Dear editor:
What a gig. The state newspaper recently published an accounting of per diem expenses collected by every member of our state Legislature. For those taxpayers who might have been concerned, worry not -- they're eating and living good, certainly better than the average Arkansan.
Our state senator, for example, Bill Sample, collected $32,906 in per diem expenses. Now bear in mind, every figure quoted here does not include their salary (which was just raised 150 percent by an independent commission they themselves appointed). Nor does it include gifts, meals, etc., provided by lobbyists.
There are some strange discrepancies. Just down the road in Lonsdale, Sample's fellow senator, Alan Clark, only turned in $12,860 for reimbursement. Alan, you've got to start eating at nicer establishments -- after all, it's on us.
On the House side of the Legislature, our local representatives, lawyer John Vines and construction company owner Bruce Cozart, turn in $31,315 and $25,630, respectively, in expenses. They really need to educate their colleague, Fonda Hawthorne, who drives over twice as far from Ashdown, but was only reimbursed to the tune of $14,112.
Oh, let me reiterate: These are expenses, not including salary, lobbyist gifts, premium medical and dental insurance packages, and a nice little pension if you're able to scam your way into enough terms.
Being the uneducated, ignorant wretch I am, I never got to take Latin. I do know "carpe diem" means to "seize the day." Does that translate "per diem" to "seize the dough?"
Anthony Lloyd
Hot Springs
Editorial on 03/04/2015