Writing the laws on $10,400 a year

COLUMBIA -- Besides the notable exceptions -- a couple of funeral directors, a football coach, a pair of farmers -- the ranks of the South Carolina Legislature are filled with attorneys, businessmen and retirees, a makeup influenced by the state's 6-month-long session and low legislative pay.

Whether to shorten the session or pay legislators more than $10,400 a year is a long-standing question that becomes more important as the January session nears and the recession continues to send state revenue plummeting.

Legislatures across the country do business differently. On either end of the spectrum are California and Wyoming. Legislators in California earn more than $116,000 a year and serve nine months or longer. In Wyoming, legislators make $150 a day and meet for two months every two years, 20 days one year and 40 days the next.

David Woodard, a Republican strategist and Clemson University political science professor, said the old argument is if legislators are paid more, the quality of service goes up, but so does the rate of career politicians.

"The liberals believe the more you pay legislators, the more professional legislators you'll have," Woodard said. "Historically, conservatives think no man sleeps well when the legislature is in session."

House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, has long advocated for shorter sessions and does not support any increase in legislative salaries. Higher pay does nothing but create a "full-time politician class," he said.

Harrell, a 53-year-old businessman, said the Legislature should be able to get its business done in three months with meeting times staggered throughout the year. The shorter the session, the greater the number of people who can serve, he said.

"I think the length of the session is way too long and makes it difficult for people to be able to serve," he said. "In states like California, people run for the position because it's a good job. We want people to run for it because they're going to serve."

Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, a conservative think tank, said the nation's founders had one function in mind for state legislatures.

"The purpose of the legislature is simply to make laws, not to run the state," she said.

Lawmakers need to scale back their attempts to legislate economic fixes and stop spending effort on all the politics and self-promotion, Landess said. They have no need to meet as long as they do, and they definitely don't need to make any more money, she said.

Each week the Legislature is in session costs roughly $50,000.

The legislators

Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, and Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, don't advocate for legislators to earn higher salaries or extend the session, but they acknowledge the sacrifice needed to serve.

Cleary, a 61-year-old dentist, said he would not have been able to hold a seat in the Senate when he was younger and less established because of the demands of work and family.

Bryant, who is 42 and works as a pharmacist, said his family runs their own store, which allows him to serve.

Cleary and Bryant both said their hands-on knowledge of health care matters provides valuable insight for the legislative process.

Rep. James Smith, 42, D- Columbia, is one of the about 40 attorneys who serve in the 170-member Legislature. He wants shorter sessions, adding that in many cases legislators lose money by holding office.

"I think it should always require a sacrifice; I think you have to be very wary of instilling personal gain into the life of a legislator," Smith said.

Smith's occupation might be in law, but he also is an Afghanistan War veteran. Smith said legislators bring other experience to the table outside their listed occupation. For example, among those characterized as businessmen are the owner of a wrecker service and body shop and a dairyman.

The retirees in office include a principal, postmaster, Alcoa executive, highway patrolman and submarine inspector.

Time and commitment

University of South Carolina associate political science professor Mark Tompkins said the legislative pay and time commitment serve as a filter for who can afford to serve, adding to the growing number of retirees in state office nationwide. On the flipside, many two- income households with children wouldn't be able to make ends meet if they tried to also hold a seat in the Legislature, he said.

Aside from the regular duties to be present on the chamber floor to vote, legislators spend time year round studying bills and addressing the needs of their constituents. In South Carolina, legislators don't have individual staff, although they do receive supplements for certain expenditures in addition to their salaries that many use to pool together and hire secretaries.

While the House passes legislation almost every session to shorten legislators' time in Columbia, the bills never make it to the governor's desk. The Senate considers itself the more deliberative body, and its members regularly argue that a shorter session would not allow enough time to properly vet legislation.

Tompkins also said all the ceremony and pomp and circumstance is important to the public, although the introduction of guests and special recognition from the chamber floors slows business down.

The starts and stops in session also are a way for legislators to become familiar with the bills before them. Tompkins noted that the state budget alone is hundreds of pages, and that when legislators themselves start making fewer decisions, staff has more control.

"It is a recipe for government run by bureaucrats," Tompkins said. "It is unrealistic and unwise to expect people to do the best job for the state without spending a fair amount of time."

Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-926-7855 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.