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State lawmakers' staffs collect employee bonuses

Banks and insurance companies aren't the only ones using taxpayer dollars to hand out employee bonuses.

Lots of federal lawmakers are doing it—including a majority of those from Wisconsin.

At least one Wisconsin legislator, Tom Petri, bumped up the pay of everyone on his congressional payroll with a bonus, paying out more than $100,000 late last year.

Petri spokesman Niel Wright cited "privacy concerns" in refusing to discuss the amounts and recipients of congressional bonuses.

"We're required to provide some information publicly," Wright said Friday. "We do what's required but don't want to go beyond that."

Most state lawmakers were eager to seize on public anger over hefty bonuses paid to executives at Wall Street firms receiving government bailouts. All but one voted to impose huge taxes on these payments.

But many of those same members of the House and the Senate were tight-lipped about their little-known practice of using tax dollars to dole out bonuses to workers. Those one-time employee rewards are paid out of surplus office funds that must be spent or forfeited.

For years, Capitol Hill bonuses have been distributed to employees near the end of the year. LegiStorm, which tracks payroll data, found that congressional bonuses last year were the highest in years.

Records show that four Wisconsin lawmakers—Tammy Baldwin, Gwen Moore, Jim Sensenbrenner and Petri—increased their payrolls more than 20 percent in the final three months of 2008. Much of those increases can be chalked up to bonus payments, staffers said last week.

Staff bonuses ranged from $500 to $5,000 for Sensenbrenner's team.

A spokeswoman for Baldwin said the Madison Democrat generally made lump-sum payments averaging $3,000 per employee at the end of the year. Records show one Baldwin aide got a $5,800 bump in late ‘08.

Bonus money comes from lawmakers' office accounts. Each year, House and Senate members are each given a set sum for office expenses, including salaries.

Some federal lawmakers return money they don't spend at the end of the year. U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl has given back millions in excess cash in the past, said his communications director, Lynn Becker. She declined to say how much he paid in bonuses last year, however.

Two Wisconsin legislators—Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. David Obey, both Democrats—never reward their employees with year-end payments.

"It's a long-standing (position)," said Ellis Brachman, Obey's press secretary. "The congressman doesn't do bonuses."

Rep. Ron Kind, who has awarded employee bonuses in the past, didn't last year because of the recession. But the La Crosse Democrat is the exception. Most House and Senate lawmakers take any surplus from their office accounts and divvy it up as merit pay among staff members.

Nobody in the Wisconsin delegation gives out more bonus cash than Petri. Wright, his spokesman, declined to go into detail about the year-end payouts, though he did confirm that everyone on the staff received one.

Records kept by LegiStorm show that Petri's payroll jumped $104,000 during the final three months of 2008, a 42 percent increase from the previous quarter.

That was by far the biggest jump of any Wisconsin lawmaker.