Will Valley legislators try to ‘carpe (per) diem’?

Here is where the Arizona Legislature — the ones who live in Maricopa County, that is — will show us what kind of leaders we’ve elected.

Are they public servants who can see an inequity in their ranks and take simple steps to fix it?

Or are they pirates, prepared to (once again) sail in on the misery of their rural colleagues in hopes of grabbing some loot for themselves?

Yes, it’s time for rural lawmakers’ annual plea to raise the woeful amount they are given to cover their expenses during the four or five months a year they must be at the state Capitol.

This year, however, the out-county lawmakers are charting a route fraught with risk.

This year they aren’t throwing in with the buccaneers who live in Maricopa County — the ones who dominate the Legislature and thus insist on cutting themselves in for a piece of the action.

This year, Rep. Noel Campbell, RPrescott, is asking for straight-up fairness: a raise for rural and Pima County lawmakers but not for lawmakers who live in Maricopa County and thus don’t have to relocate to come to the Capitol.

In Arizona, legislators make $24,000 a year for the part-time gig, a salary that is set by voters. But they also get a per-diem allowance to cover daily expenses, an amount which they regulate.

Last year, legislators introduced, voted on and passed a bill to triple their per-diem pay — all over the course of the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

As one of their last acts of last year’s legislative session, they rammed through a bill to boost per diem for legislators who live outside Maricopa County from $60 a day to $185 a day. But to get the votes needed to pass, the bill also proposed raising Maricopa County legislators’ per diem from $35 a day to $92.50 a day.

That is $92.50 a day, seven days a week while the Legislature is in session.

Leading, naturally, to that alwaysinconvenient question.

What expenses? Maricopa County legislators already live here. Unlike other state employees, they already are separately paid for their commute to and from the state Capitol. They could get fat on the amount of food and drink supplied by an army of lobbyists.

So what expenses?

The answer, of course, is that Maricopa County legislators have no expenses. What they do have is the numbers — 53 of Arizona’s 90 legislators live in Maricopa County.

Fortunately, Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed last year’s per-diem bill, refusing to countenance piracy.

“Arizona is the sixth largest state in terms of land area,” he wrote in his veto

message. “So for rural legislators and those representing areas outside of Maricopa County, there is a strong case to be made for ensuring we are appropriately recognizing what is required for them to be here at the state Capitol in Phoenix.”

Translation: for shame, you Maricopa County legislators.

Now they have a chance to redeem themselves.

House Bill 2163 would raise per diem for non-Maricopa County legislators. Instead of $60 a day, they’d get the average annual federal per-diem rate in Maricopa County. Currently, that would be $185 a day.

If the session were to go 120 days, per diem would be cut in half, providing a nice incentive to adjourn.

Under the bill, Maricopa County legislators’ per diem would be set at $35 a day, which is what they get now and far more than they spend on legitimate expenses.

Will Valley legislators do they right thing and forgo a shot at plundering the treasury in order to do right by rural legislators?

Or will they they yo-ho themselves all the way to another gubernatorial veto, leaving rural lawmakers once again to rack out on cousin Joe’s couch for four or five months each year?

Or better yet, how about abolishing the per diem system entirely and enacting a radical new concept in expense pay, one to which other state employees already adhere?

The one that says you’ve got to actually have expenses before you can be reimbursed for them.