Posted on 04/02/2011 8:36:18 AM PDT by digger48
House Dems upset that per-diem was withheld halt session for three hours
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma called it “deja vu all over again” when House Democrats walked off the House floor Thursday morning.
Just days after returning from a five-week walkout, House Democrats emptied their seats again. This time it was over concerns about legislative business conducted while they were gone, including $122,000 in fines levied against them.
Their absence delayed the beginning of Thursday’s session for more than three hours, but Democrat leader Pat Bauer later told reporters that his members weren’t planning another walkout.
House Democrats were unhappy to learn this week that the Republican Bosma had initiated plans to collect those unpaid fines by withholding their $152-a-day spending allowances.
The per-diem payments — paid for every day while they’re in session, including weekends — had been suspended for the 39 House Democrats who took part in the five-week walkout to stall GOP-backed legislation. House Democrats expected those payments to resume when they returned Monday, and some assumed the fines would be waived or just never collected.
But Bosma made it clear that won’t be the case. “The fines will stand,” Bosma said Thursday. One concession he said he will consider is to allow Democrats to pay up on a kind of installment plan. Rather than having all their per-diem payments withheld until their fines are paid off, they could opt to have partial payments withheld.
“We’ll let them mull over that situation,” Bosma said.
House members have already been paid their $22,000 salaries for the session. But the per-diem payments are made once a week, after the week in which they were incurred. Their next expense check is scheduled for Wednesday.
Bosma also made it clear that he won’t let what he called “special interests” pay the fines. Bosma said he won’t accept payments from third parties, such as the Indiana Democratic Party, which picked up the estimated $85,000 tab for the hotel costs incurred by House Democrats when they fled the state for a Comfort Suites in Urbana, Ill., on Feb. 22.
The fines were imposed under House rules that allow the speaker to levy financial penalties on House members who intentionally fail to appear with the intent of disrupting a constitutionally mandated quorum. The House needs 67 of its 100 House members to be present to act on legislation.
To undo those fines, it would take a majority of House members to approve a motion rescinding them. That seems unlikely, given that 60 of the House members are Republicans, many of whom were angered by the walkout.
“No, absolutely not, not a chance,” was the answer given by Rep. Heath VanNatter, a Kokomo Republican, when asked if he’d vote to waive the fines.
Fellow Republican Rep. Ed Clere of New Albany wasn’t quite so adamant in his answer, but he doubts his GOP colleagues are interested in absolution.
“I don’t think they’re going to be forgiven,” Clere said. “There was an easy way to avoid the fines; they could have come back sooner.”
Rep. Terri Austin, a Democrat from Anderson and ranking member of the House Rules Committee, said she was disappointed that Republicans seemed determined to punish Democrats for executing what she said was a procedural tactic used by both sides in the past.
“From my understanding, the fines have always been forgiven,” Austin said.
The way the fines were imposed and the decision to collect on them is a departure from past practices, as was the length of the most recent walkout — one of the longest in U.S. history. In past walkouts that lasted a few hours or a few days, and have been staged by both parties, the fines were imposed at the discretion of the speaker and waived as part of the negotiations to get missing lawmakers back.
Each of the 39 Democrats who took part in the five-week walkout owe about $3,150 in fines. It varies for some legislators, since they took turns coming back to the Statehouse to represent their missing members just long enough to make sure there wasn’t a quorum. The lone House Democrat who didn’t flee the Statehouse, Rep. Steve Stemler of Jeffersonville, is exempt.
House Republicans waited two weeks into the walkout before they imposed the fines. The fines started at $250 a day and then went up to $350 a day. The total amount is about $122,000. While the House Democrats were gone, Bosma and other House Republicans talked about reviving an old law, rescinded in 1976, that allowed fines of $1,000 a day.
To undo those fines, it would take a majority of House members to approve a motion rescinding them. That seems unlikely, given that 60 of the House members are Republicans, many of whom were angered by the walkout.
Can they be anymore juvenile? Sorry but most Americans are not entertained by your temper tantrums and will reward you justly your next electon!
Hmm few hours, few days vs FIVE WEEKS. Kind of a difference there.
I'm glad the speaker has a backbone. The fines should stand.
That’s been the talking point since this all started.
“Oh yeah? Well...well...the Republicans did it too!”
Never mind that the Republicans didn’t leave the state.
They didn’t leave town.
They didn’t even leave the friggin’ building!
2 days, still in the building, still carrying on legislative business = 5 weeks hiding out of state stopping all legislative business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.