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NS: MLAs “clean house” by re-examining maid expenses and more
By Paul McLeod, Metro Halifax
Source: Metro Halifax, April 29, 2010
[HALIFAX, NS] — MLAs reinstated a series of perks including maid services yesterday after accidentally throwing them out the window in the wake of the expense scandal.
In the first-ever public meeting of the Internal Economy Board on March 2 MLAs rushed to push through a series of reforms to open up the secretive system that led to the expense scandal.
That apparently left them with dirty apartments.
A $1,470 per month apartment allowance ($1,700 for cabinet ministers and opposition leaders) was previously given without need for receipts to cover everything from rental insurance to internet to parking.
At the March meeting receipts became required for rent, but everything else was left out. Yesterday, at the second open IEB meeting, MLAs amended the rules to once again include those other living expenses.
A motion from Liberal MLA Manning MacDonald had cleaning supplies and hiring maids added to the list of expensible items. The overall limit was not changed.
“It was always the case that members could claim cleaning supplies for their apartment and/or maid service,” said MacDonald, who said he personally did not use a maid. “It’s not something that was invented here today, it’s been done the 17 years I’ve been here.”
The IEB also decided not to pursue MLAs who refused to reimburse expenses that were within the rules but deemed “excessive” by the auditor general.
Of the 10 who made such claims five voluntarily paid back the amounts.
Four others, including former premier Rodney MacDonald, wrote in explaining why their items were justified. Former fisheries minister Ron Chisholm never responded at all. But Speaker Charlie Parker said yesterday there was no legal means to demand repayment.
MLAs also voted to have regular, monthly bills such as office rent paid directly from the government. Tory MLA Murray Scott proposed the motion saying it would cut down on MLAs making mistakes in filing expenses.
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Comments:
Here’s the thing. If MLA’s aren’t capable of submitting expenses without “mistakes” as suggested by Murray Scott, then how are they capable of running our province without mistakes????? Is anyone besides me at all disturbed by the implications of Mr. Scott’s motion? I say the motion is correct, but not because MLA’s aren’t capable — but because they have been taking unfair advantage of taxpayers with unjustifiable expenses and expense levels, and have shown themselves to be short on fiscal honor and integrity.
Maid service and/or cleaning expenses for their apartments on top of the allowance received to have the apartment? Can I claim this on my income tax? Do these same members also have an office allowance for the city? Is the business of the riding carried out in the apartment?
And they’re back.. Like scavengers……… like seagulls flocking to pick clean the bones of a carcass, the carcass being the people of Nova Scotia……. We catch them, and make a big noise, and they scatter and claw their way over one another to safety but as soon as the sound of the shot subsides slightly they swoop back in…
These thieves are not afraid of us!! They panicked at first and started doing the right things , or gave the illusion that they started, and then reaffirmed their belief that they were above the law, and that we as a people were powerless to stop them…. so they are back, and rethinking the things they agreed were wrong, and VOTED them back in……. where are we for those votes. “THERES NO LEGAL MEANS TO DEMAND PAYMENT!!” hahahahahaha…… tooo much.
Aren’t you the lawmakers? How is there legal means for us to pay for your bachelor pads away from home, and then the parking and the MAID to clean up the liquor bottles and condoms after one of your after hours deliberatons on whether or not it’s right to have a bankrupt public pay for your next Big Screen and backup Generator to power it in case theres a blackout during Grey Cup. I mean Parliament.
You are all an atrocity. An affront to morality.A frigging JOKE to humanity. The most corrupt bunch of weasels on the face of the earth and possibly in the history of man. This brotherhood of thievery and smug feeling of entitlement WILL come to an end. Even if the voters don’t band together and force your hand. The pulse of your prey is weakening. Taxpayers are becoming as extinct a species as other endagered prey. And as we become less and less able to pay, your dynasty of evil will crumble and fail. And when you are ousted from your ivory towers, when anarchy prevails, a new pecking order will surely come from that. You are all on the end of your rides.
My kingdom for one honest man.
The province is not being run like a business besides those business people who are robbing their employers. in this case, they are robbing EVERYONE who lives here.
As a small business, one can claim “a portion” of cleaning supplies/expenses for their office location, but not their home. And, I stress, “a portion”. If you run your business out of your home, for example, you cannot claim cleaning expenses for your entire home but only the portion in which you designate for business. Additionally, by no means are you permitted to claim your living expenses. This goes back to the original issue of double dipping such as getting a dauly meal per diem AND remitting receipts for meals. I certainly don’t get a per diem that I can in turn put towards groceries. If MLAs have an office outside of their home, that should be what they claim. Not their $1,700/month for “living expenses”. Isn’t the $80,000 + $40,000 +++ enough to cover your cost of living??? And then you wonder why so many Nova scotians are barely earning $1,700 per month?? It’s because the private sector has to make cut-backs due to high property taxes, payroll taxes, sales taxes, (and the list goes on), and cut-backs mean layoffs. That, and, the system is set up so that the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Leave it to a dozen key players (outside of government) to make a healthy living, and the rest may as well be considered slaves.