INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels said Wednesday that taxpayers got a great deal financially when Indiana legislators hashed out a budget on the last day of the special session.

Even though lawmakers were paid an extra $160,000, Daniels contends that the budget they reached was much more realistic than proposals that fell through during the General Assembly's normal legislative session in April.

"By having a special session, we save more than $700 million versus April -- what they were working on when things ended in April," Daniels said. "We saved over $1 billion from the House budget they passed during the special session. Taxpayers got a return from between 4,000 and 5,000 to 1, against about $150,000."

While they were happy that lawmakers were finally able to pass a budget, taxpayers were annoyed by the extra time and expense used to get the job done.

The cost of nearly $160,000 is a minute fraction of the $27 billion budget, but an expense most think was unnecessary had lawmakers simply done the job they were paid to do in the time they were originally allotted.

Had lawmakers not come up with a budget, state government would have shut down, leaving nearly 31,000 employees furloughed with no pay.

Yet lawmakers earned extra salary because their disagreements forced Gov. Mitch Daniels to call a special session.

"For them not to get the budget done when they had plenty of time and $150,000 -- that's not a good thing," said one man. "That's a real bad thing for taxpayers."

"From what I can tell, all they've done is bicker," said another man. "I mean, it's just nothing but bickering."

Lawmakers were assured extra money during 16 days of public testimony and contentious debate, and many think it isn't fair that all of that discussion nearly resulted in state workers not getting paid until legislators could agree on something.

"I don't think they should get paid, either," said one woman. "They should have gotten it done months ago."

6News talked to numerous people about the budget situation. Not one of them thought lawmakers should have been paid extra during the special session.