Assembly Republicans poised to boost per diem pay by over 56%

Boy, Republicans in the State Assembly sure aren’t wasting any time trying to fatten their wallets even further at the expense of Wisconsin taxpayers.

In one of their first orders of business, state Assembly members are looking to boost by more than 50% the amount they can claim for expenses when they stay overnight in the capital city.

Those who don’t stay overnight would see a reduction in their expense payments, under the plan by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). Vos proposed a similar idea two years ago, but soon backed off the idea.

The move on expenses came as the Assembly voted Wednesday to formalize a 2-year-old policy on limiting the length of floor debates. The new rules also expanded legislators’ exemption from the state’s open meetings law, which will allow top Democrats and Republicans to hash out deals behind closed doors.

And not surprisingly, the vote to boos per diem pay will be done by secret ballot by a leadership committee, rather than voting in a meeting open to the public.

Share:

Related Articles

3 thoughts on “Assembly Republicans poised to boost per diem pay by over 56%

  1. Another reason to drug test legislators and put office-access interlock breathalyzer devices (at legislator expense) for monitoring these people and their staff when they come and go.

  2. The really bad thing here is the further move away from transparent government. Effectively voting in secret and hashing out deals behind closed doors before ever going into formal session on the legislative floor is not what the authors of the Open Records Law intended, but Republicans — with a little bit of help from Democrats — are bound and determined to take this government thing private.

Comments are closed.