Jindal vetoes raise for PSC, calls $30,000 ‘excessive’

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 4, 2008 - Page: 5A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed a $30,000 annual pay raise for members of the Public Service Commission on Thursday.

“Though I appreciate the dedication and important work of the commissioners, I find this raise to be excessive,” Jindal wrote in his veto letter on House Bill 939.

The governor’s press secretary, Melissa Sellers, did not respond to a request to speak to Jindal.

The veto comes less than a week after the governor overturned a raise that would have more than doubled legislators’ base pay.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Jeff Arnold, said the climate does not appear to be right for boosting any elected officials’ pay.

Arnold said he will abandon the issue as long as Jindal opposes it.

“I’m only surprised because there was absolutely no opposition and no question by the administration throughout the process,” said Arnold, D-New Orleans.

The bill would have raised the pay of the five, part-time PSC commissioners from $45,000 to $75,000 a year.

The PSC regulates the state’s utilities.

During the session, supporters circulated literature that said the commissioners’ pay has been stagnant for 11 years.

The bill moved through the Legislature with little dissention.

PSC Commissioner Jimmy Field, of Baton Rouge, said self-generated funds would have been used to pay for the raise.

“I’ve very surprised because there was … no opposition, I believe, in the Legislature,” Field said. “We’re the very lowest paid in the Southeast.”