Our legislatures--a bargain at twice the price.

• Position: Statestats - Brief Article

How much does it cost to run America's legislatures? $8.65 per person for Congress and another $8.27 for an average state legislature. An amazing bargain.

The cost of running the legislative branch is also only a miniscule portion of the total cost of government. The annual appropriation for Congress is slightly less than $2.5 billion. That sounds like a lot of money, but it's only 0.1 percent of total outlays by the federal government. The average annual cost to operate a state legislature is $47.5 million--0.2 percent of all state government spending.

The most expensive state legislature? California, the state with the largest population, at a cost of $280 million or $8 for each Californian. The least expensive? Wyoming, with the smallest population, at $5.5 million or $10.99 per resident.

Legislative spending has outpaced inflation over the last 30 years as legislatures have deliberately increased their capacity--staff, time and facilities--to make decisions independent of the...