in Houston, Texas

State House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum says he didn’t list his $600-a-month legislative salary on his 2007 personal financial disclosure form because he doesn’t believe “in the truest sense of the word” that he’s an employee of the state.

But he also said he’d call the state Ethics Commission and ask for clarification on it.

“The (state) constitution says we are citizen legislators,” Chisum said this morning in a phone interview in response to the story Texas Watchdog published Friday.

He mentioned he had two cattle ranches and oil and gas investments, with income coming through a family partnership – all of which he had disclosed on his form, which is filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. He considers his occupation to be rancher and investor, though he said he does disclose his legislative income on his federal income tax returns.

The legislative pay isn’t much, he said. Once deductions are taken out, for Social Security and the like, it only comes to about $200 or so a month, he said. He doesn’t get to vote on his own salary, he said, and it hasn’t gone up since 1962.

“I don’t actually have an hourly job where I draw a salary. In the truest sense of the word, I may be considered an employee of the state, but the constitution says we are citizen-legislators,” he said. “ … I didn’t apply for this job. I don’t punch a clock. I don’t get overtime. I can’t sue the state if I get hurt on the job.”

He said he wasn’t trying to cover anything up, and said he would call the Texas Ethics Commission and ask about whether he is required to disclose his legislative pay.

We had talked to the Ethics Commission last week as part of the reporting for our original story. An excerpt:

The state law that mandates the personal financial disclosure forms says that filers must disclose all sources of occupational income, said Tim Sorrells, deputy general counsel and spokesman for the Texas Ethics Commission. There's "nothing specifically in the law that excludes legislative salaries," he said, and no, there's also not an exemption for occupations that don't generate much income — there's nothing that says you don't have to list income from a certain job if you make less than $10,000 from it, for instance.

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