Legislators have their own mini-scandal

The Salt Lake County gas/car scandal, which has cost two county employees their jobs, has dribbled into the Utah Legislature.

And I predict, based on years of covering the 104-member part-time body, that legislators will settle this scrap as they have others in the past: They will find a way to just give themselves a flat-rate car allowance and avoid messy questions of "double-dipping" or faking mileage forms.

A brief history: House Majority Leader Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, who hopes to be elected speaker after the November elections, during the 2004 Legislature was Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman's chief legal counsel. As counsel, he got a county car and credit card with which he bought gasoline, car washes, etc., for the vehicle.

Curtis drove his county car, with county gas, up to the Capitol during the January and February 45-day session. But he also filled out legislative mileage forms, getting in theory gas money for the daily round trips from home to Capitol. He got nearly $800 — as he had for years when he was driving his private car to Capitol Hill.

When the county gas/car scandal broke, Curtis says he realized what he had inadvertently done, and cut the House a personal check for the legislative mileage. After Democratic Party leaders lambasted him for saying politics was involved in all the finger pointing, he also took full responsibility for his actions, saying he just routinely filled out the mileage forms every two weeks during the session, just as he had in previous sessions, and didn't purposely "double dip."

House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, a long-time friend and ally of Curtis', said he shouldn't have done it, and maybe it's time that the Legislature's mileage forms said something like this in bold print: "Only For Use With Private Vehicles."

I've known Curtis for a while, and if he says his double-dipping was an oversight, I'll go with that.

But what's happened here has a deeper seat.

Utah legislators are underpaid. They put in long hours. Most, I believe, try to do what they really feel is right. Point is, legislators have a feeling of entitlement brought on by what they see as the sacrifice of public service.

Big-shot lobbyists and other political types constantly stroke them, telling them how important they are, praising the value of their work. Legislators are looked up to in their communities, and so on and so on. Some lawmakers get big heads over it all.