Wherever I go, one thing about the pay raise that people really “get” is the phony “unvouchered expenses” that give lawmakers their pay raise in mid-term. A conspicuous end-run around a perfectly clear constitutional prohibition, the unvouchered expense is a universal affront to taxpayers, despite having received our state Supreme Court’s seal of approval in a prior incarnation.

But for lawmakers, who have come to resemble the barnyard animal that gives us “the other white meat,” the pay-raise-masquerading-as-an-unvouch-ered-expense is nothing compared to “the other unvouchered expense” — the per diem. Because while the unvouchered expense for the pay raise will last only until after the 2006 election, the unvouchered expense called the per diem could last forever.

Per diems are extra cash — above and beyond abundant lawmaker salaries — that members of the House and Senate receive every day they are in session, and every day they attend official meetings (such as committee meetings) more than 50 miles from home.

The amount of per diems is set by the U.S. General Services Administration and varies from place to place based on the cost of doing business there. The current per diem for Harrisburg is $121. During July and August, the per diem for Harrisburg leaps to $145.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, per diems are supposed to be reimbursements for expenses related to business travel — food, lodging and incidental expenses. In order to receive per diem payments without having to report them as income, employees must give their employers vouchers — receipts — that prove what the employee spent and for what purpose.

Pennsylvania lawmakers, however, do not have to submit vouchers to their employers — all of us citizens — to get their per diems. All they have to do is submit a memo saying they attended an official meeting. So every day they come to Harrisburg for session, they not only charge us for their salary, but they charge us an extra $121 or $145 just for showing up. Yes, for the seven days in July they took to raise their salaries behind our backs, we paid them an extra $145 per day — a total of $1,015 extra.

And often, “showing up” is literally all they do. Lobbyists and advocates have become accustomed to committee meetings where lawmakers show up just long enough for the roll call (qualifying them for a per diem), only to leave before the actual business of the committee takes place.

Not surprisingly, it’s hard for our lawmakers’ employers — the citizens — to find out what we are paying our employees in per diems. You can’t just ask for a report — even for a prior year — and expect to get it. To get the per diem payments for all 203 members of the House, for example, requires submitting 203 separate requests. And before they will provide the information, which takes weeks, if it ever happens, they have to notify each lawmaker of the request.

Or maybe getting the truth about per diems just requires asking your own legislators to tell you, their constituents who can vote for or against them, all the facts about the per diems they collect.

Here are some questions every lawmaker should be required to answer:

n Now that you’ve raised your salaries by 16 percent to 54 percent, will you still collect per diems?

n How much money did you receive in per diems during 2004?

n What does that money represent — how many session days, committee meetings and other official meetings? What were your actual expenses for attending those meetings?

n How much money have you received in per diems so far in 2005?

n Why have you made it so difficult for people to find out how much money you’re being paid?

n Do you report per diems as income on your federal income tax form?

n Why shouldn’t per diems for lawmakers be the same as per diems for every other working person — reimbursements for actual expenses with receipts attached?