How much do Senators get paid? The answer to that question depends on which Senator you’re talking about and how you define “paid.”
Here’s how the calculations work:
The base salary for a State Senator is $10,400.
Depending on certain conditions (like whether he is a committee chairman) he gets paid something upwards of 11,800 in so-called expenses. Unless the Senator goes to the trouble of producing actual receipts matching the exact dollar figures, the “expense” money is treated as income for tax purposes. So, a junior Senator earns about $22,000 per year as a Senator.
Let’s look at a more interesting case such as Sen. Mike Fair (R-Greenville).
According to his most recent Statement of Economic Interest (SEI), Sen. Fair receives “expense” reimbursement in the following amounts:
Mileage Reimbursement
$4,101.00
Non-Reportable Subsistence
$11,004.00
Per Diem
$455.00
In District Expense
$11,800.88
Interim Expense
$650.00
Postage
$750.00
The “expense” money paid out to Sen. Fair totals $28,760.
In addition to his Senate “expense” money, Sen. Fair also collects $2,613 in “expense” money (including mileage reimbursement, per diem, and subsistence) for his service as the Senate’s representative on the Education Oversight Committee.
Thus, Sen. Fair receives a total of $31,374 in “expense” money for one year. It should be noted that no receipts are ever required to substantiate these “expenses” and there is no accountability to see that “postage” money is actually spent for “postage.”
Sen. Fair does not collect the $10,400 normally paid to Senators because he has opted to participate in the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS). GARS is a special system exclusive to legislators and completely separate from the troubled State Retirement System.
Sen. Fair’s GARS payout is $32,000 per year. That’s $2,666 in monthly gross retirement benefits, compared to $1,622 for police officers and firefighters, and $1,609 for retired teachers and general state employees, retirement system records show.
Combined with his various spots of “expense” money, Sen. Fair collects a combined takeout of $63,374 per year, or $253,500 over the course of a four-year term.
Not bad for a part-time job.
A closer look shows that while Senators get a generous “expense” reimbursement, they actually have few expenses other than driving back and forth to Columbia and occasionally getting a hotel room.
For instance, a committee chairman like Sen. Fair has a well-appointed office in Columbia with at least two full-time staffers and a couple of part-time pages. All the expenses for salaries, furniture, office equipment, supplies to outfit that office are paid out of the Senate’s budget.
Even though Sen. Fair collects almost $12,000 for “in district expense” and $750 for “postage” (the equivalent of 1,666 first-class stamps) he, again, has very little actual expense “in-district.” That’s because the legislature mandates that each county maintain a fully staffed and equipped legislative delegation office for their use. By law this office space, equipment, supplies, furniture, and staff are all paid for out of the county’s budget.
Greenville County supplies Sen. Fair and the other members of the delegation a fully equipped office with staff and a conference room at a cost of a little over $37,000 per year.
So, $63,300 per year of combined retirement benefits and “expense” money and few if any actual expenses for a part-time job. Not bad at all.
There are other perks of being in the Senate too:
Health Insurance: You can participate in the State Health system.
Free Meals: Almost every day the legislature is in Session, some special interest treats them to breakfast and lunch. Almost every evening there are two or three simultaneous receptions where Senators can hobnob with lobbyists and such, so they rarely have to actually buy a meal in Columbia.
Spend Campaign Funds on Yourself: You can also pay yourself out of your campaign funds. That’s right, under current ethics laws, lobbyist principals, PACs, and other special interests will make generous contributions to your campaign account and you can then convert this money to personal use by claiming it as an expense related to office you hold. In the last few years Sen. Fair has paid for his cell phone, iPad, and thousands of dollars worth of airline tickets and hotel rooms for “conferences” in exotic locales.
Since 2009 (which is all that is available online), Sen. Fair paid out thousands of dollars for personal items including direct payments to himself: $140 for a men’s retreat at his church; $170 to obtain a passport for a trip to Turkey; $2,560 for airfare; $5,743 for cell phone service; $1,750 in charitable contributions; $4,367 for conferences.
Also during this period, Sen. Fair paid himself $10,360 out of his campaign fund in 37 payments of exactly $280 each, classified variously as things like “Legislative Day Reimbursement,” and simply “Reimbursement.” (More of this to come)
Perhaps the job of State Senator carries a workload sufficient to justify the pay. If this is true, Mike Fair should come out and say it, not hide behind little pockets of “expense” money.
Two weeks ago, a local political blog broke the story of eight S.C. Senators who received an all-expenses paid trip to Turkey last October. We promptly picked up the scoop … although at this point no one seems to know the purpose of the trip, which was paid for by a little-known group called the “South Carolina Dialogue Foundation.”
