Jindal Vetoes Legislator Pay Raise Under Pressure
Last Updated: July 04, 2008
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BATON ROUGE: Facing unrelenting public pressure, Gov. Bobby Jindal suddenly reversed course Monday and vetoed a controversial bill that would have doubled the pay of state lawmakers.
Jindal said at a news conference that he vetoed the bill because its passage had become a white-hot political issue that has preoccupied government the past three weeks. Letting the pay raise become law, he said, would “diminish the people’s confidence in government.”
Jindal had said he opposed the raise as excessive but had promised lawmakers he would not interfere in their business and run the risk of derailing some his future “reform programs.”
But in statements frequently sprinkled with the word “mistake,” Jindal backed away Monday from the idea that he would be protecting his agenda by allowing the bill to become law. “It is clear to me that the legislative pay raise is, in itself, a threat to our reform movement and our progress as a state,” he said.
“I clearly made a mistake by telling the Legislature that I would allow them to handle their own affairs, and as with all mistakes, you can either correct them or compound them,” Jindal said in a statement sent to supporters. “I chose to correct my mistake by vetoing this bill.”
While legislators had argued that the raise was long overdue, public opposition, expressed in recall petitions filed against five legislators and Jindal last week, had shaken their resolve.
House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, who played a leading role in pushing for the raise and was one of the five targeted for recall, issued a statement saying that he respects Jindal’s veto of Senate Bill 672 by Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans.
“Our goal (in pursuing the pay raise) was to assure that citizens from all walks of life could afford public service,” Tucker said. “The Louisiana state Constitution currently requires that the Legislature set its own pay, and this should be changed.
“As speaker, I and the members of the House are committed to working with the governor to continue the unprecedented reforms we have achieved in the past six months.” Duplessis was less forgiving. “I was disappointed,” but not surprised, she said.
Duplessis said Jindal is not aware of the time it takes to be a legislator because he “has never been a state lawmaker. He went from being ‘Boy Wonder’ to Congress” to being elected governor.
“The only thing you have around here is your word,” Duplessis said. “He reneged on his word.”
A statewide poll released Monday by Southern Media & Opinion Research showed Jindal’s popularity still high but sinking dramatically since April. In the survey taken last week, 25 percent of those polled said their impression of Jindal was very favorable and 34 percent said it was somewhat favorable. That compares to Southern Media’s survey in April showing Jindal with a 47 percent very favorable rating and 30 percent somewhat favorable.
Those with either a very or somewhat unfavorable impression of Jindal rose from 7 percent in April to 36 percent in the new survey. Pollster Bernie Pinsonat said Jindal’s veto of the pay raise, which happened after the poll was taken, will likely help the governor’s image.
“But the rock star popularity numbers are no more,” Pinsonat said. “Some of the high negatives will remain, because some of those people will be convinced that Jindal did it for public pressure instead of because it was the right thing he should have done initially.”
Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, could not be reached for comment. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, said he welcomed Jindal’s veto and promised to work to keep the governor’s “reform agenda on track.”
“Our citizens need to know that above all else we are responsive to their calls for action and that we understand what it means to be a public servant,” Michot said.
“I believe the Legislature underestimated the impact and importance of this issue,” said Rep. Tom Willmott, R-Kenner, who also backed Jindal’s veto.
In a letter outlining his reasons for rejecting the raise, Jindal cited the changes he and the new Legislature have brought about since Jan. 14, when they were sworn in, such as cutting personal and business taxes, strengthening ethics laws and toughening laws on sexual predators. NO Times Picayune
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