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After reading his bio, do all Texas House members live off of family money?
Not at all. I've worked in the House and Senate and it is a diverse group. Some are money people, some are ordinary folks who just got elected and try to squeeze by on a regular salary with a job that lets them take off 6 months every 2 years. It's damn hard to do that on an ordinary salary. They get paid per diem during session, but most of them lose money, plus they have to rent an apartment in Austin for the session. Outside of session they make under $10K a year.
Because of this, a lot of them have to make really good money in the 3/4 of the 2 year cycle to pay for making nothing in the 1/4 that they're in session. So you get a lot of lawyers and doctors. Another thing helping lawyers is that in a lot of cases, if the attorney on the case is a legislator, the judge will push back trial until after session. So right before session, a lot of these legislators are hired as "consulting attorneys" so that the lawyers hiring them will be able to take advantage of that loophole and delay their case.
Most of the people who are "ordinary" people - a lot of them small businessmen - suffer greatly, or make it by with a spouse who can step up during session. These people are true heroes. However, because they are nearly impoverished by the process, it also creates a perverse incentive to corruption, and sadly, a few fall into that trap. The ones with the big money are not incentivized to be corrupt, but oddly enough, that still happens. Funny how that works.
