Blog for Democracy

Ideas for Reform

main-image.jpgAs I mentioned earlier there are four fun-filled days left in the legislative session.

Now it is too late to introduce legislation for the year but I’d like to make some small suggestions for saving some money that could be introduced next year.

I used to blog over at Tondee’s Tavern (still do technically) and I made a suggestion a while back. Don’t remember it exactly but it went something like this:

“On any day when the legislature is in session, any legislator who receives any food, drink, or other item typically considered to be sustenance must repay that amount of his or her per diem. All receipts for the expenditure in question must be disclosed by both the lobbyist and the legislator. At any large scale event put on in such a way that individual meals or beverages or other items can not be disclosed, the legislator must repay a proportional amount of the event.

So basically a lobbyist pays for food or drink, you don’t get to keep that amount of your per diem. Go to a party/big lunch put on for 20 legislators, you repay 1/19th of the total cost. If you go over your per diem suck it, you have to repay out of your own funds.

One I was thinking of the other day (and may have mentioned before) goes like this:

Any legislator who resides or represents a district within the metropolitan Atlanta area shall not receive any state funds for transportation.

Look, if you represent Hahira or Parrot or Montezuma I can understand forking over a little dough. I mean there are places in Georgia that are a five hour drive to the Gold Dome. It is reasonable to pay for that kind of travel to ensure representation for those citizens but come on, does someone who lives 15 minutes from the capital need reimbursement for travel?

I’d also be in favor of making it tougher to receive reimbursement for travel done “on official business”. Fortunately for you I have to actually work today so I don’t have time to write out more dreck. On this topic at least.

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5 responses to “Ideas for Reform”

  1. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    It isn’t so much about being honest as it is saving the state money. If they can’t seriously tackle the issue of what amounts to probably less than $1 million a year, there is no way they will deal with anything of true substance.

    Baby steps I figure.

  2. BEZERKO Avatar
    BEZERKO

    At first glance, I thought this was a decent idea, and I was thinking about how you could campaign on this idea, how to get away from the language of the bill and communicate what this idea is really about. It’s about being able to trust your government, representatives being honest and up front about what they’re doing and being accountable to the people who elected them. And if that’s what it’s about, then it should be called something like the public official accountability act or the honest government act or the anti corruption act.

    But after taking a step back and looking at the big picture, maybe this isn’t the right approach. What do these guys make? I know it’s only for four months of the year, but isn’t it like 22k a year? Sometimes it’s smarter to pay more to avoid corruption. A decision was made years ago by conservatives to make private sector work higher paying than public sector. That way the best and the brightest would seek out work in the private sector. This trend should stop and reverse course.

  3. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    I agree with that too, but unlikely to happen in our lifetimes.

  4. TimC Avatar
    TimC

    I’d be okay with this if they would change the salary to a living wage of some kind. Maybe tie it to the state minimum wage?

    Pre-Reconstruction, being a Legislator was considered a full-time job (and it is) and was paid accordingly. Not crazy, just normal.

  5. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    I can make it even easier than that.

    No legislator can take any gifts or anything of value. Period.

    I mean, why stop at food?

    The problem is, gifts from whom? Lobbyists? They’ll just give it to someone else to give to them.

    Only during the session? Seems weak.

    So it’s a sticky problem. Surely someone somewhere has a pretty good system that we could look at though

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