In the interest of fairness, we believe a clarification is in order for the editorial Tuesday concerning the glut of legislation facing the the 122nd Legislature.

We maintain our central point: Too many bills, especially those knowingly submitted just to make a point or in an attempt at humor, are a waste of time and money. But our numbers just didn’t add up.

In the editorial, we quoted House Speaker John Richardson as saying each submitted bill can cost the state as much as $10,000. We then chastised state Sen. Ethan Strimling for filing a “lighthearted” bill to annex part of New Hampshire, a response to a New Hampshire lawmaker’s effort to annex Kittery.

The bill was supposed to use humor as a response to the not-so-serious effort in New Hampshire. Funny, as we have learned, does not translate well into the law.

Strimling’s bill, which was a concept draft, will not cost $10,000. It will likely cost the state as little as $10. A concept draft is little more than a talking point to bring some matter to the attention of lawmakers. It is not treated with the seriousness of a bill that’s being considered for passage.

Most bills cost between $225 to $270 to be prepared. The lower amounts, however, do not include the cost of staff time, committee resources and research that go into serious bills. All said and done, a typical bill – overhead included – costs about $1,000 if you divide the budget of the office that prepares the bills by the number it processes. Major pieces of legislation, like Dirigo health, tax reform and mental health care reform have price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars, bringing the average near the $10,000 cost cited by Richardson.

More than 2,100 bills have been filed this year for the Legislature to weed through. That’s too many. The high numbers have significant costs in terms of lost opportunity and lost money. It’s just not fair to say each one costs $10,000. Some do, most don’t.