CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The tab is in for the cost of having the Legislature in town for the extended session and first special session, May 26 to June 2.

Total cost for $150 per-day pay and expenses is $380,418.

Total House expenses were $279,497, although individual breakdowns of expenses were not available as of Friday. The Senate had $63,900 in per-day pay and $37,021 in expenses.

All but seven of the 34 senators were in attendance for roll calls on all eight days, for a total of $1,200 each. That includes the Saturday, May 30 session, in which the House and Senate met just long enough for legislators to pick up copies of the final version of the 2009-10 budget bill.

All senators except Donna Boley, Truman Chafin, Dan Foster, Brooks McCabe, Corey Palumbo and Erik Wells filed for expenses, ranging in amounts from $256.32 for Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, to $1,852.90 for Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley.

Eight senators claimed the maximum $1,310 in per-day expenses for the sessions: Walt Helmick, Joe Minard, Robert Plymale, Herb Snyder, David Sypolt, Unger, Randy White, and Jack Yost.

To their credit, lawmakers did not collect two days' pay on May 31, when they completed the extended session by passing the budget, and then immediately convened the three-day special session.

Speaking of the special sessions, during the brief second special session, Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, hosted a fundraising reception on June 16 at the Power Alley Grill, attended by Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, and Gov. Joe Manchin.

Last Tuesday, Manchin led the South Atlantic League All-Star game crowd at Power Park in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.

The final financial report for the Manchin Inaugural Committee shows a final balance of $147,754, which was contributed to the Executive Mansion Renovation Fund. (Time to upgrade the flat-panel TVs?)

Last payments out of the account included $21.65 to the city of Charleston for its user fee, $3,139 to Lewis, Glasser, Casey & Rollins for legal services, and $500 to West Virginia University's Intercollegiate Athletics Department for the WVU cheerleaders' participation in the Inaugural Parade.

Recent news reports cited a new Southern Regional Education Board report showing that more than half of all students who enroll in four-year colleges in the state fail to earn a bachelor's degree within six years -- a factor of schools accepting academically unqualified students, financial woes, or a combination of both.

While at least one report focused on the dismal 18 percent graduation rate at Beckley's Mountain State University, it gave no other data on state institutions.

Here are the numbers:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The tab is in for the cost of having the Legislature in town for the extended session and first special session, May 26 to June 2.

Total cost for $150 per-day pay and expenses is $380,418.

Total House expenses were $279,497, although individual breakdowns of expenses were not available as of Friday. The Senate had $63,900 in per-day pay and $37,021 in expenses.

All but seven of the 34 senators were in attendance for roll calls on all eight days, for a total of $1,200 each. That includes the Saturday, May 30 session, in which the House and Senate met just long enough for legislators to pick up copies of the final version of the 2009-10 budget bill.

All senators except Donna Boley, Truman Chafin, Dan Foster, Brooks McCabe, Corey Palumbo and Erik Wells filed for expenses, ranging in amounts from $256.32 for Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, to $1,852.90 for Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley.

Eight senators claimed the maximum $1,310 in per-day expenses for the sessions: Walt Helmick, Joe Minard, Robert Plymale, Herb Snyder, David Sypolt, Unger, Randy White, and Jack Yost.

To their credit, lawmakers did not collect two days' pay on May 31, when they completed the extended session by passing the budget, and then immediately convened the three-day special session.

Speaking of the special sessions, during the brief second special session, Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, hosted a fundraising reception on June 16 at the Power Alley Grill, attended by Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, and Gov. Joe Manchin.

Last Tuesday, Manchin led the South Atlantic League All-Star game crowd at Power Park in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.

The final financial report for the Manchin Inaugural Committee shows a final balance of $147,754, which was contributed to the Executive Mansion Renovation Fund. (Time to upgrade the flat-panel TVs?)

Last payments out of the account included $21.65 to the city of Charleston for its user fee, $3,139 to Lewis, Glasser, Casey & Rollins for legal services, and $500 to West Virginia University's Intercollegiate Athletics Department for the WVU cheerleaders' participation in the Inaugural Parade.

Recent news reports cited a new Southern Regional Education Board report showing that more than half of all students who enroll in four-year colleges in the state fail to earn a bachelor's degree within six years -- a factor of schools accepting academically unqualified students, financial woes, or a combination of both.

While at least one report focused on the dismal 18 percent graduation rate at Beckley's Mountain State University, it gave no other data on state institutions.

Here are the numbers:

State institutions with graduation rates of 55 percent or higher: Bethany College, West Virginia University, West Virginia Wesleyan College and Wheeling Jesuit University.

State institutions with graduation rates of 40 percent or less: Bluefield State College, Concord University, Glenville State College, Marshall University, Mountain State, Salem International University, Shepherd University and West Virginia State University.

Perhaps legislators should keep in mind which institutions provide the best outcomes for their state dollars when preparing future budgets.

House Health and Human Resources Chairman Don Perdue, D-Wayne, has been hired as executive director of the Wayne County Development Authority, with salary to be determined.

Perdue, who joins legislators such as Walt Helmick, Richard Browning and Robert Plymale in working for regional development authorities, said his primary goal will be to oversee completion of the Prichard Intermodal Facility, a planned truck-to-rail complex on the Norfolk Southern line.

Charleston-native Sarah Feinberg and her husband, Dan Pfeiffer were named to the 15 "power couples" in the Obama administration by Politico magazine.

Feinberg is spokeswoman for Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Pfeiffer is deputy White House communications director.

Feinberg is the daughter of Lee Feinberg and Mary Stanley.

Finally, as the increasingly bizarre accounts of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's extramarital affair stream in, one can't help but harken back to the comparatively mundane scandal that ended then-Gov. Bob Wise's political career back in 2003.

As with the Sanford affair, there had been rumors floating around for weeks prior to his confession that Wise was having an affair, but the statehouse press corps wrote them off for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it seemed incongruous with Wise's buttoned-down personality.

Likewise, there were e-mails between Wise and the state Development Office staffer with whom he was entangled (obtained via FOIA), but compared to the Sanford e-mails, Wise's e-mails never rose above the level of very mild flirtation.

Unlike Sanford, who confessed his transgression in a rambling surreal press conference, Wise wisely hunkered down for four days following initial reports of his affair, before holding a terse five-minute "media availability" at the Wood County Airport.

Also notable, like Jenny Sanford, first lady Sandy Wise did not "stand by her man" in the aftermath of the affair, making no public appearances in her husband's defense and moving back to Washington, D.C., soon after the story broke.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.