Others cut but legislature’s spending up

By James Salzer


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When lawmakers meet on the fourth floor of the Capitol this year to negotiate the final $17 billion state budget, there will probably be as many budget analysts as legislators in attendance.

Maybe more — the Senate, House and governor’s office each usually send their own analysts.

The three sets of number-crunchers represent significant growth in one area of state government. In fact, the budget for the Legislature itself has risen faster, percentage wise, than spending on education in the last eight years.

Spending on agriculture, parks and natural resources and the Department of Labor have declined since fiscal 2003. But under the original budget lawmakers approved for this year, spending on the House, Senate and joint legislative operations jumped more than 20 percent from 2003.

The General Assembly budgeted $38.6 million to cover its own expenses this year, although it has since trimmed its budget and won’t end up spending that much.

In fiscal 2003, it spent $30.3 million.

House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) said that when the economy was growing, it was easy for government to grow, too.

“We probably did get a little too large,” he said.

Democrats are quick to point out that the increase in spending coincided with the Republican takeover of the Legislature. Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) said it is “unconscionable” that legislative spending grew so much when some education, public health and other state services have been cut.

“If you’re asking teachers to take pay cuts and furloughs and work on their off days, there needs to be a spirit of sacrifice on the part of the leadership,” she said. “I don’t see that.”

The cost of running the Legislature includes salaries and expenses for legislators and their staff along with budget, clerk, research, legal, communications and fiscal offices.

Part of the increase has come from the decision legislative leaders made a few years ago to raise their daily expense allowance, called the per diem.

Legislative leaders voted in 2006 to raise the amount lawmakers get to cover meals, lodging and other expenses from $128 to $173 per day. So each of the 236 lawmakers — from both parties — can collect an extra $1,800 each 40-day session in expense money.

The total paid to lawmakers for daily expenses increased from $2.4 million in 2003 to $3.7 million in fiscal 2009, the last year for which the state has complete numbers.

Lawmakers, who earn a little more than $17,000 per year in base pay, also have seen small raises with the rest of state workers since 2003.

They have made efforts to trim back those two areas. Legislative leaders have been cutting task forces and committee meetings in the off-season so they don’t have to pay extra expense money to lawmakers for attending. They also agreed to join state employees and teachers by taking six furlough days, although a few House members have refused to take days off without pay.

The Legislative Fiscal Affairs Office, which is under the General Assembly, said the number of full-time employees of the House and Senate has decreased from 259 to 247 since 2003. However, according to Fiscal Affairs figures, the cost for salaries rose more than $2 million between 2003 and 2009.

Both the House and Senate have research and communications staffs. Budget documents show that one of the increases was in the cost of photography, which nearly doubled in the middle of the decade. Both chambers have photographers who take pictures for guests visiting the chambers. Some of the photos have also been used on Web sites and sent out to local newspapers.

The move to create separate budget offices took place when the Senate turned Republican and the House was still run by Democrats.

Until that point, lawmakers had relied on the Legislative Budget Office, a group of veteran analysts, to help them put together the budget. During those years, some in the Senate griped that the office favored the House.

But longtime former Senate Appropriations Chairman George Hooks (D-Americus) said he didn’t agree with colleagues who wanted their own budget office.

“Because of the cost of it and the efficiency of how the system ran, I never took it seriously,” Hooks said.

When Republicans took over the Senate, they made it a priority. And when the House also became Republican, it went along with the split offices.

The state will spend about $2 million this year for separate House and Senate budget offices. In 2003, the House and Senate spent $1.2 million on the one budget office.

John Brown, who runs the House Budget Office, said having two offices is inefficient. The House and Senate budget offices use different budgeting systems and Brown said analysts spend time doing paperwork and matching up the numbers. At times, leaders of the two chambers have argued about which set of figures they should use to develop a budget.

“It has taken away time dealing from what’s meaningful,” Brown said. “Congress has one budget staff. We have two.”

Hooks doesn’t see the value.

“At the end of the day, I don’t see any improvement in the product. We probably worked harder because we didn’t have as much staff. I can analyze the budget in detail because I had to.”

Harbin said lawmakers should consider combining the budget offices, but his counterpart in the Senate, Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville), opposes the idea.

“We’re not interested in that,” Hill said. “There is a different culture over here [in the Senate]. The constituencies are different.”

Despite the increase in costs, lawmakers say overall spending on General Assembly operations is not excessive. A recent National Conference of State Legislatures chart shows Georgia in the middle of the pack of states for spending on legislative functions in fiscal 2008. On a per capita basis, Georgia was ranked the lowest in the country. Georgia has traditionally ranked among the lowest states in the country in spending on state services as well.

Alan Essig, director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute think tank and a former state budget analyst, said lawmakers ought to be talking about expanding budget staffs at the Capitol, not cutting back. Lawmakers are pushing bills that would force state staffers and departments to provide more detailed spending information and to more thoroughly justify their budgets.

“I do not for a second think they are overstaffed.”

But Joe McCutchen, an Ellijay newsletter publisher, cable TV show host and budget watchdog, disagrees. He said the General Assembly needs to cut back big time in a budget crisis.

“With all the federal and state debt, we need to cut the staff,” he said. “Any government that has grown in size needs to be cut. We did it with a small staff before, why not do it with a small staff now?”

Harbin said even if the Senate and House budget offices are combined, it might not save much money because a combined office would need staffers to work with both chambers. But long-term, he said, it might make it easier for the two chambers to work closely together on the budget, instead of having to argue about which budget office’s numbers are accurate.

“There may be some duplication now,” he said.

Orrock, the Atlanta Democrat, said the Republican majority doesn’t live by the rules it expects the rest of state government to follow.

“It’s a blatant example of saying on the one hand that you’re for smaller government and when you’re at the reins of government duplicating services and driving the budget up,” she said.

Comparing the numbers

The state has been through two fiscal slowdowns since 2003. Below is how select agencies have fared, based on what was spent in 2003 and what Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed in his budget for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1. Some numbers for 2011 will be lower once the General Assembly finalizes the budget.

2003 2011

Department of Agriculture

$44 million $39.6 million

Department of Education

$6 billion $6.95 billion

Labor Department

$54.2 million $42 million

General Assembly

$30.3 million $38.6 million

Natural Resources

$111.2 million $93.8 million

University System

$1.67 billion $1.94 billion

Source: Office of Planning and Budget