Do we get what we pay for? Sometimes, maybe.

I have read several Facebook postings and letters to the editor recently indicating that many people think that we pay members of the Texas Legislature a lot more than we do. Each member of the Texas House and the state Senate is paid a base salary of $7,200 a year. That’s $600 a month.

During the 140 days they are in session this year, each will be paid an additional per diem for living expenses. The Texas Ethics Commission, which sets that allowance, is considering $150 a day for this session. If adopted, that would be another $21,000 per legislator, but that supplement will end when the session adjourns.

For some legislators, we can consider the low pay a bargain. Even at bargain basement prices, however, others still are ripping us off.

The governor, by comparison, is paid $150,000 a year plus housing. Members of Congress, both U.S. senators and U.S. representatives, are paid $174,000 a year.

The governor and members of Congress are paid more because their jobs are fulltime. Members of the Texas Legislature are considered parttime state workers because they are in regular session for only five months every other year, although they spend some time on state business when they aren’t in session. And, this year, they may even be called back to Austin for a special session or two to finish work on the budget.

The per diem supplement – which is based on economic factors changes from session to session, but the base legislative pay is set in the Texas Constitution and can be changed only with voter approval. It hasn’t been increased since 1975, when voters approved an increase from $4,800 a year to the current $7,200.

That’s a long time between pay raises, and it is likely to become much longer.

The low legislative pay pretty well restricts the pool of lawmakers to lawyers, retirees, wealthy individuals or people who own their own businesses and can afford to take the time off for frequent trips to Austin. Most everyday, working people, including teachers, can’t afford to disrupt their careers for the low pay. You can make an argument that higher legislative pay would broaden the pool of potential lawmakers and make the Legislature more representative of all Texans. But that change isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Meanwhile, there has been talk around the Capitol that a couple of the newly elected, slashthebudget Republican members of the Texas House thought they would get paid more. According to this scuttlebutt, they thought they would be paid like kings (or at least, congressmen) while they hacked state government into oblivion.

I emphasize that all that talk is unconfirmed, but it is fun to think that it may be true.