Legislative staff flourish over 30 years.

PositionStatestats

State legislatures have undergone a remarkable transformation over the past 30 years--from the "sometimes governments" of the late 1960s to today's formidable and independent centers for policy development and government oversight. No statistic illustrates this change more clearly than data on legislative staff employment. And no statistic more vividly portrays the state legislatures' varied responses to the legislative reform movement.

The National Conference of State Legislatures conducted a "census" of legislative staff on four occasions in the past 25 years. To the best of our knowledge, these are the only numbers of their kind. Overall, state legislatures have added almost 8,000 staff in the past 25 years for a growth rate since 1979 of about 30 percent. During that period, legislatures have increased the number of permanent employees (by a whopping 66 percent) while also significantly reducing the number of employees hired only for the session. The overall staff growth curve flattened in the mid- to late-1990s, signaling the end of the era when legislative improvement often meant adding more professional staff.

The 2003 count of legislative staff brought few surprises. New York continued to employ the most total staff, and South Dakota had the fewest staff working during session. Wyoming maintained its...

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