They are following an American tradition begun centuries ago by men like Benjamin Franklin who left their workbenches, offices and farms to tend to matters of state for a few weeks each year.

West Virginia is blessed with a part-time legislature, although the pay and benefits have risen so in the last few decades that lawmakers are perilously close to losing their amateur status.

Mountain State legislators are paid $20,000 a year with a per diem of $131.

California now pays its lawmakers $113,098 a year plus $162 a day for expenses when they are legislating.

New Hampshire pays its legislators $100 a year with no per diem allowance. They have no incentive to hang around the Capitol in Concord longer than necessary.

Guess which state is not crazy.

In recent years, the West Virginia Legislature has been more like the New Hampshire General Court (its legislature).

Not the last two years.

Having an open election for governor last year followed by a competitive race this year is turning our lawmakers into the California State Assembly.

The big problem is with the budget. The backsliding on reforms aimed at making the benefits for retired state workers affordable is monstrous.

The state has a $10 billion unfunded liability in Other Post-Employment Benefits, which are mainly health insurance for retirees.

This allows state workers to take advantage of retirement at 55. Otherwise they would have to wait until they are eligible for Medicare like the rest of us.

One reform a few years ago held that anyone hired after July 1, 2010, would not get these expensive benefits.

Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and the Legislature softened that reform this year.

How easy it is to throw other people's money away.

Oh, the politicians say the liability has been cut in half. But this is theoretical. The changes made to health insurance for retirees can and will be undone later. This is a game called re-election.

Voters should consider May 8 exactly what the legislative and gubernatorial priorities are.

The state has the money to pave less than 500 miles of highway this year, according to a recent report. At that rate, it will take more than 70 years to repave every mile of road in the state system.

Imagine how much asphalt $10 billion could buy.

Then there are proposed laws.

Every year, about 2,000 bills are proposed. Thank goodness, 90 percent of them go nowhere.

But some do, and usually the bills that become laws are not the ones I would have selected.

Requiring prescriptions to buy Sudafed? No thanks.

A bill that deserves attention is the Christmas cookie law, sponsored by Delegate Ralph Rodighiero, D-Logan, which seemed aimed at overriding the state Department of Education's policy on snacks.

The policy bans kids from passing out cookies and other edibles from home at school on any occasion for any reason.

Rodighiero is a sensible man who when he is not legislating, drives a truck for UPS.

His solution is to pass a law that allows students to eat Christmas cookies and other treats if they have permission slips from a parent or guardian.

It is a testament to society today that you need a state law to allow kids to pass out homemade cookies at school.

How about tackling the real problem - bureaucratic strangulation - and letting teachers and principals make judgment calls?

An overregulating state ensnares a girl giving another a Midol, a hunter forgetting about the rifle he locked up in a pickup, and any number of other idiotic zero-tolerance dramas that have surfaced in news stories.

I have no problem with the state regulating school snacks. We would simply replace zero tolerance with common sense.

Less is more when it comes to legislating - and to running a school system.

Surber may be reached at donsur...@dailymail.com. His blog is at http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber.