I know that David is probably ready to hit the delete key because it looks like I am going to talk about state issues- but this message is directly focused at Minneapolis- please bear with me on this post-
This week it was announced that the state is facing a nearly $2B shortfall as a result of the current recession and the aftermath of 9/11. Suburban school districts are poised to move to 4 day school weeks. I would like to suggest a starting point for reducing state spending that should,IMHO, be a no-brainer- a pledge by our elected House and Senate representatives that they will not submit any per diem requests for 2002. For those of you not familiar with per diems, currently the Senate allows members to submit $66.00 per day and the House allows members to submit at a rate of $56.00 per day. For those of you that don't know me, I am a blue-collar, take-your-lunch-to-work-in-a-paperbag, working stiff and so I think of per diems as "gas money / parking money / lunch money". I don't know about your particular circumstances with your employer, but I know that my employer is not going to pay me an additional $56-66 per day just to get to work and home and to cover something to eat when my stomach growls. It will probably not surprise many of you to know that there were even some Senators and Representatives that had the gonads to submit per diem expenses during the special session. In my up-bringing, that is known as rubbing salt into an open wound. Let me list the per diems that have been submitted by Minneapolis Senators and Representatives from 01/01/2001 thorugh 09/30/2001. The amount includes some possible per diem expenses from late 2000 and there may be additional per diem expenses submitted between 10/01/2001 and the end of the year. District 58A- Joe Mullery- $8176.00 District 58B- Gregory Gray- $8736.00 Senate 58- Linda Higgins- $9734.00 District 59A- Len Biernat- $8680.00 District 59B- Phyllis Kahn- $8288.00 Senate 59- Lawrence Pogemiller- $12,578.00 District 60A- Margaret Anderson-Kelliher- $7784.00 District 60B- Scott Dibble- $8064.00 Senate 60- Myron Orfield- $9174.00 District 61A- Karen Clark- $8960.00 District 61B- Neva Walker- $7976.00 Senate 61- Linda Berglin- $9174.00 District 62A- Jim Davnie- $6160.00 District 62B- Wes Skoglund- $8792.00 Senate 62- Julie Sabo- $10,428.00 District 63A- Jean Wagenius- $8400.00 District 63B- Mark Gleason- $8344.00 Senate 63- Jane Ranum- $10,658.00 Total Minneapolis Per Diem 01/01/2001-09/30/2001- $160,106.00 I am not against the idea of per diem because there are some members of the legislature that incur actual out-of-pocket expenses representing their constituents. They drive great distances in all kinds of weather, have to purchase all meals while in St. Paul and have to pay for a place to sleep. But I hardly think that there is a justification for per diem expenses for atleast half of the legislature- those that drive similar miles as you and I to get to work and that get to eat at home and sleep in their own bed every night. I even think that metro legislators have justification requesting per diems if they are going to a hearing in Duluth, Pipestone or some place like that. I live between 10-11 miles from work and it takes me between 15-20 minutes to get to work. I used Microsoft Expedia Streets and Trips 2000 to calculate how many miles Minneapolis Senators and Representatives drive to work and how long it might take them to make that trip (I realize times may vary due to traffic, time of day and weather): Joe Mullery- 16.0 miles- 27 minutes Gregory Gray- 12.1 miles- 22 minutes Linda Berglin- 12.1 miles- 22 minutes Len Biernat- 11.3 miles- 23 minutes (say, couldn't he carpool with Christine Jax?) Phyllis Kahn- 10.4 miles- 22 minutes Lawrence Pogemiller- 10.2 miles- 22 minutes Margaret Anderson-Kelliher- 12.4 miles- 23 minutes Scott Dibble- 11.8 miles- 23 minutes Myron Orfield- 14.0 miles- 28 minutes Karen Clark- 8.8 miles- 16 minutes Neva Walker- 12.9 miles- 24 minutes Linda Berglin- 12.7 miles- 24 minutes Jim Davnie- 7.9 miles- 16 minutes Wes Skoglund- 12.1 miles- 23 minutes Julie Sabo- 8.2 miles- 18 minutes Jean Wagenius- 13.2 miles- 25 minutes Mark Gleason- 15.8 miles- 26 minutes Jane Ranum- 13.5 miles- 26 miles I will leave it up to the list members to decide for themselves if any of these public employees is enduring any adverse hardship getting to work. So my suggestion is for the Minneapolis DLF delegation to voluntarily step up to the plate and set the standard for the other metro legislators by pledging not to submit any per diem expenses during the 2002 session. Come on- How about it? If you agree with me that this is a good place to start in cutting state spending, please feel free to do your part. Since this list is monitored and participated in by many loyal DFLers, please feel free to give your own elected public official a phone call and ask them to cut out the per diems until the economy is back in order (or possibly forever!) If the Minneapolis delegation will take the lead, we could easily reduce state spending on per diems by between $800,000 and $1,000,000 by eliminating this seemingly unnecessary expense. As the saying goes: "A million here- and a million there- and eventually it can add up to some real money". Thanks for listening to one man's suggestion on where to start cutting some expenses. Ron Lischeid Defeated 2000 Candidate for House District 63A I made a campaign pledge to not submit even a penny's worth of per diem expenses By my way of thinking, that makes me a WINNER! Windom _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
