Rep. Bettie Cook Scott still submitting mileage after months of missing work

LANSING (FOX 2) - Bettie Cook Scott wasn't at her home when I stopped by. 

And she hasn't been to the people's house since August.  She stopped showing up for work after losing her bid to run for the state senate.

But, as I pointed out last month, she hasn't stopped running errands when she should be voting on important measures at the capitol.

But it would be wrong to say representative Scott stopped going to Lansing. I learned that even though she has missed nearly two dozen house sessions, she regularly trekked to Lansing to submit her mileage requests.

"That is such a grifter move," said Zach Gorchow. "I've never heard of anything like that. that's amazing."

Gorchow is editor of the Gongwer News Service, which is pretty much the most definitive source on anything going on in state government.  Even after I exposed representative Scott’s dereliction of duty, she continued to skip house sessions.

For nearly four months now, she has cashed a pay check without casting a vote on her constituents' behalf. So just what has she missed while taking your money.

"She has missed probably the busiest three to four-month stretch of the legislature ever," said Gorchow. 

Playing hooky meant Scott, a Democrat, was not able to help fight against the Republican party's bid to strip power from the incoming Democratic attorney general and secretary of state.

She missed out on the latest effort to lower insurance rates, she was also AWOL for some serious environmental matters - and that's not all.

"Clearly increasing the minimum wage and requiring employers to provide paid sick time, these are bold issues that would be big for lower and middle income workers," Gorchow said. 

Before lawmakers wrapped up for the year, they also voted on an additional $1.2 billion in spending. 

But since Rep. Scott wasn't there, she missed out on the last-minute haggling and deal-making that can result in a nice chunk of change getting sent home to help folks who sent her to Lansing.

"There was $115 million in what some people would call pork," Gorchow said. "And most legislators got something back for their districts."