Lawmakers Cash in Early from Pay Raise Bill (Updated)

The Legislature has already caught flak for voting itself a $5,000 salary hike this year. But while that pay raise won't take effect until 2009, at least one other part of that bill has been deemed retroactive to Jan. 1, The Associated Press reports.

The provision is a $16 increase to the daily payment received by "lawmakers who live too far from the Capitol to commute from home during the session."

By increasing that per diem to $131, "23 of the state Senate's 34 members have received additional payments totaling $25,136, that body's payroll figures show," AP reports. "Figures from the 100-member House of Delegate were not immediately available."

Update: Public Broadcasting also has a story, and talks to one of the bill's architects.

Update II: AP follows up on its initial report, tracing the confusion over the trigger date to a typo in the final bill.