DENVER (AP) -- Colorado lawmakers are looking at their own expenses as they try to balance the budget.
Lawmakers from outside the metro area get paid $150 a day to cover housing and meals and that amount is set to rise to $191 in July. Legislative leaders from both parties want to forgo that raise until 2012.
That would save the state $238,005, a drop in the bucket toward closing the $1.5 billion budget shortfall.
Lawmakers earn $30,000 a year and that wouldn't change under the bill, which is up for its first hearing Wednesday.
Out-of-town lawmakers used to get $99 a day for expenses until 2007 when rural lawmakers pushed to raise it and tie to the federal per diem rate. They argued they needed it partly because an ethics bill passed by voters ended free meals with lobbyists.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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