Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst and the Hartford Courant have recently called attention to legislators using mileage reimbursement to increase their compensation and pad their pensions.
Connecticut has a part-time legislature. State senators and representatives receive a salary of $28,000 per year for their service plus mileage reimbursement. Because it is a part-time legislature, most state politicians have jobs or other sources of income outside of the state legislature.
There were 251 working days in 2015. Legislators who received mileage reimbursement claimed anywhere from 1 to 245 trips from their hometown to the capitol.
Yankee Institute obtained the mileage and reimbursement figures for all state senator and representatives through a Freedom of Information request. The response from the Office of Legislative Management is available here. The documented dates for reimbursement range from 2013 in some cases through October of 2015.
Below is a list of the 15 lawmakers who logged the most trips over a 12-month period ending with the last month listed in the documentation. (The reimbursements have been adjusted to reflect the same 12-month period as the trips. For full documentation of all mileage reimbursements see the document from OLM.)
- Sen. Joseph J. Crisco Jr. (D-Woodbridge)
- 245 trips
- $11,758
- Rep. Jack Hennessy (D-Bridgeport)
- 231 trips
- $14,557
- Rep. Lonnie Reed (D-Branford)
- 207 trips
- $10,206
- Sen. Mae Flexer (D-Killingly)
- 203 trips
- $11,920
- Rep. Claire Janowski (D-Vernon)
- 198 trips
- $3,856
- Sen. Martin Looney (D-New Haven)
- 197 trips
- $9,033
- Rep. Joe Aresimowicz (D-Berlin)
- 177 trips
- $3,039
- Rep. John Hampton (D-Simsbury)
- 174 trips
- $3,125
- Rep. Louis P. Esposito, Jr. (D-West Haven)
- 161 trips
- $8,932
- Rep. Toni Walker (D-New Haven)
- 156 trips
- $8,400
- Rep. Leonard Fasano (R-Wallingford)
- 156 trips
- $6,256
- Rep. Larry Butler (D-Waterbury)
- 155 trips
- $5,324
- Rep. Kevin Ryan (D-Norwich)
- 146 trips
- $7,038
- Sen. Theresa Gerrantana (D-New Britain)
- 144 trips
- $2,309
- Sen. Catherine Osten (D-Columbia)
- 142 trips
- $7,297