Also unclear? Why one lawmaker – S.C. Sen. Mike Fair (RINO-Greenville) – failed to disclose this lavish gift on his statement of economic interest, as he is required to do by law.
What gives? Well, we may have picked up a scent …
Fair, one of the state’s most notorious panderers when it comes to social issues, has been the lead sponsor of legislation aimed at eradicating the nonexistent menace of sharia (i.e. traditional Islamic) law from South Carolina courtrooms. Is sharia law currently being used in South Carolina’s courtrooms? No. Is there a snowball’s chance in hell that it ever will be? No.
Fair has an abysmal fiscal record, though, and so each year he has to conjure up imaginary demons in an effort to deflect the public’s attention from his abject failure to protect our tax dollars.
Which brings us back to the “South Carolina Dialogue Foundation.”
This group isn’t just sending State Senators to Turkey, it’s sending South Carolina students, teachers and educrats there, too. In fact, the organization recently sponsored an “art and essay contest” which will send four high school students, their teachers and their superintendents on … wait for it … an “all expenses paid” trip to Turkey.
Earlier this week, Charleston County’s superintendent Nancy McGinley was warned not to participate in the trip.
Mike Fair: In Muslim Pockets?
In an email obtained by FITS, Sharon Higgins – a California woman who has extensively researched the organization – basically tells McGinley that the “South Carolina Dialogue Foundation” is nothing but a front group for a globalist Muslim movement that aims to one day (you guessed it) take over the world.
“The South Carolina Dialogue Foundation is one of the many organizations associated with the Gulen movement, a religious group which emerged in Turkey during the 1970s,” Higgins writes in the email. “Members follow the teachings of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric. Many people who know about the Gulen movement find its activities to be highly concerning and controversial. In some circles, the Gulen movement is viewed as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
In fact Gulen himself described his organization’s infiltration methods as follows ..
“You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers,” he said in a 1999 video. “You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it. The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web to wait for people to get caught in the web.”
Wow … and these guys have set up shop in South Carolina? And took the state’s preeminent Bible-thumping politician on an all-expenses paid trip? One which he failed to report?
Not only that, Gulen solicited donations to pay for these trips from Islamic donors with the promise that their money would go toward a “faithful” cause.
Hmmmm … is it becoming clear why Fair refused to follow the law and disclose his participation in this junket? We think so …
According to Higgins, the Gulen movement “sponsors many trips to Turkey, especially for academics, politicians, and other influential public leaders and officials, as well as for students attending Gulen schools and to some extent, their parents and teachers. The trips are Gulenist-guided and are a mechanism by which the Gulen movement’s social and political propaganda is gently inserted into the minds of travelers.”
Once the politicians return, they “typically parrot the views about the social and political situation in Turkey that they’ve been told” and “are even later called upon to perform favors.”
Higgins’ email includes numerous links to mainstream media coverage of the Gulen movement – including this CBS 60 Minutes piece.
Hmmmm …
Joining Fair on the trip to Turkey? State Senators Creighton Coleman (D-Fairfield), Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg), John Land (D-Clarendon), Phil Leventis (D-Sumter), John Matthews (D-Orangeburg), Mike Rose (R-Dorchester) and Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw).
None of them have offered anything resembling a rational explanation for the purpose behind the trip.
Several watchdog groups and elected officials give grades, or scores, to legislators based on their performance in office. Below is the list of scores Senator Mike Fair has received lately.
Mike Fair was first elected to the Statehouse in 1984 as a Representative. In 1995 he was elected to the Senate. Senator Fair serves the 6th district which is part of Greenville County.
There is no doubt that Senator Fair was a strong conservative when he began his career, but after 28 years on the job, he has compromised his conservative record by voting for an ever expanding State government and budgets.
In 2009 Senator Fair voted in favor of accepting the “Stimulus” money from the Federal Government. Although he was in the majority, accepting the stimulus placed South Carolinians in greater control of Federal mandates. The acceptance of the stimulus also grew the size of government in South Carolina.
In 2010 Senator Fair withheld his vote on a motion to recall H-3047 from committee. H-3047 was the “Roll Call” voting bill that finally made it to the floor of the Senate. Withholding his vote to recall this necessary statute was inexcusable.
In 2011 Senator Fair voted against a Senate Rule change that would have removed one objection to Roll Call voting. The rule change would have simply made the Senate Rules to accept a statute requiring Roll Call voting.
