Over the weekend there was an article in the Orange County Register talking about how some legislators have managed to make big bucks by investing their per diem payments (for expenses associated with having to maintain two households) into real estate which then increased in value.
To this I would say… bravo! It seems to me that if we want legislators to be smart with OPM (other people’s money), we need them to be smart with their own.
We can haggle over appropriateness of per diem payments, the amount, and whether or not some of the fine lines that are walked in terms of taking the payments if you really only have one household, in Sacramento, and such.
But it should be obvious on the face of it that making prudent financial decisions with their own money is a good quality for legislators to have — since they are making important decisions about the finances of the state. I’d go back and re-read the article — and congratulate every one of those legislators who has figured out how to make a good return on investment with per diem money