Per Diem Pay For Senate… Today?

When senate pay is at stake, illness apparently is no excuse for absence.

Senate leadership made Senator Sam Aanestad drive the distance from his hometown to be the magic number twenty-one for “check in” today.  If there are not twenty-one Senators for check in, they don’t get the cherished per diem pay. Senator Aanestad apparently has been as sick as a dog and out ill much of this week.  But duty calls, and he made the 1+hour drive from his district home so that everyone else can get paid.

As of  Wednesday this week, that they weren’t going to have a check-in today. Someone apparently changed his mind.

Senator Lou Correa also had fly up  from Orange County to check in as well.  The status of his health is not known.

One wonders if there was any state business conducted.

Is this the best use of  the people’s money? Per diem pay is nothing more than a fringe benefit,  and should be dispensed with. Today’s unnecessary check-in highlights the waste and abuse.

— Katy Grimes