Senator Fair voted in favor of Amendment 152B an amendment that provided for tax incentives for NASCAR. While we are not opposed to NASCAR, providing tax incentives for some businesses without providing tax incentives for all businesses violates our belief in Free Markets and Capitalism.
In 2011 Senator Fair voted in favor of the most ridiculous tax incentive. S-533 was a “Retroactive Tax Incentive” for the Institute for Business and Home Safety, a business that had moved into Chester County years earlier. The passage of this bill gave $1 million dollars directly from the South Carolina Treasury back to an existing business as an economic incentive. While most incentives are based upon attracting new business into South Carolina this one was for an existing business. There was no provision for other existing businesses.
In 2011 Senator Fair voted in support of expanding State Health Care and providing incentives to encourage greater enrollment into the system. This is a system already plagued with shortfalls.
In 2011 Senator Fair withheld his vote on H-3003 the Voter I.D. bill. Although present, Senator Fair apparently could not make up his mind regarding the need for voters to identify themselves prior to casting a vote in South Carolina.
In 2011 South Carolina’s revenue grew by more than $200 million. When Senator Leatherman offered an amendment to provide an additional $105 million to schools throughout the State, Senator Bryant made a motion to table Senator Leatherman’s amendment and return a portion of the excess revenue to the taxpayers. Senator Fair voted in favor of providing the additional $105 million to school districts throughout South Carolina. Although Senator Fair claims to support School Choice and is opposed to Common Core Standards, providing $105 million in funding above the already approved budget for schools in South Carolina is contributing to the failed system we have now. There is little doubt that the opponents of School Choice will contend that there is not enough money to allow tax credits to those who choose to enroll their child into a non-public school. Maybe the $105 million could have made the difference.
In 2011 Senator Fair withheld his vote on an amendment 173 that would have returned excess tax collections to the taxpayer. Maybe the issue of returning excess revenue was too controversial for Senator Fair and he just didn’t want to be on the record either way.
Senator Fair voted in favor of the Amazon tax exemption. Once again Senator Fair displayed his belief in government picking the winners and losers in our “free market” system.
When the Amazon tax exemption was being debated, Senator Davis offered an amendment that would require transparency on future Economic Incentives offered to businesses. The Senate President ruled the amendment not germane to the bill under consideration. The President’s ruling was challenged and Senator Fair voted to uphold the President’s ruling.
Senator Fair voted in favor of overriding the Governor’s veto of the I-95 Corridor Authority. The I-95 Corridor Authority would have created yet another huge government agency that would have duplicated many responsibilities. The bill would give the agency the authority to manage the economy, education, infrastructure and even the leadership of the 17 South Carolina Counties along I-95. The agency is central planning on steroids and the antithesis of the free market.
In 2011 Senator Fair voted in favor of the largest budget in State history.
While Senator Fair maintains that he is a strong conservative, his voting record shows quite the opposite. The above votes are all that we can use in determining Senator Fair’s record because Roll Call voting was not required before. If left to Senator Fair we would never know how he voted.
Statements of Economic Interest have been in the news a lot lately, because almost 200 candidates challenging incumbent lawmakers were kicked off the ballot because they were not told they had to file one.
Incumbent legislators have exempted themselves from this rule because they already are required to file a SEI. But, as anyone who has ever spent much time looking at SEIs, these documents don’t really tell you very much about who is paying to influence legislators.
In October last year, Sen. Mike Fair, along with 7 other mostly Democrat colleagues, took an all expenses-paid 10-day junket to Turkey. The trip, which is estimate to have cost in excess of $56,000, was paid for by undisclosed Turkish interests but was not reported on Sen. Fair’s Statement of Economic Interest, as required by law, before this morning’s report. (Click here to view a slidehow of pictures from the trip)
Fair did not disclose the vacation even though the State Ethics Commission said that he was legally required to. When contacted by The Nerve, Sen. Fair admitted that he had not disclosed the gift noting that “It is my responsibility because I was invited as a senator.”
The junket to the majority Muslim country was officially sponsored by an organization called the South Carolina Dialogue Foundation. According to The Nerve, “The South Carolina Dialogue Foundation … paid $1,047 toward each senator’s trip … the projected $6,000 balance for each traveler was paid for by unidentified Turkish sponsors.” (full article featured below)
Asked if there were any state interest motivating the visit, Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) toldThe Nerve “I don’t know that there’s any state interest.”
Akif Aydin, the foundation’s president, told The Nerve that his organization has “no relationship to a government agency, either here or in Turkey.” He also told The Nerve that his organization “has no formal paid membership but relies on donations from members.”
