Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Blunt's Chrismer: Where Was Zweifel on Guard Pay?

Governor Matt Blunt's top communication staffer swung back at State Rep. Clint Zweifel Tuesday for claims he made about a delay in pay for National Guard members.
On Monday, Zweifel, the Democratic nominee for State Treasurer, claimed that some National Guard members wait as long as 30-days to get paid for emergencies because the Blunt administration puts "bureaucratic convenience before financial security of guard members."
Blunt's Rich Chrismer called those assertions "false."
"The state of Missouri makes certain that members of the National Guard are paid in full in the shortest possible time allowed by law which is typically ten to eleven business days after the end of the pay cycle," Chrismer said in a statement. "State law dictates semi-monthly pay and the state pays for actual time worked at the end of the pay period. It is a matter of law, not convenience," he added.
Chrismer also said that changes to the payment cycle would require legislation and "cannot be done by Executive Order" and questioned why Zweifel didn't try to change the law when he could have.
"Zweifel did not take steps to make changes to the pay cycle in the state legislature and now he is attempting to make it a political issue," Chrismer said. "Where was he?"

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Just some more posturing from Zweifel. What a bitter guy. In this election season the Dems are pulling out all the stops, no matter how low they may go. Since National Guard members are on the same pay cycle as all 60,000 state employees in MO, how come we haven't heard these heated screeds before? Are state employees not getting their checks on time either? Really strange - and irrelevant - argument that Zweifel started here.