All Arizona senators receive a salary of $24,000 a year, but are also entitled to living expenses and per diems while in Congress. The Senate Majority Leadership Team this week asked state leaders to consider denying living expenses, at least temporarily.
The state Senate adjourned on Tuesday, June 13, and is scheduled to resume on July 31. If all senators continued to collect living expenses during recess, the total cost to the state would be about $83,944 before taxes.
Senators residing in Maricopa County are eligible to receive $10 a day for living expenses. Senators who formally reside outside of Maricopa County may be paid even more. They can collect $119 per day.
Since the Senate is in session for at least 120 days and has not officially ended, it is still eligible to receive a living allowance intended to pay for lodging and food near the Capitol.
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All state senators may opt out of receiving a per diem. You can also set an end date for your request when you submit your documents. Essentially, if senators don’t need to travel during the holidays, they can ask for per diem payments to resume starting July 31.
The request from Senate Majority Leaders comes just a month after Judge Flagstaff reversed an injunction against a Capitol Times, Arizona reporter who was working to verify Senator Wendy Rogers’ residency claim. rice field.
As a district representative that covers most of Flagstaff, Ms. Rogers officially resides in Coconino County and is eligible for benefits. The cost of living is $119 per day.
At the time Rogers filed the harassment injunction against reporter Camryn Sanchez, Sanchez was living in one of two houses owned by the senator primarily in Maricopa County and was a regular visitor to Flagstaff. I was looking into a rumor that I didn’t commute to work.
Sanchez visited both Rogers residences using address information he found in public records. One of them took place around dusk on April 19th. On both occasions, Sanchez wore a press card. In neither case did she enter the Rogers home.
The senator issued a press release arguing that “no sane person” should knock on the door of an uninvited home. She filed a restraining order with the Flagstaff Court of Justice, asking that she be barred from entering the Capitol building where Sanchez and the two women work.
Rogers also characterized Sanchez’s behavior as eerie, noting that Sanchez asked reporters to stay away from him on the Senate floor at the time. In his motion for the injunction, Mr. Rogers argued that he had no legitimate purpose in contacting Ms. Sanchez and that any reasonable person would find the reporter’s behavior intimidating or unsettling.
Judge Howard Grodman ultimately ruled against the injunction, stating that “investigative journalism is a legitimate purpose” under the law.
Sierra Ferguson can be reached at sierra.ferguson@lee.net.
