Do you know what your state legislator is doing when not writing or voting on laws? It’s more difficult to answer than it should be, so we’ll try to explain and illustrate the complexity of lawmakers and their outside interests.
Pennsylvania lawmakers with natural-gas leases have voted on legislation affecting Marcellus shale development. A senator who sat on the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee voted on a bill that resulted from a composting project in which his company played a role. Two lawmakers with funeral homes have been portrayed as standing in the way of a funeral industry overhaul.
Outside employment is a potential trouble spot for a Legislature battered in recent years by ethical lapses. Here’s a primer on some key issues.
A state legislator sits on a committee and votes on bills that could affect his outside financial interests. Is this OK?
Yes. Under Pennsylvania law, it’s legal, provided the legislator doesn’t derive any extra or special benefit from the legislation in question.
Who writes the rules?
The gilded bronze Commonwealth statue as seen from the roof of the Capitol. (Christine Baker/The Patriot-News)
Ethics guidelines for state legislators come from the state Constitution, the state Ethics Commission and the House and Senate.
Critics have long said that the Ethics Commission lacks teeth and that the Legislature has failed to write strong ethical rules for itself or police its members.
What does a Pennsylvania lawmaker earn? What about in other states?
Pennsylvania legislators are some of the highest paid state lawmakers in the nation.
Even before factoring in outside income, lawmakers here make more than the state’s median household income of $52,007. For the final year of the 2013-2014 term, they drew a base salary of about $84,000, second only to the $90,500 in base pay that California lawmakers receive, according to 2014 data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Pennsylvania lawmakers also get up to $159 for each day they spend in Harrisburg, and legislative leaders get still more pay because of extra responsibilities.
Pennsylvania has one of only 10 full-time assemblies in the nation, according to the NCSL. Pennsylvania’s assembly is one of only three that the conference describes as “full time, well paid” with a “large staff.”
What types of jobs do lawmakers hold outside the Capitol?
At least 36 of the state’s 50 senators and more than half of the state’s 203 representatives had second jobs or other outside financial interests, excluding a spouse’s salary, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s review of the lawmakers’ statements of financial interest.
Some lawmakers were attorneys, accountants or insurance agents. Others own small businesses or rental properties or have energy company interests.
What other work does your legislator pursue?
What salary limits are in place for those other jobs?
None, really. There are no specified restrictions on income from outside interests.
Why not?
Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, has tried to push reform. He introduced a bill that would limit legislators’ outside income to 35 percent of their state salaries.
The legislation died without coming up for a committee vote.
The bill had “very few co-signers, which shows me they’re not interested,” Mr. DeLuca said of his colleagues.
“We’re going to continue to push it though,” Mr. DeLuca said. “I think it’s the right thing to do. This is a full-time job. We make full-time wages. We have good benefits.”
Mr. DeLuca’s uphill battle doesn’t surprise Rachel Paine Caufield, associate professor of political science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and associate director of the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement.
“The people who make the rules are not often excited to make rules that limit themselves,” she said.
What does the public know about extra income their representatives earn?
Activist Gene Stilp's inflatable is a well-known sight to political observers on the Capitol’s steps.
(Dan Gleiter/The Patriot-News)
Pennsylvanians are largely in the dark. Statements of financial interest require only that a lawmaker report all sources of income totaling $1,300 or more and provide limited information about employment and company ownership.
New York, on the other hand, requires lawmakers to specify an income range — “1,000 to under $5,000,” ”$5,000 to under $20,000” and so on — for each source of outside income. Those disclosure requirements led to revelations that New York’s top three legislators jointly raked in as much as $1.1 million practicing law on the side last year.
Pennsylvania disclosure requirements often make it difficult to know what work a lawmaker does for a company.
Worse, there’s no disclosure about whether the company does business with, or gets money from, the state.
On his 2013 statement, Rep. Mark Mustio, R-Moon, listed fellow Rep. Nicholas Miccarelli, R-Delaware County, as a source of income. The form required no additional details, and Mr. Mustio provided none. In an interview, Mr. Mustio said he rents a room to Mr. Miccarelli in Harrisburg.
Could a lawmaker having an outside job be a good thing?
Rep. Scott Petri, R-Bucks County, chairman of the House Ethics Committee during the past term, thinks yes.
Mr. Petri said he believes the Legislature has fewer career members because lawmakers have the freedom to pursue outside opportunities.
Sen. Elder Vogel, R-Beaver County, sat on the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee last term while holding a gas lease on what he described as a small piece of his family’s farm. The committee gets an early chance to vet energy-related legislation. He said he does not believe that his lease poses a conflict of interest and noted that other lawmakers are in a similar situation.
“We have attorneys here,” Mr. Vogel said. “We have bankers here. We have insurance agents here. At some point in time, you’re going to vote on some piece of legislation your profession is involved in.”
Why does any of this matter?
The Capitol's rotunda interior in Harrisburg. (Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette)
Legislators might vote in their own personal interest instead of in their constituents’ interest. They could also write legislation that benefits them instead of the public as a whole.
Tom Homer, former legislative inspector general for Illinois, believes legislators should be free to pursue outside financial interests but said that “does bring a special set of problems. It is natural members would vote, you know, their interests.”
So wait, has a lawmaker ever actually cited his or her conflict of interest and abstained?
Recusals are rare.
In response to a Post Gazette right-to-know request, the Senate could provide only 15 examples, dating to 2011, of members asking to abstain from a vote because of a possible conflict related to outside financial interests or other reasons. In each case, the presiding officer directed the senators to vote.
Two examples:
* In December 2013, Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-Bucks County, asked whether he should abstain from voting on the appointment of his mother to a $57,000-a-year seat on the state Unemployment Compensation Board of Review. Told there was no conflict of interest, Mr. McIlhinney joined in the unanimous vote confirming his mother and nominees to other boards.
* In June, Sen. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon, asked whether he should abstain from voting on a bill regulating bio-similar drugs, saying his wife worked as an independent contractor for a company making the pharmaceuticals. Told to vote anyway, he was one of six senators to vote against the bill, which later stalled in the House.
In an interview, Mr. Smith said he sought a ruling out of abundance of caution and was comfortable with the presiding officer’s decision.
He said he could not immediately recall why he voted against the bill.
Tomorrow: More questions, more answers. Sunday and Monday, a more detailed look.
Joe Smydo: jsmydo@post-gazette.com
First Published: December 18, 2014, 9:30 a.m.