Jindal Vetoes Pay Raise Bill
Charles Johnson
Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 2:21 pm PDT • Views: 400
A lot of people were very unhappy about that Louisiana legislative pay raise, and Bobby Jindal has had a change of heart: Jindal vetoes legislative raise.
BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal announced today that he has vetoed the legislative pay raise.
After days of saying he would not reject the unpopular measure, Jindal said this morning that he had changed his mind.
“I thank the people for their voice and their attention,” Jindal said of the public outcry against the raise. “I am going to need your help to move this state forward. … The voters have demanded change… . I made a mistake by staying out if it” originally.
Jindal said that legislators “are going to be angry I broke my word to them” by promising to stay out of the pay raise issue. “Let them direct their anger to me and not the people of this state,” Jindal said.
The governor said that although he originally promised to refrain from injecting himself in the issue because a veto may threaten his future legislative programs, he was wrong.
“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.”
Frank says: