Mesa lawmaker claims nearly $30,000 more in per diem and miles than she should

Rep Jacqueline Parker is billing taxpayers more than what she should be earning in per diem and mileage by claiming she lives out of county, despite what records show.

Correction: This story has been updated to remove a paragraph describing Jacqueline Parker buying a property in Queen Creek in 2020. A spokesman for the Arizona House tells me it’s a different Jacqueline Parker and not the lawmaker this story is about. Parker still refuses to comment for the story, but asked a spokesman to relay she wants the story to be retracted.

Representative Jacqueline Parker, a Republican, lives in Mesa and Maricopa County–– or at least that’s what all public documentation says –– yet she’s having taxpayers foot the bill for her subsistence (per diem) and mileage reimbursements for a home in Pinal County, according to records from the Arizona House.

Parker signed, under penalty of perjury, that she resides at a home in Mesa (which of course is in Maricopa County), on her financial disclosure form that she submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office in January. The SOS Office tells me she has not submitted any revised forms.

Parker, an attorney, is receiving more than $35,000 in per diem payments along with dozens of non-Maricopa County representatives, compared to Maricopa County lawmakers earning around $4,000 through June 23¹.

A difference of roughly $29,000 taxpayers are putting into her pocket, and that doesn’t include mileage reimbursements.

On that front, Parker claims to have traveled to the Capitol on 1700 W Washington every single day of the longest session in state history² and is being reimbursed for $6,500 or the equivalent of more than 10,000 miles –– the ninth most of the entire 60-member body behind the following lawmakers:

1. Myron Tsosie, a Democrat from Chinle with 19,000 miles

2. Gail Griffin, a Republican from Hereford with 16,000 miles

3. Quang Nguyen, a Republican from Prescott with 14,000 miles

4. Cory McGarr, a Republican from Marana with nearly 13,000 miles

5. Alma Hernandez, a Democrat from Tucson with nearly 12,000 miles

6. Consuelo Hernandez, a Democrat from Tucson with nearly 12,000 miles

7. David Marshall, a Republican from Snowflake with 10,685 miles

8. Teresa Martinez, a Republican from Casa Grande with 10,212 miles

Parker comes in with slightly fewer miles than Martinez.

I asked Parker if she moved to a different county (assuming Pinal County given her LD15 seat covers both Maricopa and Pinal) and if she did then when, but she did not respond after four days.

So I requested her voter file in Maricopa County, which shows she did in fact move –– or at least change her voter registration on May 31; well into the legislative session meaning she should not have been billing the state for living in Pinal County for the first 160+ days. Parker voted in the 2022 election from her Maricopa County address.

Additionally, Parker was clearly a Maricopa County resident for most of 2023 given her now-former status as a Maricopa County precinct committeeman, according to data on the Recorder’s Office dated May 5, 2023³. She likely resigned (or her spot was deemed vacant) before the June 2 update, which aligns with her change of voter registration. The address listed matches her Mesa address on file in campaign finance reports and her financial disclosure form.

• I’m still awaiting records of per diem and mileage from 2021 and 2022 to see if Parker has attempted this before and will do a follow up story once those documents come in. (Update July 24: Parker did not claim to live in Pinal County in either previous year and alerted the House of her intent to move in December 2022.)

What’s interesting is it doesn’t appear that Parker is doing anything illegally, but perhaps interpreting state law a way it wasn’t intended.

ARS 41-1104 states, “each member of the legislature shall be reimbursed for travel at the federal mileage reimbursement rate … and such reimbursement shall include travel from the temporary or permanent residence of the member to the state capitol.”

Typically, lawmakers who live out of county live in temporary residences in the Phoenix area so commuting is easier during the session, but Parker’s case would be the reverse. She was permanently living in Maricopa County yet billing the state for her temporary residence in Pinal County and therefore putting more money in her own pocket at the expense of taxpayers.

In subsistence payments, she’s earning $119 per day until the session ends compared to $10 a day for Maricopa County lawmakers. This is why her total is at $35,462 and not around $4,000-$5,000 like others who live in Maricopa County and aren’t essentially stealing taxpayer dollars.

The difference of miles from her Maricopa County address and her Pinal County address is also stark.

• From her Mesa address, it’s roughly 30 miles. From San Tan Valley it’s roughly 45 miles. That’s a difference of $10 per trip or the equivalent of what she should have been earning in per diem every day after Day 120 of the session. It may not seem like a lot, but it adds up the longer the session continues. During days 1-120 Maricopa County lawmakers earn $35/day and those outside the county earn $238/day.

I asked attorney Paul Weich his thoughts on this issue. Weich unsuccessfully ran for the Legislature as a Democrat in 2022 and also operates AZ Law.

“This is another glaring example of why lawmakers - or, more likely, citizens - need to eliminate residency game-playing by candidates, and the successful candidates who become lawmakers. Judges do the best job they can in sorting through the games when one candidate challenges another. But once elected, it is up to the good journalism on display in the Wendy Rogers matter and in this case to hold lawmakers accountable. So, we need to protect/strengthen transparency and we need to strengthen the statutes to prevent the residency shell games,” Weich told Fourth Estate 48.

At a minimum, lawmakers should look into strengthening state law on per diem and mileage reimbursements or at least clear it up so this doesn’t happen more often (who knows if it has been already); and Parker should also probably pay back the money she claimed from taxpayers for fudging around her residences in order to pocket more.

Lawmakers famously make $24,000 per year –– not including per diem or mileage –– but through June 23, Parker’s salary totaled $66,000 and the meter is still running until sine die whenever that may be.

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Here’s what the rest of the House mileage records showed:

Nobody in the House has opted out of their per diem payments as of this writing, but that’s a separate issue from mileage reimbursements. The House also tells me there are no records between House Speaker Ben Toma and other members about the per diem issue despite speculation about members asking Toma about what happens if they opt out. Toma’s interpretation is that opting out of payments means it’s permanent for the entire elected term. The Senate did not see it that way.

Regardless, both per diem and mileage are at the expense of taxpayers whose money is being wasted on elected officials who don’t actually want to do government business. There’s no other logical explanation for remaining in session but on hiatus for months at a time.

For mileage reimbursements, the going rate for legislators is the same as it is federally at $0.655 per mile and each legislator is reimbursed every two weeks.

As seen above, through per diem and mileage, the House has doled out $1.2 million of taxpayer money to its 60⁴ representatives. In mileage reimbursements alone, it’s at $218,000. The Senate and its 30 members spent $104,000.

• This also isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison because the Senate numbers were through May 26 and the House is through June 23.

• Even though June 23 was Day 166, some lawmakers show up to 173 days in their totals. The House tells me this is because lawmakers (typically not freshmen) who did legislative work before session kicked off, still qualify for miles, but not subsistence.

1. July 21 is Day 194 of session, the data only goes through 166 days so add $3,332 to the per diem total for the 28 days unaccounted for at $119/day.

2. The Legislature did not hit its record-breaking number by June 23, but they were already on another hiatus until July 31 assuring 2023 would be the longest recorded session in Arizona history.

3. Do a search for Parker on the list of all county PCs

4. There’s as many as 60 representatives at a time, but of course Liz Harris was expelled and there have been some resignations and appointments causing there to be more than 60 people listed.