Feb 18, 2007
The party's over, so time to get to work
Paul O' Connor - Winston-Salem Journal

Life is bleak around the General Assembly these days. 
 
The former House speaker pleaded guilty to a federal felony this week, and the new lobbying law is taking all the fun out of life. 
 
Lobbyists are no longer allowed to pay for dinner, and the number of lobbyist-paid receptions, which are still legal, is way down. Things have gotten so bad that, as I reported last week, legislators are clipping coupons and checking out the two-dogs-fries-and-a-drink special at the lunch wagon on Bicentennial Mall. 
 
A number of legislators attended the Carolina basketball game Tuesday night, but Carolina lost to Virginia Tech and legislators had to pay for their tickets. (Although, tickets at face value amount to a great deal.) Several luxury-box owners at Raleigh's RBC Center say they have not invited legislators to hockey games this year, and regular fans (read: me and my buddies) report that the crowd is almost politician-free. 
 
Things are so bad that the legislative basketball team figures it may have to pay its own way down to Columbia when it plays against the South Carolina legislative team. And it's not clear whether the team will be able to partake in any lobbyist-paid activities down there, either. 
Isn't this great? 
 
With much of the partying being squeezed out of legislative service, the concept of getting the public's work done quickly might be reborn. 
 
"Why can't we be like Virginia?" one legislator asked rhetorically Wednesday afternoon. "They have a nice state, and yet they have their session and are out in about three months." 
 
If service in Raleigh is bleak, legislators might just decide to adopt some long-considered reforms. 
Session limits should be the first. If legislators aren't having their customary great time in Raleigh, they should agree to the Senate's long-standing plan to limit sessions to about four months. 
 
Legislators should also reconsider some old ideas designed to promote more efficient use of their time in Raleigh. Legislators should meet for a one-day organizational session, choose their leadership and then go home for a month. During that month, they could work at their regular jobs while the leaders chose committees, assigned offices and came up with a plan for the session.  
Individual legislators could schedule a one-day meeting with legislative staff to discuss the bills they wanted to be drafted for introduction.  
That would be a much better plan than wasting as much time as they have this year.  
 
Three-and-a-half weeks after session started, committees still aren't meeting regularly. Committee assignments in the House came out only Monday. In the past, legislators didn't mind the wait. Some were doing real work. But most were just enjoying the dinners and golf outings and gifts from lobbyists. Given how bleak Raleigh life is now, legislators might decide they'd rather be home. 
 
There's one other reform legislators should have the courage to implement - a pay raise for the 2009-10 General Assembly. At $13,951 a year, legislators are underpaid. They haven't gotten a raise in a decade, at least. Instead, they get a $104-a-day, seven-day-a-week expense stipend that is tax free for most of them. The low-salary and high-expense formula encourages legislators who do not have other jobs to extend the sessions. The longer they drag things out, the better off they are. Legislators should significantly increase their salaries and cap their expenses at some reasonable level. That would encourage shorter sessions. 
 
The new lobbying-reform law might just serve a real need. It should spur legislators to get their work done more efficiently and return home.