July 30, 2008
Limo vs. per diem
The JS is upset to say the least. Jack Fischer, the guy who got fired for spending too much on a trip to Europe, also hired a limousine in Minneapolis. (I'm not making this up.) The cost to taxpayers? $561. Senator Robert Cowles was really upset. "That's just pathetic," howled the Republican lawmaker.
OK. Fischer was stupid to hire a limo and charge it to taxpayers. But how much is $561?
Remember John Gard? He represented Peshtigo but lived in, and his kids attended school in, the much-maligned Dane County. Who cares? Well, in Gard's day legislators in Dane County got a per diem of $44 but those from outside Dane took $88 in addition to their pay and benefits.
If you divide Fischer's $561 by the $44 that Gard improperly charged taxpayers, you come up with just under 13 days of per diem at the $44 level. And Gard collected the extra 44 dollars every day he showed up to work. We are talking thousands of dollars and lots of limo rides.
Could we ask Senator Cowles if he expressed his outrage to fellow legislator John Gard? Somehow I suspect Cowles thought Gard's sin did not rise to the level of "pathetic."
Chief Roland Day: Former Chief Justice Roland Day passed away. A gregarious story teller, he had an enthusiasm for life, law and theater matched by few people. I drove him to Milwaukee for a meeting of the Bar and it was a history lesson. Day supported Bill Proxmire when Pay Lucey ran the Jim Doyle Sr. campaign. (Only people with white hair recall that Jim Doyle ran the national presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson in 1960.)
Day was understandably proud of his daughter Sarah's acting career at American Player's Theater. She is terrific.
A good man. Thanks, Justice Day.
OK, I must comment on the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens. Self-proclaimed Father of the Amateur Sports Act and lead cheer-leader for drilling in Alaska, he will not be missed in this corner. Now the amateur sports world will be forced to shape up.
Brett Favre: Bring him back or release him. C'mon. This is the 21st Century.
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