In the recently passed House version of the state budget, your elected officials approved $40,278,000 to operate the House side of the Legislature and $19,695,000 for the Senate side.
Since there are 160 House members, that’s $251,738 per member or a quarter million dollars for your local rep.
There are only 40 state senators, so their cost calculates out to $492,375 per senator, or slightly less than half a million dollars for your senator.
But wait!
The budget also puts aside $9,210,000 for joint operations of the two branches. If we apportion this according to the number of members in each branch, then this would add $7,368,000 to the House side for a total of $47,646,000 and $1,842,000 to the Senate side for a total of $21,537,000.
Thus, we now have a cost of $297,787 per representative and $538,425 per senator.
Isn’t it fun to see where your money is going!
