Roll Call has clearly been spending some time on our site. The paper used LegiStorm's data for two stories on congressional employees this week.
In today's story Paul Singer looks at shared employees; staffers who provide IT or bookkeeping services to more than one office:
"According to payroll data compiled by LegiStorm, the salaries of many of these shared employees have skyrocketed over the past few years. For example, Susan Anfinson, a financial aide, earned just over $40,000 in 2003 from eight Congressional offices. In 2007, according to payroll records complied by LegiStorm, she earned over $141,000 in paychecks from 13 different offices.
Several shared employees have more than doubled their salaries in the past five years, according to LegiStorm¹s data. April Blankenship, a financial staffer for Republicans and Democrats, earned just under $50,000 in 2003 and just over $147,000 in 2007; Paul Nenninger earned under $73,000 in 2002 and about $159,000 in 2007, all from Texas Republicans. Thomas Gallagher, an IT staffer, earned about $49,000 in 2005 and over $105,000 in 2007."
And on Monday, Singer used LegiStorm's data to learn that some senior staffers took home more pay than the members they worked for, especially when the staffers earn money both from the congressional office and the member's campaign:
"For example, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) earned a Congressional salary of $165,200 in 2006. Steven Paikowsky, who served as her chief of the staff at the time, took a pay cut from about $156,000 in 2005 to about $107,000 in 2006, went on part-time status in the Congresswoman's office and earned an additional $171,500 as a campaign consultant for Wasserman Schultz and other candidates.
Eric Johnson, chief of staff for Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), earned about $149,000 in Congressional pay in 2006, according to payroll records compiled by LegiStorm. He also earned $62,000 in campaign income that year, for about $50,000 more in earnings than Wexler."
Senior staffers are required to file personal financial disclosures including information on outside income, such as campaign work. LegiStorm makes researching such combined salaries easier, as we are the only place on the web with staffers' financial disclosures and staffer salaries.
As another story using our data pointed out, staffers making more than a certain amount of income are limited in how much they can make from other sources. Roll Call's story this week included a few instances were staffers had to refund money they'd made through a campaign because they'd violated the outside income limit.
Roll Call points out that many staffers set their congressional salary just below the threshold where outside income limits and the requirement to file a financial disclosure apply.
