Bonuses are easier to give when someone else is paying

When Democrats were swept out of Congress in November, a lot of their staffers were left scrambling for jobs, which is never a good place to be.

But a number of those soon-to-be-out-of-work staffers got a soft landing, thanks to the generosity of their immediate bosses, the congressmen they worked for. It seems safe to assume that if their bosses who actually pay the bills — that is the taxpayers — had been given a direct say, things might have been different.

It should be pointed out that in this area most of the attention has fallen on the largess of Democrats, whether they were leaving office or staying. But that’s more a reflection of electoral demographics than anything else.

Nationally, Republicans proved to be every bit as capable of spreading the taxpayers’ money around to their staffs as were Democrats.

The figures on end-of-year Congressional bonuses were compiled by a watchdog group, LegiStorm, and figures for all 435 U.S. House districts are available at legistorm.com.

As LegiStorm’s synopsis notes, “nearly 1 in 10 House members paid at least six-figure bonuses to their staffs last year after a hard-fought election. Most who paid such bonus packages were defeated in the election or retired — with most of those departing being Democrats, of course, given the election tilt toward the GOP. But three of the top four bonus payers last year who remained in office were Republicans.”

And the most generous member of Congress was also a Republican, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, who was retiring from Congress and felt it appropriate to give bonuses that more than doubled her office’s fourth-quarter payroll.

Closer to home

Not far behind her was Western Pennsylvania Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper of Erie, who was defeated after one term, and also more than doubled her payroll costs in the fourth quarter. Her staff got by on $197,960 in July, August and September, but raked in $404,846 in October, November and December — even though most only worked about half the month in December.

Two local Democrats who were turned out of office also showed their appreciation to loyal staff members.

Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-6th, St. Clairsville, gave a total of $119,129 in salary increases, bonuses and unused vacation pay at year’s end. U.S. Rep. John Boccieri of Alliance, D-16th, spent $85,561 more on his staff in the fourth quarter.

Re-elected congressmen also felt a need to spread around a little spare cash at the year’s end. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, paid his people $94,514 more in the fourth quarter than the third. And U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette of Bainbridge, R-14th, continued his practice of giving $70,000 to $80,000 in year-end payments to his 18 employees. The amount at the end of 2010 was $74,181.

Each of these elected officials justified their bonuses in one way or another, but dozens of other House members — admittedly a small minority — had no need for explanations or excuses. They paid no discernible bonuses. Of the 20 most frugal members LegiStorm identified, 14 were Democrats and six were Republicans.

It is a sad commentary that so many of the 435 men and women in the House have become so out of touch with the average taxpayer. They show great concern for their already well-paid staff members without giving a second thought to their faceless constituents — the ones footing the bill.