The Rochester Post Bulletin reports on MN legislators' money grab / aka "per diem." We reported Lyndon Carlson as one of the top 4 earners in 2008. Reports of our three legislator's earnings are below.

While salaries for lawmakers have remained frozen at $31,140.90 for a decade, legislators have found other ways to boost their take-home pay. They have boosted their daily allowances, known as per diem, by $40 in the Senate and $21 in the House during the last 10 years. Hamline University Professor David Schultz, an expert in government ethics, said this amounts to a backdoor salary increase.

"They have basically come up with a sort of subterfuge, kind of a hidden way of supplementing their income, which is basically by using the per diem," he said.

Some legislators claim upwards of $35,000, outpacing their annual salary. Lawmakers receive per diem seven days a week during the legislative session. They are also eligible for per diem during a special session and outside of session on days they attend a committee meeting. 

You can look up your legislator's earnings at the Post-Bulletins' database. Here are the per diem earnings of our three DFL SD45 legislators. Keep in mind that they are only about 20 miles from the Capitol and live in a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis.

Rep. Lyndon Carlson (D) 45-B

• 2009: $14,443.79 (he knows we're watching! -Ed)
  
• 2008: $18,491.21
• 2007: $19,808.72

Rep. Sandra Peterson (D) 45-A:

• 2009: $10,179.94
• 2008: $8,826.30
• 2007: $11,525.23

Sen. Ann Rest (D) 45:

• 2009: $17,996.20
• 2008: $20,775.06
• 2007: $25,590.23

Rep. Lyndon Carlson (D-45B) is again in the top of per diem (daily expenses) earners for 2008. He charged $13,860, just below fellow DFLers Tom Rukavina. Speaker Margaret Kelliher and Alan Juhnke.

Senator Ann Rest (D-45) made the top five in the senate, earning $15,936. With other line items, her total for the year reached $20,775.06.

Early this year, WCCO's Pat Kessler explained the money grab:

IN FACT, officially, the legislature meets for about 3 to 5 months every year, and lawmakers get paid $31,140 every year. They also receive daily expense payments called per diem, which originally was meal money, but now can boost their income by more than 50 percent.

It's TRUE.  Lawmakers can get up to $96 a day in the Senate and up to $77 a day in the House. They can receive per diem seven days a week during the session, even when they're not physically at the Capitol. And it counts toward their pensions.

No receipts are necessary and no questions are asked.

You can download House and Senate per diem earnings at the WCCO article. Since we taxpayers pay their salaries (and per diems), it's time we ask questions - then unseat them both in 2010.

Nancy in Crystal wrote this letter to the editor in a recent Sun Post, after she saw a "Y" next to Senator Rest's name in the last minutes of the 2009 session:

I was deeply disappointed that my state Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, voted to push through a bill that would raise our taxes by $3.6 billion during the last minutes of the Senate session May 18.

The lengthy bill (HF 2323/SF 2074) included $1.2 million in grants for TV and film producers and $200,000 for a youth environmental education program (which regional parks offer already).

Our DFL leaders appear willfully ignorant that we're in a recession. Or is it that they don't care? Struggling taxpayers must be relieved that the bill was vetoed with no override chances this year. We are also spared from a special session where Rest would no doubt try again to pass across-the-board tax increases (including ending the local property tax cap).

Sen. Rest held several town meetings where I, along with others, asked her to vote no on taxes and unnecessary spending. Sadly, she seemed to have suffered from selective listening - ignoring us in favor of DFL special interests and hurriedly voting yes to raise taxes in the last minutes of the 2009 session.

Please remember this in 2010: Ann Rest demonstrated taxation without hesitation.

Fellow SD-45 resident Andrew Richter submitted a zinger in the Sun Post this week:

Questions for Sen. Rest

To the editor:

I noticed that in the June 5 edition of the Sun-Post, Sen. Ann Rest called the transportation bill the "most important thing we did for everybody" in the last session of the state Legislature. The senator said the bill will "relieve congestion" and "rebuild roads and bridges." Well, I'd like to add a few things about the transportation bill Sen. Rest omitted.

She failed to mention the $6.6 billion tax increase in the bill. Minnesota's gas tax was raised 8 1/2 cents a gallon, making our gas tax the seventh-highest in the nation (I guess gas prices are too low).

The bill also raised the seven-county metro area sales tax one-quarter of a cent with no referendum. Sen. Rest doesn't want to give the people an opportunity to decide whether or not they want a tax increase. The bill then calls for an increase in license tabs fees. Apparently you aren't paying enough for that either.

I checked out Sen. Rest's website and I couldn't find any reference to the $6.6 billion tax increase. And if Rest had it her way you'd be paying more in taxes. She supported last year's school referendum in District 281, which would have led to a property tax increase. Yet on her website, she says she's for property tax relief.

Why does the senator brag about the transportation bill and not mention the tax increases? Maybe when raising taxes on hard-working Minnesotans, not telling them is your best policy.

Andrew Richter

Crystal