Increase in per-diems should require receipts

Wisconsin lawmakers are about to boost their pay. Members of the Wisconsin State Senate are considering increasing the amount of money they can claim in per-diems. Per-diems are reimbursements for expenses like meals and lodging Wisconsin lawmakers can claim each day they are working in Madison. The Assembly recently upped their per-diem allotment, allowing members to claim up to $138 a day, on top of their annual salary. Now the Senate is considering upping its per-diem from the current $88 a day to $115 a day. These per-diems currently cost taxpayers about $200,000 a year for members of the Senate. Increasing the allotment would cost taxpayers an additional $62,000 a year. But here is the rub. Under current rules, Wisconsin lawmakers only have to fill out a form declaring they were working in Madison that day. They don’t have to document how much they actually spent on meals, or lodging. The state simply takes their word for it. As a result, lawmakers almost always claim the maximum per-diem, regardless of what they actually spent out of their own pocket. Talk about government waste. If the Wisconsin Senate wants to increase how much lawmakers can be reimbursed for their expenses, we should make sure they actually spent some of their own money, make them prove it, and only reimburse them for what they spent. Wisconsin taxpayers deserve that.