General Assembly’s failed session: $117,000 down the drain

BY OLYMPIA MEOLA
Media General News Service
Published: July 11, 2008

Paychecks from the state are like American Express cards — most lawmakers won’t go home without them.

All but three members of the General Assembly who left Richmond with a failed transportation session in the rearview mirror have a check in the mail.

The grand total for lawmakers’ daily pay and mileage reimbursements for the six-day special session comes to $116,977.01.

The members who did not take their pay or mileage reimbursements for the entire session are Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico, Del. Kenneth C. Alexander, D-Norfolk, and Del. Harry R. Purkey, R-Virginia Beach.

Not every lawmaker was in attendance every day of the session, but those who showed up were eligible for pay. Senators make $169 per day; House members, $135. Members of both chambers are reimbursed for one round trip home per week if they live more than 50 miles from the Capitol.

The tab in the 40-member Senate came to $37,800.12. In the House, the bill is $79,176.89.

Amid the partisan bickering and stalled progress, some legislators waxed about the waste of taxpayer money. Few, however, declined that cash, which can come in handy when members of the part-time legislature abandon their day jobs to do the people’s work.

Morrissey didn’t take the money because he said the legislature didn’t accomplish anything.

He preferred a proposal to increase the gas tax because he estimates the cost to the average motorist after six years would be less than $50 a year. But, he added, he would have liked to see both sides seriously consider any plan.

He blamed re-election jitters for a lack of progress.

“Everyone was worried about (campaign) brochures,” he said. “If every delegate was to retire from the House (after the special session) we would have a wonderful mechanism, a transportation bill, which I promise you would include a gas tax.”

- Meola is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.