Rep. Powers tries to run legislative office with no staff
10:41 PM 2/10/03
Phil Brinkman State government reporter

Facing a double dose of budget cuts, more than 20 state legislators have forsworn pay raises - and one is trying to run his office with no staff.

State Rep. Mike Powers, R-Albany, said he had planned to announce his experiment in direct representation to the media. But one of the effects of running your own Capitol office is there's no one to schedule news conferences, Powers said after answering his own office phone Monday.

To help close an estimated $452 million gap in the current fiscal year, Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed cuts to most state operations, including trimming the Legislature's operations budget by $2.9 million. Far deeper cuts are likely to follow in the next two-year budget.

"To address those problems, it's going to take all of us sacrificing one thing or another," Powers said.

Powers, recently elected to a fifth term, gave his two staffers the option of jumping ship in December before other opportunities in the Legislature dried up. He's been answering the phone, opening mail and paying bills ever since.

Powers, 40, said he expects to hire some temporary, part-time help to deal with the deluge of phone calls he expects after the governor introduces his budget next week. But otherwise, he said, he plans to stick with the one-man show.

All representatives are entitled to at least one staffer, and many have more based on seniority, committee chairmanship and leadership positions.

Going without a staff means he'll have less time to craft legislation, Powers said, forcing him to focus instead on taking a position on bills introduced by others and respond to constituent requests.

"I'll have to do what everyone is doing, and that is take a good look at what's most important and use my time wisely," Powers said.

If he can pull it off - Powers says he intends to keep the solo operation for the remainder of his two-year term, ending in 2004 - he said the savings to the state could total $100,000 in salary and benefits for the two staffers.

Other legislators have opted to cut back on staff, travel and reimbursement for meals and lodging, Assembly Chief Clerk Pat Fuller said. Sixteen representatives, including Powers, and seven senators have so far declined 3 percent pay increases over the last session, to $45,569.

State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, one of those who is refusing the higher pay, said the move is an important statement in light of the deficit and unsettled labor contracts. But they pale beside more drastic solutions, one of which Black introduced Monday: To cut the size of the 132-member Legislature nearly in half, for a savings of $20 to $40 million a year.

"Not taking the pay cut is symbolic," Black said. "Cutting the size of the Legislature would be significant."