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HELENA – Future Montana lawmakers would receive an 82 percent pay raise or more compared to what they're making now under a measure to be considered next week by a legislative panel.

State lawmakers made $7,437 in wages over the 90 days of the 2015 legislative session, and that doesn't include per-diem allowances, payments and reimbursements between sessions and other benefits, such as health and retirement.

Under the measure to be considered by the Legislative Council on Tuesday, the lawmakers would make $13,608 in the 2019 session, based on the proposed benchmark used to calculate unemployment benefits. Their pay would be even higher if that benchmark goes up in the next two years.

The wage rate for the state's 150 legislators is now $10.33 an hour, which will be adjusted to $11.33 an hour when the 2017 session begins in January to match raises given to state employees.

The bill draft would give lawmakers in 2019 and beyond an hourly rate of about $18.90 or more. It would be the single-biggest pay hike for lawmakers in at least 18 years.

The measure is the product of months of study, with lawmakers on the panel defending it but sensitive to the public criticism that inevitably arises whenever a legislative body talks about granting its own members a raise.