K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Outgoing Democrat Representative Dave Obey's Midnight Bonuses

Michael Horne:

Retired Rep. Dave Obey, the Wausau Democrat who was known for running a lean congressional office, left office after giving a nice taxpayer-funded gift to his staff in the form of an 84 percent salary bonus. Obey ranked eighth among all 435 members of the House of Representatives in his fourth quarter generosity to staff.

The practice of jacking up fourth quarter salaries for staffers is something that several members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation - led by Republican representatives Thomas Petri (Wisconsin's 6th District), F. James Sensenbrenner (5th Dist) and Democrat Gwen Moore (4th Dist.) - have engaged in over the last decade.

DAVE OBEY
The "4th Quarter Bonus," as it has been called by Capitol insiders, is now documented thanks to the researchers at LegiStorm, an organization that catalogues and categorizes Congressional financial data. Congressional salary data is reported quarterly and was released March 1. In every year, there is a pronounced spike in fourth-quarter staff salaries that averages 20 per cent among members of the House of Representatives.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, fueled by bonuses that were largely fed by departing members - mostly retiring or defeated Democrats like Obey - congressional staff salary expenditures exceeded $200 million for the first time, totaling $201.7 million. LegiStorm reported that bonuses were nearly twice as large for staffs of departing House members as they were for continuing members.

Related: US debt clock: The outstanding public debt as of 3/13/2011 @ 8:01:46p.m. is $14,175,382,249,980.58 which is $45,698.37 per citizen.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 14, 2011 3:56 AM
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