Irate lawmakers say no veto session likely

• By MARK BALLARD AND MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 18, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Twitter
• Social Media

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Even as Louisiana lawmakers expressed anger at Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday, they predicted a majority of the 144-member Legislature would let stand his vetoes.

Leaders of the delegations and caucuses — groups that state senators and representatives form to help push legislation — say another session in August specifically to overturn some of Jindal’s vetoes likely will not occur.

Following normal procedures, lawmakers on Wednesday were sent a packet that contained Jindal’s vetoes and a ballot on whether to hold a veto override session.

Lawmakers haven’t held a veto override session in more than 30 years. But talk of one started soon after Jindal used his line-item veto to strip funding from about 250 of legislators’ pet projects.

Republican legislative leaders on Thursday asked the 65 members of the GOP legislative caucus to reject the veto override session.

“It is our opinion that it would be costly, unproductive, and not in the best interests of the citizens of this state,” Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, and Rep. Jane Smith, R-Bossier City, the delegation’s leaders, said in a statement to caucus members.

But in an interview Martiny said he is advising legislative colleagues not to be taunted by Jindal into reconvening for a veto override session.

“I’m not going to be baited into going back into a session,” Martiny said. “The governor wants us to go back into a veto session. I think this is what it is all about, how he is perceived nationally, which is well. I don’t know how he’s doing here.”

Martiny, who chairs a Senate committee and represented the governor when Jindal lived in Kenner, also said: “The governor was more concerned about the number of vetoes, trying to impress, trying to make a record on the number of line-item vetoes. Some very worthy causes got caught up and viewed as slush funds.”

Senate President Joel T. Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, agreed.

“A lot of my members are complaining that it appears that the governor was trying to grab headlines with a large number of vetoes,” rather than working to improve funding procedures, said Chaisson, who has handled several of Jindal’s legislative initiatives.

Chaisson said the Jindal administration failed to communicate what criteria was acceptable. Even when the conditions were voiced, such as for the funding of nongovernmental organizations, Jindal failed to apply criteria uniformly, he said.

During the session, the governor and his top aides did not work with legislators to show them why he opposed funding certain projects and what could be done to make the projects more acceptable in his eyes, said Chaisson, adding he is advising senators not to reconvene for a veto override session.