end of 2020 as reimbursement for lodging and meals while traveling to and from the Capitol or other meetings across the state. The analysis found two House Democratic lawmakers each padded their salaries by more than $24,000 in additional taxpayer money during that time through the special perk.
The payments, known as “per diems,” have long been criticized as an unnecessary largesse for the country’s largest full-time legislature, which pays the third-highest salaries for state lawmakers in the country. But against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused historic hardship for so many across the state, the payments are receiving fresh attention.
Per diems are daily flat rates lawmakers can claim when they travel more than 50 miles from their house for legislative business. Unlike in the private sector, legislators don’t have to provide receipts, leaving open the possibility that their actual daily expenses could be more or less than the full per diem rate, which in 2020 generally ranged from $178 to $200.
Pennsylvania has some of the most generous per diem rates among all state legislatures, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers are not required to accept per diems and always have the option to forego them and instead submit receipts for expenses.(Spotlight Pa)
