CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) _ West Virginia lawmakers are already reaping benefits from the pay raise bill they voted for themselves this session.
Though its $5,000 salary hikes won't kick in until 2009, legislative officials have concluded that the bill's $16 increase to certain per-day payments is retroactive to Jan. 1.
That raises to $131 the daily amount meant to compensate lawmakers who live too far from the Capitol to commute from home during the session.
As a result, 23 of the state Senate's 34 members have received additional payments totaling $25,136, that body's payroll figures show.
Fifteen were paid for 72 days — the 60-day regular session, the three-day interim session that preceded it, the eight-day extended session for the budget and the one-day special session convened by Gov. Joe Manchin. The latter coincided with the final day of the extended session.
Figures from the 100-member House of Delegate were not immediately available Wednesday.
A citizen commission had recommended increasing the per-diem payments last year. They were previously increased in 2000. That panel also proposed raising annual legislator salaries to $25,000. The bill that passed this session increases the salaries to $20,000.
Among its other provisions, the bill also triples to $150 the per-diem payments the House speaker and Senate president earn while in session, and doubles to $50 the daily session payments to the party leaders in each chamber. Those won't take effect until 2009, said Stacey Ruckle, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Rick Thompson, D-Wayne.
The legislative pay raise bill passed 62-36 in the House and 20-13 in the Senate, largely along party lines. House Minority Leader Tim Armstead said he and other GOP lawmakers questioned the measure as a legislative priority.
"Whether it kicks in now or in the future, I think it's just the wrong thing to do," said Armstead, R-Kanawha. "A lot of people make barely enough to get by in this state. It was just wrong for the Legislature to give itself a $5,000 pay raise."
While not among the non-commuting lawmakers, Armstead would be in line for the increased per diem session payments if he were re-elected to the House and as its minority leader. Armstead said he doesn't want the money.
"I would look at either declining it or giving it to charity or back to the district," he said.
The average annual salary for a state legislature comparable to West Virginia's, which is considered part time, was $33,501 in 2007, according to figures compiled by the National Conference for State Legislatures. Per diem payments for those bodies averaged $121.
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