An eager reader asks how much each day of Legislative shenanigans costs us. I’m glad you asked!
There appear to be four main budget lines for the Legislature:
- Legislature: $11.35M
- Legislative Research Council: $7.59M
- Legislative Operations: $6.84M
- Legislative Priority Fund: $0.76M
- TOTAL: $26.54M
Let’s say that 75% of that money is spent on the actual 40 days of Session (that’s a total guess; I welcome better informed guesses). That would be about $670K per day keeping the Dome hopping.
Within that budget, each Legislator is paid $11,378.80 per year. They also receive $149 per diem for expenses. Total compensation per legislator for Session: $17,338.80. Total cost: $1.82M. Divide by 40: We transfer $45,500 of our wealth from our pockets to 105 legislator pockets per Session day. Each Legislator gets $433,47 per day. Assume a ten-hour day—in committee by 7:45 a.m., going non-stop taking calls and talking with lobbyists and other constituents until 5:45 p.m. (Senate adjourned yesterday at 3:08 p.m.; House adjourned yesterday at 2:58 p.m.), and legislators’ compensation is about $43.35 per hour for their part-time public gig. They get that same rate whether they are pushing important bills like HB 1060, an effort to increase the reimbursement rate for nursing homes, or thumb-twiddlers like HB 1069, rookie Rep. Kaleb Weis’s risible fritterings with the state seal.
At $43.35 an hour, I think we can expect daily progress reports from each legislator.
The too many members in the do-too-little legislature are paid for their 40-days on a rate equivalent to $74,241 if annualized for a normal 261 work days in the year. That’s 365 – 104 (weekends). That does not count per diem. A nice gig if one can get it. They should be paid at the same annualized rate for the state’s teachers.
Let’s forever stop any nonsense that the legislature is under paid.
This generous pay and the revealing use of private emails and servers opens the potential to increase legislative ethics, openness, accountability, and professionalism.
I get about $32 per day SS before the bills get paid. After all deductions for Medicare, prescription drug insurance, rent, heat, computer, mechanic’s bill, 2 phones (cell and landline) i have about $10 dollars per day. Do i need to break that into hourly pay? A single tank of gas costs 4 days money. On the other hand I can but more than a month’s worth of Ramen noodles for just over 4 bucks.
I don’t have ethics worth a damn.
That seems like a lot of money, this $74,241 albiet calculated by a bit of French Math. It is a fair shake, indeed. And most of the legislatures don’t deserve it, but they give it to themselves so there’s nothing we can do about it. Nothing at all. Unless we got one of the tax hawks to run a bill to take away their cars and gas money and cut the hotel bills down to size.
I won’t say legislators are overpaid. I will say legislators underwork.