There’s a new website called LegiStorm that allows you to look up what the members of Congress pay their staffs.  My US Representative is Virginia Foxx and she paid her staff $167,538.89 from 1/1/06-3/31/06, or in other words the first quarter of the year.  If the payroll stays consistent then her payroll for Foxx’s staff for the year will be about $670,000. If you include the Congresswoman’s salary of $165,200 for the year then the overall payroll for her office is $835,200. Here’s the breakdown by staffers with quarterly income and then the estimated yearly amount:

• Rep. Foxx, Member, $41,300.00 ($165,200.00)
• Richard Hudson, Chief of Staff, $27,941.67 ($111,766.68)
• Deana Young Funderburk, Legislative Dir., $18,750 ($75,000.00)
• W Todd Poole, District Director, $15,000.00 ($60,000.00)
• Robert Honold, Legislative Asst., $11,000.01 ($44,000.04)
• Amy Auth, Press Secretary, $9,624.99 ($38,499.96)
• Christopher Wall, Legislative Asst., $9,000.00 ($36,000.00)
• Michael Church, District Caseworker, $8,750.01 ($35,000.04)
• Aaron Whitener, Field Rep, $8,375.01 ($33,500.04)
• Mary Carpenter, Executive Asst., $8,000.01 ($32,000.04)
• Joshua Wall, Constituent Liaison, $7,749.99 ($30,999.96)
• Erica Shrader, Legislative Corresp., $7,500.00 ($30,000.00)
• Rebecca Potts, Constituent Liaison, $6,750.00 ($27,000.00)
• Emily Beth Richardson, Constituent Liaison, $6,624.99 ($26,499.96)
• David Ward, Jr., Staff Asst., $6,458.33 ($25,833.32)
• Teddie Hathaway,Shared Employee, $5,499.99 ($21,999.96)
• Carrie Church, Part-time Employee, $3,750.00 ($15,000.00)
• Lindsay Moore, Part-time Employee, $3,000.00 ($12,000.00)
• Nicole Gustafson, Shared Employee, $3,000.00 ($12,000.00)
• Jeff Stockdale, Staff Asst., $763.89 ($3,055.56)

So if you include Rep. Foxx herself you could look at her office as a small business "owned" and financed by we members of NC’s 5th Congressional District with 20 employees, 14 of whom are full time, and a total payroll of about $835,000.  This is another reason why we truly need to work hard to hold our representatives accountable; not only are they setting the direction for our country they are also a considerable investment of our money and resources.  And remember this is payroll; it doesn’t include other expenditures of the Member’s office or even the employees’ benefits.

Now I’m not being critical of Rep. Foxx or her employees here. (If you look at the comparison of all NC Representatives she has the second lowest payroll).  No one is getting rich off of these salaries, especially those who are working in her DC office.  Even Mr. Hudson’s six-figure salary doesn’t go that far when you take into account the DC housing market.  And those lower level staffers who work in DC aren’t in it for the money.  They’re either doing it out of idealism, or they’re putting their time in before they leave the Hill to make their financial futures on K Street, or maybe both.  Still, this is a significant investment of our taxpayer finances and we need to keep an eye on it.

So how does Rep. Foxx compare to her NC counterparts in the house?  Here’s the payroll for each Rep.’s office, including the member’s pay, for the first quarter of 06 with projected annual numbers in parentheses:

• Rep. Butterfield, D-1st, $266,157.44 ($1,064,629.70)
• Rep. Etheridge, D-2nd, $258,866.49 ($1,035,465.90)
• Rep. Jones, R-3rd, $257,483.31 ($1,029,933.20)
• Rep. Price, D-4th, $268,588.22 ($1,074,352.80)
• Rep. Foxx, R-5th, $208,838.89 ($835,355.56)
• Rep. Coble, R-6th, $277,340.42 ($1,109,361.60)
• Rep. McIntyre, D-7th, $283,688.05 ($1,134,752.20)
• Rep. Hayes, R-8th, $227,819.41 ($911,277.64)
• Rep. Myrick, R-9th, $272,511.11 ($1,090,044.40)
• Rep. McHenry, R-10th, $202,645.39 ($810,581.56)
• Rep. Taylor, R-11th, $246,365.99 ($985,463.96)
• Rep. Watt, D-12th, $267,562.67 ($1,070,250.60)
• Rep. Miller, D-13th, $262,803.37 ($1,051,213.40)

So if you total it up North Carolina’s payroll just for our members of the House of Representatives is $3,300,670.76 for the first quarter of ’06 which projects to $13,202,682.52.  In my next post I’m going to look at North Carolina’s Congressional delegation in a little more detail.