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Pa. speaker defends driving expenses

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai got a bump in status and pay when his colleagues elevated him to the top position in the chamber.

House Speaker Mike Turzai had staffers drive him to and from events between Harrisburg and his district. (AP, File)
House Speaker Mike Turzai had staffers drive him to and from events between Harrisburg and his district. (AP, File)Read more

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai got a bump in status and pay when his colleagues elevated him to the top position in the chamber.

He also started using members of his staff to drive him - or with him - to and from Harrisburg, his Pittsburgh-area district, and other events.

State records show Turzai's office regularly reimbursed staffers between mid-December and mid-March for expenses related to shuttling him to events or on the 220-mile stretch between Harrisburg and his district outside Pittsburgh. The records, obtained under the Right-to-Know law, also show Turzai had a staffer drive him or with him - the speaker sometimes does the driving - to and from the Capitol during five out of the six legislative session weeks between early January and mid-March.

In some instances, a staffer drove Turzai to his home district then was reimbursed for a bus or train ride back to the capital. Other expenses paid by his office included meals purchased along the western stretch of the turnpike and, on a very few occasions, an overnight hotel stay.

Together, the three months worth of expenses totaled a few thousand dollars.

An Allegheny County Republican who has built a reputation as a fiscal conservative, Turzai bristled Friday at any questioning of the reimbursements. He said that he had never had a full-time driver and that any staffer who accompanies him on the road typically spends the time working on office matters.

As speaker, Turzai uses his own car, not a state vehicle. He said he puts roughly 70,000 miles on his car a year because he travels so much and recently bought a used car after turning in one with more than 250,000 miles.

He also noted that Gov. Wolf has a full-time security detail that chauffeurs him around the state.

"For someone in any way to [question] me when I have three little boys and a wife back home and I'm all over the state doing my job - and doing it at an unbelievably reasonable price because I am so cost-conscious - when the governor runs around with a detail, is disrespectful," Turzai said in an interview.

Good-government advocate Eric Epstein, long critical of perks and other benefits that public officials get, said using staffers for driving a legislator would be a "waste of scarce taxpayer dollars."

"The speaker does not need a driver," Epstein said, even if he needs to get work done on the road. "He can access WiFi, buy a bus ticket, and secure a Bluetooth."

To be sure, Turzai is not the only legislator who has used staff to drive to and from the capital.

House Majority Speaker Dave Reed (R., Indiana), for instance, on occasion drives to Harrisburg with his policy adviser, who is based in his district office, as do several other legislators who have staffers based in their home offices.

And it used to be a well-established, though not often publicly discussed, practice for legislative leaders to house someone on the payroll to chauffeur them.

Some even had drivers on staff. Former House Speaker Bill DeWeese, a Democrat from the western part of the state, had a part-time driver until 2008.

"That was an old, old, old-school thing," said one high-ranking legislative staffer who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. "You don't see that anymore."

DeWeese, reached for comment, offered a different perspective, calling the speaker's job "one of the most challenging assignments" in the state.

"This is not Rhode Island, this is not Delaware," said DeWeese, who was convicted and imprisoned on political corruption charges in 2012. "This is a big state with a lot of people. If you are going to be hands-on, you need help navigating the highways and byways of the commonwealth."

Since the infamous legislative pay raise of a decade ago - and the well-publicized corruption trials of legislative leaders since - lawmakers have become more sensitive to the public distaste for any perks afforded elected officials.

Turzai's staff said the speaker opts not to take per diems, the daily accommodation rate legislators get when they come to the capital. Instead, they said, he stays with friends or staffers in Harrisburg.

They also say he puts in frenetic hours because he cares deeply about the work - so frenetic that often his staffers can get time with him only when he is on the road.

"We know how darn hard he works every single day," said Turzai spokesman Jay Ostrich.

He added: "And we all know how frustrating it can be to get a moment of his time where we can get substantive things done. This is a way we can do that and be fiscally responsible all at the same time."

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