But as the result of testimony offered by experts at the joint committee hearings, the Legislature raised the limit to $250,000.

Under state law, a Legislature cannot raise its pay during its two-year term.

Yet the only taxes that the Legislature can raise without a constitutional change are regressive ones like the sales tax, officials say.

The participants say they want to press the Legislature to raise the state minimum wage above the federal minimum of $5.15.

He had been unable to persuade the Legislature to raise other taxes.

In 2001, the Legislature reversed itself and raised the age of consent from 14 to 16.

Since then, the Legislature has raised the index fee, and this year's law raised it again, to $210 from $185.

A lobbying effort is under way to encourage the Legislature to raise the state's minimum public teacher's salary from $18,500 a year to $40,000.

"Doing that may give us the impetus to ask the Legislature to raise the caps."

The Legislature raised the monthly benefits of a mother and two children to $201, from $188.