The Texas Ethics Commission has been asked to consider two questions about payments to state legislators. The first question is whether a state legislator may receive a salary for working for a city.
State legislators are subject to a general prohibition on the acceptance of benefits.
A benefit is anything reasonably regarded as pecuniary gain or pecuniary advantage. A salary is a benefit. There is, however, an exception from the prohibition on the acceptance of benefits for a salary for services provided in a capacity other than as a public servant . The prohibition on honoraria set out in section 36.07 of the Penal Code is also relevant to this question, and it has a similar affect in the circumstances described. Under that prohibition a state legislator may not accept an honorarium for services that he would not have been asked to provide but for his official position.