TN TAX BATTLE RED ALERT TALK JOCKS CALL OUT TROOPS TODAY: Still no budget; House kills CATS

Sorry to repeat this on every thread, but I simply cannot get over how much time and effort the pro-tax scumbags put into figuring out how to confiscate more and more money from productive family people in order to fund their various welfare programs and other vote-buying schemes.

Nowhere in any of these stories do I ever read how these legislators are digging down to eliminate wasteful big-government spending. ALL of the efforts are now focused entirely on confiscation.

These disgusting scumbags MUST be stopped.
All you great citizens and legislators in Tennessee, please - - HANG IN THERE!!!

Thanks Nora to all of you for your efforts. All of us working as a team cannot be stopped by the likes of Naifeh.

Here is one you will all love. WSMV-4 Nashville reports how legislators who live only 2 miles from the Capitol get $10,000 per year in per diem pay for travel and food!

WSMV-4 Nashville: Tennessee Representative Rob Briley's house is a straight shot to the capitol. He lives in East Nashville, about two miles from his office at Legislative Plaza.

Yet when the legislature is in session, or when he's in his office working on official business, he collects $82 a day for hotel expenses, and $42 a day for meals. So far this session, Briley has collected $9,979 in travel expense money, regardless of the fact that he does not sleep in hotels.

Channel Four's I-Team found that taxpayers have paid more than $113,000 to lawmakers who live in Davidson County for travel expenses they did not occur, including money for hotels they didn't sleep in. And it's all legal.

Representative Mike Turner collected $9,592 from the taxpayers for meals and unslept in hotels. He lives 14 miles from his legislative office. The payment is called a per diem, a daily allowance.

The flat rate of 124 dollars a day is set by the federal government. It's based on how expensive each city is for a night's stay. Lawmakers in every state get a per diem, although many in the local delegation can't explain exactly why they deserve one, when they sleep at home.

"When they set it up years ago, who knows why they did it. I don't know why they did it. They did it a long time ago. It's always been that way," says Turner.

Edith Taylor Langster collected the most of anyone in the Davidson County delegation: $10,576 despite the fact that she lives two and a half miles from her office and isn't sleeping in hotels during the session.

"No ma'am, I'm not," says Langster, "But I do have office work and office business to discuss and to be present for. And this is money that I can claim as a legal expenditure."

Many lawmakers, like Briley, consider the per diem a supplement to their paycheck. "The per diem is part of the legislative compensation package that all legislators receive," says Briley.

Their salary is $16,500 a year. As Briley points out, that's below minimum wage for many, given the hours they put in. But in these tight budget times, when every penny counts, the I-Team asked lawmakers why they don't decline the money, since it's meant for hotels they don't use?

"First of all it would make all my colleagues look bad if I chose to do that," says Representative Gary Odom. "The next question that a reporter would ask is, rep so and so is not taking any compensation for serving, why are you?" says Odom.

He was surprised to learn that Senator Doug Henry does not accept a per diem check. "Well, that's great. I was not aware of that," says Odom. Senator Doug Henry, in fact, has been returning his per diem check to the state since 1973, when a newspaper editorial questioned why local lawmakers get per diems.

Henry tells the I-Team, "I thought about it, scratched my head, said, you know, I never thought about it before, he's right. So since that time, I've been paying mine back."

There is a slight difference between the lawmakers who live close and those who live far. Those who live within 50 miles of the capitol have to pay income tax on their per diem. Those who live further out are entitled to collect mileage reimbursement at 32 cents a mile. For this session, at least, the per diem gravy train has come to a stop. By law, lawmakers can only collect per diem for 90 days. On June 19th, they began working for free. The long-standing budget impasse was resolved two weeks later.

There is one other piece of skulduggery possible. CATS passes in different versions. It goes into conference as CATS and comes out as an income tax bill.

Then the lid blows off. Stay tuned.

I'm watching carefully. If they pull a stunt like that, I'll be in Nashville by Saturday, fists clenched and ready for action. GRRRRrrrrrr!!!