Lawmaker again claims top amount of expense money
Bentonville’s Dotson collects $38,987; Trumann’s Rye in 2nd with $32,947
For the second consecutive year, state Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, has collected the largest amount of per diem, mileage and other expense payments among state lawmakers.
He collected $38,987 last year, a dip from $40,380 in 2018, according to state records.
In the previous two years, 2016 and 2017, then-House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, collected the largest amount of expenses, with $38,824 and $42,144, respectively.
The state typically makes the highest expense payments to lawmakers who attend the most meetings held between legislative sessions; who live the farthest from Little Rock; and/or who attended the most out-of-state conferences.
Dotson said he is among the lawmakers who live the farthest from the state Capitol, and he has to make a lot of trips to Little Rock for legislative meetings.
He was reimbursed 58 cents per mile — the 2019 rate for lawmakers — last year based on his 428-mile round trip to the state Capitol, according to House records. He collected
per diem from the Bureau of Legislative Research for 57 days of legislative meetings outside of last year’s regular session, and that was the most among state lawmakers, the bureau’s records show.
Dotson noted that he serves as a vice chairman of the Legislative Council and attends meetings of the council’s subcommittees as an ex-officio member, as well as meetings of the House Education Committee and Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, on which he serves.
“I go to meetings to represent my district and do my job,” he said. “My constituents pay a lot of taxes to the state, and it’s my duty to make sure they are spent and used in the most effective manner possible.”
In addition to expense payments, state lawmakers were paid salaries of $41,393 last year with the exception of the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore, who were paid salaries of $47,277. (On Jan. 22 of this year, the state’s Independent Citizens Commission voted to increase those salaries to $42,428 a year and $48,458 a year, effective Feb. 2.)
Dotson, who is a Realtor and a homebuilder, said, “I definitely have to sell a few houses each year to supplement my salary to meet the home budget.”
SECOND-HIGHEST
Among state lawmakers, Rep. Johnny Rye, R-Trumann, collected the second-largest amount of expense payments at $32,947 last year — up from $31,323 in 2018 — according to state records. He is a retired Poinsett County assessor.
“I try my very best to not miss anything,” Rye said, referring to legislative meetings outside the regular session. That’s because “I definitely want to know what I am doing when I am voting” on a bill or a rule in legislative meetings, he said.
Rye was paid per diem for attending legislative meetings on 45 days outside the regular session. The payment comes from the Bureau of Legislative Research.
He was reimbursed at the rate of 58 cents per mile for his 268-mile round trip to Little Rock, according to House records.
“I bet the amount of money that I get reimbursed for driving won’t cover a fourth of it,” Rye said. He said he drives about 55,000 miles a year as a state representative and gets reimbursed for far less mileage than that.
“I seriously doubt I clear over $20,000 a year because it costs so much,” he said, referring to his legislative salary and expenses. “If we didn’t love doing it, we wouldn’t do it.”
HOUSE SPEAKER
Last year, House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, ranked third among lawmakers in their collections of per diem, mileage and other expense payments, at $32,410.
Shepherd, who is an attorney, said he has many meetings at the Capitol because he is the House speaker.
“Historically, the speaker tries to be in the office on a fairly regular basis,” the El Dorado lawmaker said. He was paid 58 cents per mile last year for his 238-mile round trips to Little Rock, according to House records.
Shepherd’s expenses included $3,622.09 for attending the National Conference of State Legislatures’ leaders symposium in Newark, N.J., in December; the National Conference of State Legislatures’ conference in Nashville, Tenn., in August; and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation speaker’s conference in Newport, R.I., in September, according to legislative records.
Shepherd said the legislative conferences help him keep abreast of emerging issues and learn from his colleagues in other states.
TOP SENATOR
On the other side of the state Capitol, Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Berryville, collected the most in per diem, mileage and other legislative expenses among senators last year at $32,254. That ranked fourth among all lawmakers.
“It is really shocking that I would be at the top [of the Senate],” said Ballinger, who is an attorney.
“I only attend the meetings where
I have business in Little
Rock or it is my meeting,” he said. “It is not like I am going up there to siphon off per diem. I am going there to do my job and going home.”
Ballinger was paid 58 cents per mile last year for his 367-mile round trip to Little Rock, according to Senate records. His expenses included $2,571.54 from attending the American Legislative Exchange Council conference in Austin, Texas, in August, according to legislative records.
