Posted on 06/30/2008 2:38:22 PM PDT by Pikachu_Dad
BREAKING Bobby Jindal will veto the pay raise. The Governor announced his decision during an 11 a.m. press conference. WWL broke the story. UPDATE x2: Just got word from Steve Sabludowsky - the rally has been canceled.
UPDATE: Jindal’s official press release
Jun 30, 2008 Governor Jindal Vetoes Legislative Pay Raise Bill BATON ROUGE – At a press conference announcing his line item vetoes in the supplemental spending bill today, Governor Bobby Jindal announced that he has vetoed the legislative pay raise bill to more than double legislators’ pay, SB 672.
“I have opposed this pay raise at every turn and from the very beginning. A doubling of legislative pay is clearly excessive and it takes effect prior to the next election, which I believe is bad policy,” Governor Jindal said. “This bill would also have set up a system to give legislators automatic pay raises in the future without additional legislative votes - which is a lack of accountability that we cannot accept.”
The Governor had previously said he would not veto the pay raise to allow the legislature to conduct its own internal affairs. “I clearly made a mistake by telling the legislature that I would allow them to handle their own affairs,” Jindal said. “As with all mistakes, you can either correct them or compound them - I am choosing to correct my mistake now.
“I have said that I was not going to stop legislators from more than doubling their own pay by vetoing this because I did not want to give them any excuse to slow down the momentum of our reform movement here in Louisiana. It turns out this is an unsustainable position. I have come to realize that the reforms I have been fighting for are simply incompatible with this legislative pay raise.
“I was trying to preserve our reform agenda and our momentum by tolerating this legislative pay raise that I knew was completely excessive. But the two cannot coexist.
“The bottom line is that allowing this excessive legislative pay raise to become law would so significantly undercut our reform agenda, and so significantly diminish the people’s confidence in their own government, that I cannot let it become law. So, I have vetoed the bill.”
The Governor continued to say that, “The sideshow over massive legislative pay raises has already taken up far too much time. It’s time to get back to doing the people’s business. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done in our state…there are roads to build, jobs to create, business to open, and kids to educate.”
The Governor also called for legislators to direct any anger over the veto of the pay raise to him, and not the people of Louisiana by impeding future important reforms for the state. Jindal said, “I know that some of the legislators are going to be upset that I broke my word to them to stay out of their business. But I am asking them to take out their anger on me – not on the people of Louisiana.”
The Governor concluded his remarks by calling on the public to continue their close involvement in government and the political process. The Governor said, “to all the citizens of Louisiana who have become so vocal on this issue and so involved in the process - stay involved. There is a lot more to do. Don’t tune out or stop paying attention to the political process now. This government belongs to you; it is your business. I’m going to need your help.”
God help me, I do love it so!
DOes this mean they’re gonna drop that hokey JINDALWATCH?
Hopefully this will appease the JindalWatch crowd.
If Jindal can’t pull this off his career projectory is going to get trapped in the quagmire of La. Dem machinery politics.
Hope he can swing enough to his side to come out ahead in this, or he’s facing a long tenure battling a reticent Legislature.
Leni
My guess is they will find something else to bitch about.
The best thing to come of all this is many legislators have shown their true colors in the past few weeks.
Lousianans, you voted in a decent Governor, now vote out all the legislature.
I absolutely refuse to be faulted for expecting politicians to uphold their campaign promises. If more of you spineless whiners - and you all know who you are - would DEMAND your elected politicians behave, they would do so. Whenever citizens stand around and say “Oh, well (even though he/she lied) there’s nothing we can do about it and we must support the ‘home team’ regardless” - then you wind up with weasels in office every time.
FWIW, here in PA our legislators did their famous ‘midnight pay grab’ and only a few wound up walking the career plank.
One of the most arrogant (Veon) immediately resurfaced as a lobbyist (lobbying Harrisburg, of course) and although under investigation for deleted files on his old work computers, nothing short of the sun becoming a red giant and engulfing the earth can get rid of them.
Of course having Fast Eddie Rendell at the helm didn’t help matters...
I appreciate Jindal walking the walk, but have you seen the legs. pay? No wonder there’s so much corruption.
Maybe the voters would approve of a performance based raise?
Thank God this idiot showed his true colors before the many FREEPERS made this guy President. Stunning how FREEPERS are blinded by “so called conservatism”. What were they hoping just weeks ago???? VP for McCain???? BWAAAA!!!!
I followed it closely....I’m a PA native. This sort of thing seems to happen everywhere I move ;-)
He was elected and then refused to serve because the
pay was lower than he thought it should be.
The City council raised his pay.
LOL
Nothing will appease the JindalWatch® crowd. They wanted him to veto this bill before it was even voted on by the LA legislature.
