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State legislators are paid anywhere from about $30,000 for a three-month "short session" to $50,000 for the occasional nine-month marathon. A typical six-month session nets about $40,000.

Of that, only $13,951 is salary. The rest is for living expenses: a flat amount of $6,708 a year, plus $104 a day, seven days a week, while the legislature is in session. Legislators also get 29 cents per mile for one weekly round trip from their home to Raleigh.

Even when the legislature is not in session, members are tied up in meetings of committees, commissions and conferences. They have reports to read, bills to write and proposals to analyze. They speak with constituents, return phone calls and reply to letters and e-mail messages.

"My Senate duties have taken over my business," said Republican Sen. Eddie Goodall, 59, an accountant from Weddington, near Charlotte. He estimated he spends only a quarter of his time on his private business. "I didn't budget for that," he said.

A full-time job?

Some lawmakers say the legislature should work faster and smarter -- with shorter sessions, the ability to file bills beforehand and fixed adjournment dates.

"There is a slow-as-molasses style in Raleigh," said Rep. Doug Vinson, 38, a first-term Charlotte Republican and self-employed management consultant.

Vinson, an Army veteran, has a wife and four children ages 1 to 11. He says the legislature's heavy demands almost kept him from running for re-election.

"When you go there in January, you might be there until the end of June, the end of July, the end of August, September, October -- you never know," he said. "I've missed countless events with my kids: baseball games, piano recitals."

Others say it's time to treat the legislature like what it is: a full-time professional job that requires commensurate pay to draw strong candidates -- perhaps $40,000 to $75,000 a year, plus expenses.

"It's a full-time job with full-time responsibility that one must be dedicated to do for part-time pay," said Rep. Debbie Clary, 46, a Republican who owns a marketing firm. She lives in Cherryville, about 200 miles west of Raleigh.

Clary, who helps rewrite the state budget every year as co-chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, says that's hard to do in a few months.

"To create a truly responsible, conservative budget, I feel that we need a full-time legislature," she said. "I don't think it can be done appropriately with a part-time legislature."

Some legislators are wary of making the jobs full time.

"We're not here 40 hours every week," said Sen. Richard Stevens, 57, a Cary Republican in his second term. "It's good that we're back home with citizens, listening to their concerns, not captured by the bureaucracy in Raleigh that might be spoon-feeding us information if we were here 12 months out of the year."

Wisdom and open-mindedness among older lawmakers helps make up for representative blind spots, some legislators say.

"You see so many old people in the legislature because they can do it," said Sen. Neal Hunt, 63, a Raleigh Republican and retired developer. "It's not bad to have some people who have been around the track a few times."

Others call for more youth.

"We need to make the legislature more efficient so more young people can do it," said Sen. Malcolm Graham, 43, a Charlotte Democrat and minority-business consultant. "Being retired or wealthy should not be the only categories."

State metamorphosis

North Carolina is the nation's 11th most populous state. Among the 20 largest states, 10 have full-time legislatures, while two are part-time. North Carolina's legislature and seven others are considered a hybrid: more than part-time, but not full-time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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