On per diems, posh retreats & state lawmaker spending

Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA reported two stories [recently]: one detailing how Pennsylvania state lawmakers, led by House Democrats, “banked hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional taxpayer money for meals and lodging while on official business” in 2020 by availing themselves of a perk called “per diems”; the other about the retreats that Republican state lawmakers have planned at a lavish resort in the Laurel Highlands in Fayette County. Spotlight PA is a nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer; its partners include LNP Media Group.

Over the course of a year marked by surreal and distressing disruption, one thing didn’t change: the inclination of too many state lawmakers to feast on the public dime.

We’ve blasted per diem payments to lawmakers repeatedly. Last April — urging legislators to tighten their belts during the pandemic — we decried the fact that they still could claim $178 in expenses (without providing receipts) for every session day they traveled more than 50 miles from their homes for legislative business.

This was at a time when most state government offices were closed. And when both chambers of the Legislature had passed temporary rules allowing lawmakers to meet and vote remotely.

Per diem payments are the icing on an already generous cake: A rank-and-file lawmaker’s base salary in 2020 exceeded $90,000. Those in leadership positions make tens of thousands of dollars more.

As Spotlight PA noted, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly is the largest full-time legislature in the country and pays the third-highest state lawmaker salaries.

Per diems are questionable in an ordinary year. But to claim per diems during a pandemic, when so many Pennsylvanians have struggled merely to get by, strikes us as shameful.

Democrats made the top five largest per diem claims.

At the top of the heap was state Rep. Mark Longietti, of Mercer County, who claimed a whopping $24,115 in per diem payments. He was followed on the list by four other Democrats who claimed between $18,901 and $24,073.

State Sen. Pat Browne, of Lehigh County, claimed the most of any Republican: $16,157.

We’re mystified as to how one even manages to spend more than $24,000 in per diems during a pandemic when restaurant dining was a challenge, lodging rates were reduced, and lawmakers had the option to meet virtually.

And yet 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.”

Which brings us to the subject of the retreats that state Republican lawmakers have planned for later this month and next month at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort — also the site of the 25th and most recent season of ABC’s “The Bachelor.”

According to Spotlight PA, the cost of such legislative retreats can be covered using campaign funds, rather than taxpayer money.

Nevertheless, as one Republican lawmaker told Spotlight PA, “It’s not a good look.”

Not at all.

Especially as we’re still dealing with a vicious pandemic during which large in-person gatherings continue to be discouraged.

And especially, Spotlight PA pointed out, as the “state is slated to receive billions in aid from the federal government to help state and local agencies, as well as residents, navigate the financial burdens brought on by the pandemic.”

Perhaps the spirits of struggling Pennsylvanians will be brightened knowing that their lawmakers are staying at a resort where single rooms, according to an email obtained by Spotlight PA, will be priced at $600 a night.

Lawmakers aren’t college students throwing caution to the wind on spring break (and even college students shouldn’t be throwing caution to the wind right now). We hope lawmakers at least wear masks — and not the gemstone-infused gold “masques” applied during the resort’s “ritual facial.”

Lawmakers ought to exhibit some sensitivity toward their constituents — if not all the time, then at least during this pandemic, a difficult time for so many Pennsylvanians.

We’d all love to retreat to a swanky resort in the Laurel Highlands, or claim hefty per diems on top of generous taxpayer-funded salaries. But most of us live in the real world.

Pennsylvania lawmakers should join us here.