SALARY, EXPENSES
Last year was the fourth full calendar year since the seven-member Independent Citizens Commission — created under constitutional Amendment 94 approved by voters in November 2014 — boosted the salaries of lawmakers from $15,869 a year to $39,400 a year and those of the speaker and president pro tempore from $17,771 to $45,000 effective March 29, 2015. Before Amendment 94, the Legislature set the salaries of the state’s elected officials.
In exchange for the pay raises, the Legislature enacted a bill in March 2015 to eliminate lawmakers’ eligibility to receive up to $14,400 a year in certain office-related expenses.
The Legislature meets in regular sessions in odd-numbered years and in shorter fiscal sessions in even-numbered years, and its expenses are generally larger in the odd-numbered years.
Total per diem and other expense reimbursements dropped from $3.18 million in 2015 to $2.82 million in 2017 and to $2.77 million in 2019, according to figures compiled by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette based on records from the Arkansas Legislative Audit, the Bureau of Legislative Research, the state House of Representatives and the state Senate.
The total salaries paid to lawmakers increased from $4.64 million in 2015 to $5.37 million in 2017 and to $5.53 million in 2019, according to state Auditor Andrea Lea’s office.
The Legislature’s 88-day regular session in 2019 was two days longer than the 86day regular session in 2017, which was four days longer than the 82-day regular session in 2015. There also were three-day special sessions in 2015 and 2017.
The Bureau of Legislative Research’s expense payments to lawmakers dropped from $843,855 in 2017 to $680,351 in 2019, according to the bureau’s records.
The drop coincided with what Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, described as an attempt by himself and Shepherd to keep the last week of each month, outside of the regular session, free of meetings, except for unique circumstances, and to have more days with multiple legislative meetings in the rest of the month.
The change allowed lawmakers to schedule events in their districts and “do what they need to do” during that time, Hendren said.
Shepherd said the aim is for lawmakers to more efficiently use tax dollars and their time, and “allowing members some predictability and hopefully assisting in being able to stay in their districts and attend to the other things that they have going on.”
EXPENSE DETAILS
For lawmakers who live more than 50 miles from the Capitol, the per diem was $149 for meetings in Little Rock last year until the end of September. It increased to $151 effective Oct. 1, said Marty Garrity, director of the Bureau of Legislative Research.
For lawmakers who live within 50 miles of the Capitol, the per diem is less, at $55, said Senate Director Ann Cornwell.
Lawmakers were paid the mileage rate of 58 cents per mile last year, and the rate declined to 57.5 cents on Jan. 1 of this year, Garrity said. The per diem and mileage rates are based on U.S. General Service Administration rates, she said.
Sens. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, and Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, and Rep. Doug House, R-North Little Rock, are each reimbursed at the rate of 42 cents per mile at their request, according to legislative records. State employees are reimbursed at the rate of 42 cents per mile and periodically complain about lawmakers getting a higher rate.
Hester said he has been paid the same rate as state employees since he learned of the disparity several years ago.
House and Ingram said they have been paid that rate since they have served in the Legislature.
If the state is going to reimburse a Department of Human Services social worker 42 cents per mile to drive down a dirt road to a meth house,
Hester said, he can take 42 cents per mile to drive down the interstate to Little Rock and back.
The cost of raising the rate to 57.5 cents per mile for state agencies, including 89 departments, would be $3.2 million a year, and if constitutional offices also are included, the cost would be $3.7 million a year, said Scott Hardin, spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.
According to legislative records, Dotson’s expense payments include:
■ $19,300.80 from the Bureau of Legislative Research, including $8,552 in per diem, $8,663.69 in mileage and $2,085.11 for attending a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Austin, Texas, in August.
■ $17,322.62 from the House, including per diem of $13,559 and mileage of $3,763.62. In addition, he received from the House $220.67 in per diem and mileage from attending meetings within 50 miles of the state Capitol or within 50 miles of the meeting site.
■ $2.143.20 from Arkansas Legislative Audit, including mileage of $1,241.20 and per diem of $902.
According to legislative records, Rye’s expense payments include:
■ $15,288.16 from the House, including $13,112 in per diem and $2,176.16 in mileage. In addition, he received from the House $74.60 in per diem and mileage from attending meetings within 50 miles of the Capitol or within 50 miles of the meeting site.
■ $12,899.92 from the Bureau of Legislative Research, including $6,779 in per diem, mileage totaling $5,995.92 and a registration fee of $125.
■ $4,684.47 from Arkansas Legislative Audit, including per diem of $1,651 and mileage of $621.76 and $2,411.71 for attending the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in Nashville, Tenn., in August.