Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday morning vetoed a bill that doubled the base pay for state legislators. Jindal made the announcement at a news conference in the State Capitol. "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," 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."
Jindal 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." Lawmakers voted to raise their annual base pay from $16,800 to $37,500; the raise was to go into effect Tuesday
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