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I shed no tears for them or their compensation, but saying they deliberately drag things out to get paid for a Special Session is not correct.

aero10 wrote:

bblhd672 wrote: Perhaps the law needs to be changed so that the legislators receive no income during Special Sessions that are called to address bills that they didn't get to during regular session.

It makes no sense to pay them for not getting things done. They could easily just ignore certain bills just so they can get paid more to "work" a little longer. It's a waste of taxpayer money.

Texas legislators are among the lowest paid in the nation. I suspect with high probability that 100% of them would make more money doing their regular jobs over what they get paid for a Regular Session, and if it's not 100% then it's 98%. Nobody is stringing out the Regular Session just so he can go back to Austin in June or July. They get NOTHING in salary for attending a Special Session.

A legislator gets $7200 salary per year, so $14,200 for a two year term, regardless of how many session days there are, plus all the non-session politicking and constituent service stuff. So no pay for a Special Session.

They also get $190/day for each session day Regular or Special, plus for any day they are on Legislature business, e.g. committee or special studies or whatever between sessions. If you look at what it costs to stay in a decent hotel in Austin, plus eat, that per diem is not a gold mine.

I would be surprised if any legislator gets more than about $50K for a two-year term.

They do get a rather nice pension deal they become eligible for after eight years as a legislator. I don't know the current numbers but it is tied to judicial salaries somehow and amounts to about $1200 or $1500 for each year's service as a legislator after eight years -- starting at age 50, if they "retire" and are not currently serving as a legislator.

Human society and politics being what they are, no doubt some other opportunities and business relationships become available as a result of being a legislator.

However, I can see no financial advantage whatsoever to trying to string out a Regular Session into a Special Session.