Per Diem Pay: How Much?

The amount of your tax money that state legislators collect to cover their daily living expenses in Olympia is an “internal decision” and, therefore, justifiably made behind closed doors.

So said Rep. Clyde Ballard, R-Wenatchee, speaker of the state House of Representatives, after lawmakers had increased their per diem allowance from $66 to $79.05.

That’s the amount every member of the House and Senate receives per day to pay for housing, meals and other expenses incurred while the Legislature is in session.

Those who live close enough to Olympia to dine (when they’re not being entertained by lobbyists) and sleep at home get the same amount as those from Spokane or Ritzville or other locations distant enough to require rented lodging. None of them has to account for how the money is spent, and they don’t pay taxes on it.

Former Rep. Jim Kuehnle, a conservative Republican who represented the Spokane Valley, once proposed that the daily allowance be unlimited - but that all lawmakers be required to report publicly how they had spent the money, thus making it an issue between each elected official and his or her constituents.

Kuehnle’s idea went nowhere among his House colleagues. How would readers vote?

City land deal’s wisdom questioned

Phil Williams, Spokane’s planning and engineering director, may think it’s wise for the city to purchase a former restaurant site on the north bank of the Spokane River, but he’d get an argument from Jean Payne of Nine Mile Falls.

The city wants to buy the site of the former Salty’s at the Falls, a prime-view location to which Clinkerdagger Restaurant was in the process of moving from its longtime home in the Flour Mill. City officials say the deal is necessary because of the proposed alignment of the planned Lincoln Street bridge.

“I am disturbed,” Payne said, “that when the negotiations are about complete, they say, ‘Oh, well, we’re going to take it.’

“They did that with an apartment house after many, many plans had been made,” Payne said, alluding to the city’s acquisition of land between the downtown public library and the Spokane River falls, thus preserving the view. “That (land acquisition) is disturbing to anybody who’s in business, I think,” she said.

Do other readers have reactions to the issue Payne raises?

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone, or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.