Senate Votes to Keep Pay the Same

03.10.2010 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) State lawmakers’ pay will remain at $117 a day next year, extending a pay cut they enacted in 2009, under a bill approved by the Senate this morning.  House Bill 287 passed with only two “No” votes, one from Republican Senator Chris Buttars.  He argued this would continue to deter qualified candidates from running for the legislature.

“It’s wrong, it’s really, really wrong that a person that would like to run for the Legislature, and I know a lot of them, good, good, people that just can’t take 45 days and make what we make,” he said.  “I think you’re cheating the people, I really do. And it ought to be changed.”

The bill would save the state about $74,000 in 2011.  Two interim meetings scheduled for this summer will also be cut to reduce legislative pay even further. Lawmakers will continue to receive a per-diem reimbursement for travel and lodging expenses, even those who live close to the Capitol and stay at home during the session.  But they plan to study that policy and potentially revise it.