Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Before the legislative session ended nearly two weeks ago, state Rep. Bryan Hughes was pretty sure Gov. Rick Perry would call the Legislature back to Austin to take care of unfinished business.

"It's going to hurt but I'll be ready," the East Texas Republican told me before the 140-day session adjourned. "We all take a financial hit when we come back for a special session but this is what we signed up for when we decided to run for this office."

Hughes knows too well the personal cost of a special session.

Although he has served in the Legislature for only six years, the 39-year-old attorney is already a veteran of seven 30-day special sessions Perry has called. And though he has not estimated the loss of income those sessions have cost him, Hughes says is at least in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Most members of the South Plains/Panhandle delegation say they, too, take a financial hit when they are in special session but Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton, is just about to find out how much he will lose.

"A special session would be a real hardship on a lot - a lot - of members," said Heflin who was elected in 2006 but has yet to participate in a special session because Perry didn't call one after the end of the previous session.

"We do have to make a living," said Heflin, also an attorney. "This doesn't pay, it is not a living wage, $600 a month, and we know what it pays when we take the job, it is a service job."

However, Heflin, like all the other members of the area delegation already have established careers and - with the exception of Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, who at 52 is the youngest lawmaker from the South Plains/Panhandle delegation - none has small children.

Moreover, a good number of lawmakers, including some from the area delegation, like GOP Reps. Delwin Jones of Lubbock and Warren Chisum of Pampa, are already retired or own a business that supports them while they are in Austin.

So, it is the young professionals like Hughes who are hit the hardest financially when the governor calls a special session.

But the lawmakers are not the only ones who take a financial hit. So do Texas taxpayers.

Although a special session can be as short as a day but no longer than 30, under Perry's watch they all have been a month-long and the average cost is about $1 million each, mainly in reimbursement to lawmakers. Each gets about $168 per day for personal expenses while they are in Austin for business.

But ultimately, it is the personal toll the sessions take on the lawmakers. If Perry calls them back this summer, for many it will mean canceling or postponing vacations or not spending quality time with their families.

Sen. Kel Seliger for example, was hoping to spend as much time as possible with his son before he goes to college because the Amarillo Republican figures this may the last summer his son lives at home.

So, special sessions come at a price for everyone, financially and emotionally. But as Hughes, Heflin, Isett, Seliger and others have said repeatedly, this is what they signed up for when they decided to run.