February 24, 2012 11:10 PM UTC

Hickenlooper Finally Invests Political Capital...In Per Diem Hike?

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone reports today, and who originally broke the story of the “stealth passage” in the GOP-controlled Colorado House last week of a 22% increase in the daily per diem rate paid to legislators from outside the Denver metro area:

Gov. John Hickenlooper said Thursday that he is sympathetic to lawmakers who live outside of Denver and believes they should get more money…

He said the current $150-a-day stipend that lawmakers receive sometimes doesn’t cover all of their expenses, and that some are “subsidizing” their service in the General Assembly.

It appears lawmakers will get more money, because one of the legislative leaders whose support would be instrumental to blocking the scheduled raise in per-diem said Thursday he would refuse to do that.

“I won’t support a late bill to decrease our travel allowance,” said Senate Majority Leader John Morse, D-Colorado Springs.

Malone reports that Rep. Mark Waller, who said earlier this week that legislation would be introduced again postponing implementation of this higher per diem rate, is not returning phone calls on the matter anymore. The fact is, it might be hard to find a legislator willing to carry that bill, given the unspoken enmity that person who face from every legislator who stood to benefit from the increase. We have been clear from the outset that legislators (and elected state officials generally) are undercompensated, and the problem with this legislation is primarily that it was passed without debate by ostensibly “fiscal conservative” House Republicans.

So folks, if Gov. John Hickenlooper wants to become the face of giving rural legislators a per diem pay hike, at the same time as the press announces a legislative budget deal resulting in the layoffs of hundreds of state employees, he’s entitled to do so. Indeed, there’s probably no one in the state better positioned to weather the criticism that would very predictably result.

But for a governor who professes “alarm” at the prospect of these layoffs, we have to wonder how such mixed messages will be received by voters trying to make sense of all this.