Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers received more than $8,100 in taxpayer reimbursements for mailings, printing and newspaper inserts that he reported as campaign expenses, according to state records.
Rogers is the second Senate leader in recent months to have questions raised about expense money he received from the state. The GBI is investigating whether Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour, R-Snellville, filed false expense reports.
State officials are not allowed by law to bill taxpayers for campaign expenses. Rogers campaign officials said they have begun auditing the senator’s campaign reports.
Rogers’ lawyer, Doug Chalmers of Political Law Group, said it was “perfectly legal” for Rogers’ campaign to pay for constituent mailings and for the senator to seek reimbursement. “There is nothing improper, illegal or unethical in the way this was handled,” he said. “There was no unlawful taking of taxpayer funds or double dipping.”
Rogers, R-Woodstock, did not return phone calls or emails seeking a response.
The connection between Rogers’ reimbursements and campaign spending was first reported by Atlanta Unfiltered, an investigative website.
While some reimbursements date to 2003, most of the money was paid out earlier this year, when Rogers was preparing to run for re-election. He won the Republican primary in July and has no opposition in the general election.
Records show the state reimbursed Rogers $6,700 from February through May for printing and mailing costs. He then noted spending that amount for printing and mailing on his campaign disclosures.
Some of the invoices he turned in to the state for reimbursement list Friends for Chip Rogers, his campaign.
Rogers frequently mails and emails newsletters to constituents, and some of the invoices contain notations that the money was going for that purpose. The state allows lawmakers to use expense money to keep constituents informed about issues. Rogers signed and had notarized reimbursement forms swearing the expenses were “in performance of my duties … as a member of the General Assembly.”
Penalties in state law for willfully falsifying legislative expense reports include a fine up to $1,000 and as much as five years in prison.
William Perry, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause Georgia, said, “The law was set up to keep campaigns away from funding something like this.”
Senate expense accounts are not audited, and this is not the first time payouts have been questioned.
“The problem is there has not been oversight in this expense process for a really long time,” Perry said. “That has probably contributed to a level of laziness and lack of attention to detail [by lawmakers].”
The Senate Ethics Committee last month fined Balfour $5,000 for filing inaccurate travel reports to claim expenses. Balfour was also told to repay about $350 to the state for the lapses.
Balfour was accused of billing the state for mileage while out of town on lobbyist-funded trips and failing to create a subcommittee to audit all senators’ reimbursement vouchers.
Balfour, who had acknowledged mistakes in filing reimbursement claims, in March returned nearly $800 to the state based on a couple of instances. He then amended other reports after an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found eight additional instances where Balfour claimed reimbursement on days lobbyists reported buying him meals or lodging in other cities.
In 1998, Sen. Ralph David Abernathy III was convicted on 35 felony counts on charges related to the submission of false reimbursement requests to the Legislature. Abernathy, a Democrat, served about a year of a four-year prison sentence.
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