This IS good news!
Soooo when do we get some apologies from the “We Blame Rush For This” crowd, and the rest of the hysterical “Jindal is a Traitor to Conservatism” bunch?
[crickets chirping?]
Heh.
Love your tagline, lol!!
I guess you have reading comprehension problems.
WOW! Someone doing the right thing - how refreshing. Good for him.
LOL! After reading that post, I had to reread the article thinking “I” read it wrong!
Jindal would have had no problems if he would have simply kept to his campaign promise to veto pay raises. You can’t promise something and then recant after you are elected. Yes, I know, Democrats do it all the time but the political climate is changing, people are tired of promises made and then broken. He should have vetoed this to start with and he would never have been in the soup. It may be too late for him even now, he has given his enemies an opening and they may not let it close.
Quite remarkable.
While I thought some of the anti-Jindal rhetoric was overwrought, but you deserve no apology at all.
First, Jindal is only doing the right thing belatedly because of such an enormous public outcry. When he had promised in the previous weeks to not veto, he was going against campaign promises to the voters. And while I thought some of the JindalWatch stuff was over-the-top, I also thought the impeach Jindal movement was over-the-top, but it very well may have been the thing that finally got him to do the right thing.
Also, this isn't the only problem conservatives have had with Jindal. He was against repealing the Stelly tax until he realized that conservatives were going to steamroll him on the issue and make him look bad. He only did the right thing when forced to. (Sound familiar)
The ethics reforms he has had passed also have some loopholes that make many think they won't end up having teeth. He also made sure to get much less stringent ethics requirements for the executive branch than the legislative branch.
Good! See how easy this was?!
That would be nice, but probably won't happen. There is clearly an agenda with that crowd and, I suspect, they would rather see a Landrieu in the governor's office. I have already seen comments about Jindal coming to this decision 'too late'. Hard to figure, but very disturbing.
You GOTTA LOVE BOBBY!
Could it be we need more Indians in American Government?
Pretty amazing some of this stuff. There’s a group out there really after Jindal, it seems. My gut feeling is they are lefties who are genuinely afraid of this guy rising to prominence in the Republican Party.
Always...always read the entire article before you post!
Never heard that, what was his name?
Looks like the people spoke loud and clear, and Jindal listened. At least he’s willing to admit his mistakes, correct them, and (hopefully) learn from them for the future.
}:-)4
What would you expect from a Landrieu -- more spending, more taxes. That's what Jindal has tried to push so far in his first six months. I guess you support keeping the Stelly tax and breaking campaign promises to voters.
Yeah, the people in LA should feel foolish for taking a proactive role in getting a governor to honor his campaign promise to the people who elected him.
We feel so incredibly foolish for having to practically force our governor to veto legislative pay raises that would have doubled their base salary.
I don’t think Jesus would be perfect enough for them to be honest. There is a history of the leges cutting the legs off of reform governors. Roemer was one who did not win the battle with the leges.
Welllll....awwwrite. ;)
http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8579073
Lawmakers react to Jindal’s legislative pay raise veto
http://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/
Jindal, others win with pay raise veto while others lose
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/Louisiana/Politics/Louisiana_Spoke_And_Wins_With_Gov.__Jindal_Veto__6687.asp
Louisiana Spoke And Wins With Gov. Jindal Veto
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/Louisiana/Politics/Louisiana_Speaker_Tucker_Legislator_GOP_Comments_On_Veto__6689.asp
Louisiana Speaker Tucker, Legislator, GOP Comments On Veto
http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=8581013
Local legislators react to veto
Sure, c'mon over. This is my house and family.
Yep, it seems like even Jindal himself is saying that he made a mistake here. Kudos to him for turning it around—and for those who squawked in a way that may have very much helped him in the long run. Now after applying the stick, they should follow it up with a great big bunch of carrots for the guv, repairing the schism with his base and helping to repair the PR damage.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl063008tpdubos.e4dd9d1.html
DuBos: Lawmakers feel burned
You nailed it. bttt
The mayor of NO had a starting salary and raises every year.
He demanded the same salary as a mayor with 8 years in office.
He refused to serve until they gave him the salary he demanded.
You nailed it. bttt
He was facing a long tenure battle with a run away legislature anyway.
This at least lets him stand up for his campaign promise.
We need another option. They are all in for 3 more years.
We can try to recall them, but for that we need 1/3 of all the registered voters in their District to sign. They were pointing out yesterday, that most of Ann Duplessis registered voters are still out of state. So she is essentially immune to a recall. So we need still yet ANOTHER option.
If you have any ideas, shout them out.
Foolish? Probably the 20 Senators who voted for it and the 50 or so representatives.
EVERYONE ELSE HAD BIG SMILES ON THEIR FACES...
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