Here is an excerpt of an article which appeared in today’s Times-Picayune (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1213680009220220.xml&coll=1&thispage=1):
“Under existing law, legislators get $16,800 a year plus a $6,000 unvouchered expense allowance as well as a per diem tied to the federal rate for every day they are in session. The per diem is now $143 a day.
“[Senator Ann] Duplessis [D-New Orleans, who sponsored the bill] said she would have preferred the pay to stand at the original level tied to congressional pay, taking lawmakers from a base pay of $16,800 to $50,700, but said the legislative process is one of compromise and negotiations.
“In the bill, the pay of the Senate president and House speaker will go from $32,000 a year to $71,250, while the pay of the speaker pro tem and the president pro tem will increase from $24,500 to $54,750. When the bill was tied to congressional pay, the presiding officers would have received $76,150 and their deputies would have gotten $59,150.
“The chairmen of the House Appropriations Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs will go from $16,800 base pay to $54,750.”
To put things into perspective, this year’s Regular Legislative Session convened on March 31 and will adjourn on June 23. That’s roughly three months of full-time legislative work.
Thanks, I knew there had to be more to this.
So they wanted to give themselves a raise from 6 thousand a month to 18 thousand a month, that puts the pay raise into a different perspective.