Double dipping on the Hill

The piggishness on Beacon Hill seems to know no bounds. It appears that some lawmakers thought they could keep right on collecting per diem payments for weeks, even months, after those payments were supposed to stop at the end of last year.

And why were the payments supposed to stop? Well, because lawmakers had voted themselves a massive pay raise — justifying it by agreeing to eliminate the money they previously collected just for commuting to the State House.

We’re talking about relatively short dollars here, and the taxpayers will be made whole. But that’s only because a local television station, Boston 25, uncovered the continuing payments — and those lawmakers who kept cashing in on their daily commutes have been shamed into making it right.

We allow for the possibility of an honest mistake. But that’s only because the sense of entitlement is so ingrained — and some lawmakers are so unaware of what they’re voting on at any given time —that it’s entirely possible they were clueless about the deadlines, or even thought they might still be entitled to per diem payments after the pay raise took effect.

Cheaters, on the other hand, don’t have ignorance as an excuse.

In a second report on per diems, “25 Investigates” monitored the activity of lawmakers during a traditionally low-key week at the State House — Thanksgiving week last year. The team then matched up those who actually showed up at the State House that week with those who later filed for per diems for the days in question. Surprise, surprise — there were quite a few mismatches.

As if this weren’t infuriating enough, we were reminded by this report that the now-halted per diem payments were made by the state treasurer based on an honor system. Lawmakers simply told the treasurer’s office how much they were owed.

Placing that kind of trust in people who would cheat taxpayers for a few bucks was clearly misguided. Now with extra pay padded right into their paychecks lawmakers don’t even have to keep up the pretense.