A topic of some controversy the last week or so – the Louisiana legislature wanted to more than triple its pay. Today – in the face of howls of outrage from, well, everybody - they settled for more than doubling it. Nice work if you can get it, and if it meant they’d steal less I’d have no problem with it. But of course, in the face of Governor Jindal’s toothless ethics reform, the corruption problem is going to get worse, not better.
House members did not debate the bill after listening to a speech in support of the pay raise from Speaker Jim Tucker, who noted that lawmakers’ $16,800 annual base pay has not changed in nearly three decades. He acknowledged that legislators have come under pressure to reject the raise, but insisted the pay increase would prevent the Legislature from becoming a bastion of wealth, where only rich people can afford to serve.
Of course, while the focus is on the base pay, the reality is when you add in perqs and per diems it’s considerably more, and very generous for a part time job:
In fact, at the current level, Louisiana legislators are paid fairly well in comparison to other states, ranking 26th among state legislatures. Based on the ranking of Louisiana in most of these critical issues, legislators should be thankful for their current level of pay, not asking for more.
I wrote to my state representative, who actually let this monstrosity out of committee. You may find our email exchange entertaining (a friend of mine did, although I wasn’t trying to be funny, I was just furious when I wrote it):
Mr. Henry,
I am one of the many registered voters who are OUTRAGED at this pay raise. We do not want, or need, a full time legislature. Frankly, you people do enough damage in three months; the last thing we need to do is extend it by eliminating the need for your “regular” jobs, and the last thing we need is another detached-from-reality legislative class. We’ve already got one of those in Washington and that’s plenty.Additionally, when you so recently ran for (and fought *hard* for) this job, you knew exactly what the pay was. In the current economic slowdown, to arbitrarily triple your own pay – which as I sincerely hope you understand, comes out of your constituent’s personal budgets and from the sweat of our brows, not some mythical money tree grown by government – is a DISGRACE.
If you believe that the legislature is entitled to a pay raise, write a bill to put it to a vote in November when we will be at the polls anyway. Then make the case to your constituents why you need a raise. I implore you: vote against this pay raise. For a number of reasons, it’s simply a bad idea.
Sincerely,
Laura Curtis
He replied:
Dear Ms. Curtis,
Thank you for taking the time to inform me of your position on Senate Bill 672, the legislative pay raise bill. I am opposed to this legislation and will vote against it when it reaches the House floor. I did, however, vote in committee to send this legislation to the House floor because I believe it deserves a full hearing by the entire House.
Again, I appreciate your input. Please contact me in the future about any issues or concerns you may
have.Thank you very much
Sincerely,
Representative Cameron Henry
District 82
And I couldn’t resist a parting shot:
> I did, however, vote in committee to send this legislation
> to the House floor because I believe it deserves a full
> hearing by the entire House.Gee, and I thought you did it because you believed there were enough votes for it to pass without you getting blamed. Thanks for clarifying that for me.
Your political career is not getting off to a very auspicious start – it looks like more of the same nonsense we’ve been dealing with for generations; so much for change!
Laura Curtis
Considering the dirty campaigning Mr. Henry engaged in, I have no reason to believe him, and every reason to believe I diagnosed his attitude correctly; he did exactly what he could get away with. Now the question is will Governor Jindal stop it? He is currently openly willing to allow himself to be blackmailed into allowing this pay raise to pass unvetoed:
“I don’t want to give anybody any excuse for slowing down any of the important reform going through the legislature (that are) important to the people of Louisiana….”
C.B. Forgotston delivers a stern reality check against that line of thinking:
If the legislators kill all your proposed legislation, who does it hurt? It hurts the people of Louisiana; the exact same people that the legislators represent.
Governor, surely you don’t really believe the legislators want to return home after shutting down the session, killing all your reform legislation and tell their/your constituents that they did so because you vetoed their pay raise to which their/your constituents were so opposed.
The Power
Governor, you have been invited by the legislators to a knife fight. What the legislators don’t seem to know is that should you choose to fight, you will have a very large gun with unlimited ammunition. I’m no expert on knife fights, but historically, the man with the gun in a knife fight wins.
The people, in our constitution, granted you the power to stop this foolishness without having to submit to extortion.
The power is called the veto. You can veto not only any legislation that has the effect of law, but you can use the line-item veto in any appropriation bill to eliminate funding for anything including those slush funds/NGOs that are so close to the hearts of the legislators.
Governor, don’t let the legislators bluff you out of this knife fight. Strap on your gun. Take the fight to them. That’s what the people want to see.
We fought hard to give him that line-item veto. It’s time to dust it off and use it. And a former teacher friend of mine pointed out that public school teachers, firefighters and police can barely get a COLA (cost of living allowance) raise of 3% – and when they do, it often goes unfunded by the same Legislature that whines about the pay for the part time-job most of them did everything but sell their souls to get. And some probably did that.
If you are a Louisiana resident, email Governor Jindal and encourage him to grow a spine or whatever other necessary body parts it will take to stand up to the Legislature. Thank you.
