According to the annual report of the Libertad Foundation on the operating costs of provincial legislatures in Argentina, there is a significant disparity in expenses per legislator among the different provinces. For example, Chaco has a cost of $875 million per legislator, while Santiago del Estero only $80.8 million, meaning that the cost in Chaco is 10.8 times higher than in Santiago del Estero.
On the opposite end, San Luis and Santiago del Estero are the provinces with the lowest costs per legislator, with annual expenses of $74.6 and $80.8 million respectively. Interestingly, a legislator from Tucumán costs 5.1 times more than one in Jujuy, despite having a similar number of legislators in both provinces.
Santa Fe has a cost 3.7 times higher than that of Córdoba, followed by the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires with $1.152 billion and Buenos Aires with $1.102 billion. There is also a significant difference between Catamarca and San Luis, where the former nearly octuples the spending per legislator of the latter.
In total, the 1,199 provincial senators and deputies in the country represent an average expenditure of $545,990,426 per year per legislator, with a total of $654,642,520,506 allocated to provincial legislatures. The highest cost per legislator is found in Tucumán, with $1.288 billion annually.
