Topeka ? Kansas legislators get paid for days during the legislative session when they are not in the Statehouse.

Now with the state budget crisis in its second year, Republican leaders, who control the Legislature, want to cut legislators’ pay on some of those days and are calling it a sacrifice.

“These calendar changes and cuts in legislative compensation are part of our overall approach to reduce costs at this time of severe stress on the state budget. Legislators want to do their part,” said Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton.

“Despite the short three-month duration of the legislative session, we know it’s important to control legislative costs along with other reductions in government spending. Today’s pay-reduction proposal for the Legislature is a significant step in that process,” said House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson.

But some say the effort is misleading.

Under the deal, legislators will take 10 days of unpaid furloughs during the 2010 session. It would reduce the pay of each legislator by $2,047.

But these proposed furlough days — Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays — are early in the session when most legislators aren’t in Topeka anyway, especially Saturdays and Sundays. And until late in the session, Fridays are “pro forma” days where no official action is taken but legislators get paid anyway even though most of them have gone home for the weekend.

Generally, legislators are paid each calendar day for a 90-day session. They receive $88.66 per day in pay and subsistence of $116 per day during the session.

Jane Carter, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, said the proposal can’t be considered a furlough like most people think of an unpaid furlough, when a person is forced to take off, for no pay, a day they would have normally worked.

“The Legislature is paid for Saturdays and Sundays, which they do not work. They shouldn’t be paid these days. Furloughing for 10 days only cuts the days they shouldn’t have been paid in the first place,” Carter said.

Some Democrats say they fear Republican legislators are going to use the plan to pave the way for forcing state employees to take unpaid furloughs.

When announcing the plan, Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said the decision to furlough the Legislature “is about leading by example. Before we ask others to sacrifice, we should be prepared to do the same ourselves.”

In addition to the legislative furlough plan, the Republican leaders said they want to cut legislative pay by 5 percent, and reduce food and lodging from $116 per day to $109 per day.