How legislative pay affects legislative pork

Having written about pork in today’s column, I am very surprised by the results in this new study from the University of Rochester. After carefully studying more than 100,000 bills in 13 state legislatures, it finds that low-pay legislatures in which legislators work part-time produce less pork and better governance.

Less surprising is the finding that one-party states are more likely to see massive pork infusions in each year’s legislation.