FOX 5 Investigates: Taxpayer Hotels

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars thrown away on empty hotel rooms. That’s the charge coming from a local lawmaker. In this FOX 5 Investigation, Tisha Thompson shows you why some say the time has come to get rid of this political perk.

It is voting day in the Maryland House of Delegates.

“143 votes in the affirmative.”

Delegate Wendell Beitzel (R - Garrett & Allegany Counties) is on the floor giving a speech.

“Overwhelmingly, the farmers in Garrett County are for this.”

He drove farther than nearly anyone else in the State House. It would take him more than six hours to Annapolis and back home each night, which is why Maryland lawmakers get $100 a day to stay in a hotel room during the Session.

But some lawmakers say not everyone should get the perk.

For example, Delegate Dereck Davis (D - Prince George’s County).

To find out how long Del. Davis’s commute is, FOX 5 set an odometer and a stopwatch and drove from his home in Bowie to Annapolis. We drove the speed limit and followed US 301 to US 50 into Annapolis.

The 20.4 mile trip takes 38 minutes.

Even though he lives only 20 miles away, documents obtained by FOX 5 show taxpayers spent more than $25,000 in the last year on mileage, meals and hotel rooms for Davis. (See the receipts)

That’s more than any other lawmaker living within 30 miles of the state capital. (See FOX 5's analysis of lawmaker expenses)

Del. Dereck Davis: “Am I rolling? Is the tape rolling or something?”
Tisha Thompson: “Yeah.”

After he didn’t return our phone calls or emails, we caught up with Del. Davis as he pulled into his driveway on his way home from Annapolis.

Tisha Thompson: “Do you really need a hotel when it’s just 30 minutes away?”
Del. Dereck Davis: "I guess it depends on how you look at, how you want to look at that. Yes, you can make that claim. The other claim is do you want folks regularly on the road late well into the evenings? I'm talking well into the evenings and then getting back up early in the mornings."

But documents show Del. Davis also put in for mileage on Mondays and Fridays when he says he drove back and forth from home.

Tisha Thompson: "Are you basically not using the hotel on the weekends?"
Del. Dereck Davis: "I come down, I will stay periodically on the weekends. Saturday and Sundays? No."
Tisha Thompson: "Can you see why people might say 'Why are we paying for hotel rooms that are empty on Saturdays and Sundays?'"
Del. Dereck Davis: "I can certainly see both sides of the issue. We, again, the way its set up, that's how it operates."

“If they would only check in on Monday and check out on Friday, we would save $300,000,” says Senator Allan Kittleman (R – Howard & Carroll Counties).

Sen. Kittleman says in this economy, it is time for legislators to also make some sacrifices.

“I have a lot of constituents who work really, really hard and really, really late and have to drive home and I think I'm just like anybody else,” he said.

Kittleman says a state report shows 79 percent of Maryland lawmakers take out 90-day contracts for hotel rooms. (See what your lawmaker gets)

He says Maryland is spending as much as $1.8 million on legislative hotels, mileage and meals.

Maryland lawmakers make $43,000 a year, the second-highest salary in the nation for part-time state legislators. (Read Report of the General Assembly Compensation Commission)

In February, Sen. Kittleman presented a bill preventing lawmakers like Del. Davis, and himself, from getting the hotel perk. He testified in the Senate committee that, “Some people have to stay down in Annapolis because they can't drive home every night, but I live in Western Howard County. It might take me 45 minutes to an hour to drive home, but I can certainly drive home most nights. So this bill, I'm 42 miles away, just so you know, this bill would require anyone who lives within 50 miles to not be able to use a housing allowance."

Only Senator Joanne Benson (D – Prince George’s County) spoke out in opposition.

"We get here sometimes before eight o'clock and there are those of us in this room who are legislators who don't leave our offices until eleven and twelve o'clock at night. I have worked as late as one and one-thirty in the morning," said Benson.

Sen. Benson lives 24 miles from the State House, but receipts show taxpayers paid more for her hotel bills and mileage than any other Senator living within 30 miles of the capital. (See the receipts)

"I do worry just a tad bit about the fact people will be misled to think we come down here and we stay in a hotel just to be staying,” Benson said in the hearing. “For me, it’s important that I do get the rest that I need in order to tackle the issues that come before us during the course of the day."

Her colleagues agreed. After the hearing ended in February, the committee never brought it up again.

And the bill died a quiet death when the session ended.