That low population state has a 400 member House? Is that a typo.
Not a typo:
NH HOUSE
Majority
Republican (213)
Minority
Democratic (187)
400 NH House members. All paid just $100 a year to go to Concord part-time. The NH Senate has 24 seats.
I’m guessing, sufficiently numerous so that most of the state’s roughly 1.4 million people can routinely have personal contact with them, unlike the U.S. House, which is a 538-member chummy good ‘ol boys and girls club remote from most of the country’s 330 million-plus people.
If the US Congress kept the same ratio per capita of House members to populatipn that we had in the 18th Century, there would be thousands of Congressmen.
Yeah, they do, but it's really okay, because...
They have been paid $200 for a two-year term since 1889.
The presiding officers of both houses of the legislature - called the General Court - receive a salary of $250, while all other members get $200 plus mileage for 45 legislative days, according to the state Constitution.
Members really clean up for a special session, during which all legislators receive an additional compensation of $3 per day “for a period not exceeding 15 days and the usual mileage.”
No we have lots of House members - AND - we don’t pay them or give them offices.
They have to have jobs, and they have to give out their home phone numbers. Keeps ‘em close.
Live free or die.