Since this trip was exposed by The Nerve, Sen. Fair submitted an amended SEI showing that he accepted the trip, but he still refuses to disclose who actually paid for it. His amended filing shows that he accepted $1,047 from something called the “Turkish Dialogue Fund” but the remaining $6,000 he attributed to unidentified “Turkish Sponsors.”
Although South Carolina has a relatively small Turkish population and no major trade with Turkey, eight S.C. senators apparently thought it was important enough to go on a 10-day, all-expenses-paid trip to the Middle Eastern country last year.
The estimated individual $7,047 cost of the October trip was covered by a little-known nonprofit organization in South Carolina and unidentified sponsors in Turkey, according to statements of economic interests filed recently by most of the traveling senators with the S.C. Ethics Commission.
The getaway was the single-biggest gift in 2011 declared by members of either the Senate or House, according to The Nerve’s review of online S.C. Ethics Commission records.
Collectively, the projected cost of the trip was more than $56,000.
The eight senators who went on the trip were Creighton Coleman, D-Fairfield; Mike Fair, R-Greenville; Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg; John Land, D-Clarendon; Phil Leventis, D-Sumter; John Matthews, D-Orangeburg; Mike Rose, R-Dorchester; and Vince Sheheen, D-Kershaw.
Fair did not declare the Turkey trip on his statement of economic interests form filed on March 15, though he is seen on a trip video produced by the event’s organizer, the South Carolina Dialogue Foundation. For incumbent lawmakers, the annual statements, which also list their public income, were due by April 15.
Contacted initially Tuesday morning, Fair acknowledged he didn’t list the October trip but told The Nerve later Tuesday he would amend his statement of economic interests, noting, “It is my responsibility because I was invited as a senator.”
Cathy Hazelwood, the Ethics Commission’s attorney, told The Nerve that senators have to disclose the Turkey trip on their annual ethics forms.
As for the projected $7,000-plus cost of each individual trip, Hazelwood said if the South Carolina Dialogue Foundation were a registered lobbyist’s principal, it couldn’t offer the trip to lawmakers because lobbyists’ principals have a $60-a-day spending limit per lawmaker.
The foundation is not listed on the Ethics Commission’s website as a lobbyist principal. Given that, “it can pick who it wants to take on the (Turkey) trip,” Hazelwood said. State law allows lobbyists’ principals to extend event invitations to all lawmakers but not to select lawmakers, with the exception of legislative panels, caucuses and delegations.
The Turkey trip wasn’t the only overseas getaway taken by lawmakers last year, Ethics Commission records show. For example, Sheheen took a trip to Switzerland valued at $7,016 – the second-largest single gift last year to lawmakers in The Nerve’s review – and paid for by the American Swiss Foundation, according to his statement of economic interests. The foundation is not listed as a lobbyist principal.
Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence and chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, spent $3,544 last year on a trip to Paris, according to his statement of economic interests. The Nerve last year reported that Leatherman was among a group of state and local officials, including Gov. Nikki Haley, who attended – at taxpayers’ expense – the 49th International Paris Air Show.
Leatherman’s Paris trip was provided, according to his ethics form, by the North Eastern Strategic Alliance (NESA), a regional economic development organization serving a nine-county area in South Carolina’s northeast corner. The Nerve earlier reported that the General Assembly appropriated a total of $4.7 million for this fiscal year, which started July 1, to seven regional economic development groups, including NESA.
Leatherman serves on the executive committee of the NESA board, according to the organization’s website. NESA is not a registered lobbyist principal.
‘No relationship’ to Turkish government
The South Carolina Dialogue Foundation, which incorporated with the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office in September 2010, paid $1,047 toward each senator’s trip last year to Turkey; the projected $6,000 balance for each traveler was paid for by unidentified Turkish sponsors, Ethics Commission records for most of the senators show. (Land reported the foundation’s share of his trip though not the sponsors’ amount.)
The mission of the Greenville-based foundation is to “promote better understanding and closer relations between different ethnicities, races (and) cultures, including Turkish-American and American communities in South Carolina,” according to the organization’s website.
Contacted Tuesday, Akif Aydin, the foundation’s president, told The Nerve that his organization has “no relationship to a government agency, either here or in Turkey.” He said his organization has no formal paid membership but relies on donations from members, describing it as an “umbrella” group comprised of several smaller Turkish educational groups in South Carolina that have been active since 2000.
Aydin said that since 2002, the groups collectively have sent more than 100 South Carolinians, including local elected officials, clergy, business people and educators, on trips to Turkey. Last year’s trip involving the senators included visits to the country’s three largest cities – Ankara, the country’s capital; Istanbul; and Izmir – as well as to the archaeological site of the Biblical city of Ephesus, he said.
Aydin said the foundation paid for the senators’ flight to Turkey; while Turkish sponsors, which he described as individuals and groups not connected with the Turkish government, picked up most of the tab, which included lodging, meals and flight costs while in the country. Spouses of most of the senators also went on the trip, though the foundation or sponsors did not pay for their costs, he said.
The main purpose of the trip was to “give the opportunity to learn about another culture,” Aydin said. But he added a “side effect” is to “promote trade” between the United States and Turkey, noting that the senators met with Turkish business representatives in addition to visiting with government officials and local families.
The senators were selected for the trip not because of their titles per se, but instead because “they are leaders of their community,” Aydin said. However, in video testimonials about the trip posted on the organization’s website, Hutto, Land, Leventis, Matthews, Rose and Sheheen are all identified as senators.
The testimonials gush with praise for the country and trip organizers.
“Turkey is a beautiful country inhabited by beautiful people,” Hutto says on the video. “We were so impressed by the economic development, the commitment to education … It’s a great experience.”
In another video posted on the foundation’s website, Hutto and Leventis are pictured smiling while waving the Turkish flag.
“I didn’t come over here with any prejudice whatsoever, but I certainly leave here with such a wonderful, favorable and warm feeling for the people of Turkey,” Land says in his video testimonial.
“As far as the Muslim faith (is concerned),” Land continues, “I certainly have no prejudice against it, but at this point, I feel very secure and have good feelings for the Muslim faith.”
Regarding Turkey’s economic development plans, Land had this to say: “I believe your objective to grow Turkey into being one of, in the top five economic powers of this world is going to be a reality because I think all of the infrastructure is in place; it seems like the educational system is working … and I think everything is heading for a big success for Turkey.”
Just Sightseeing?
Contacted this week, Land, who announced earlier this year he is retiring from the Senate, told The Nerve that he didn’t discuss any legislation, budget issues or economic development projects in South Carolina with his Turkish hosts while on the trip.
“They were literally showing off their country, and they paid for it – except for our wives,” he said, describing the South Carolina Dialogue Foundation as “kind of like the Chamber of Commerce.”
Land said he doesn’t believe he was invited to Turkey because he is a senator, but rather because “I was perceived as a community leader.”
“Quite honestly,” the reason I wanted to go was because I’ve never been to Turkey,” Leventis, who also announced this year he is retiring from the Senate, said when contacted this week by The Nerve.
Leventis differentiated the Turkey trip from the Paris air show trip taken by other state officials last year, noting that the latter was taxpayer-funded. He also said the Turkey trip wasn’t his first overseas trip while serving as senator; he said he previously traveled to Taiwan and Greece, adding that mainly nonprofit groups covered the costs of those trips.
Although Leventis said he’s not “precisely sure why” the Turkey trip organizers wanted him to go, Turkish officials are “looking for export opportunities and what not, and probably are thinking about their profile here.”
Asked if there were any state interest in S.C. lawmakers visiting Turkey, Hutto told The Nerve: “I don’t know that there’s any state interest. There was no agenda other than to promote dialogue between the countries and friendship, and educate us about Turkey.”
Hutto pointed out, though, that legislators from Georgia and New York were in Turkey at the same time, adding that Turkish leaders might be interested in “developing relationships with nations about ports.”
Fair told The Nerve he wanted to go on the trip mainly for “the adventure of it all,” noting the highlight of the trip for him was a visit to the site of the Biblical city of Ephesus.
Fair also said he was on a “second tier of invitees” after other lawmakers declined their invitations, though he couldn’t recall which lawmakers didn’t want to go.
Rose, who other senators said helped organize the trip, told The Nerve that the he was invited by a representative of the South Carolina Dialogue Foundation to visit Turkey a couple of months after he attended a student arts contest in the Upstate sponsored by the foundation. He said his granddaughter won an award in the contest, and he introduced himself to the person who presented the awards.
He said he later met with Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon, whom he noted was on a “long list of prominent South Carolinians” who previously went on trips connected with the South Carolina Dialogue Foundation. He said Cannon “recommended that I go.”
“In this case, we had no agenda but to learn about Turkey and have them learn about America and South Carolina,” Rose said. He said, though, that if the trip “helps to create jobs and trade in South Carolina, that would be good.”
The Nerve this week left phone messages for Sens. Coleman, Matthews and Sheheen seeking comment, but did not receive a response from any of them by publication of this story.
