Letter: Legislature hasn’t earned big raise

• Published: May 16, 2008 - Page: 8B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

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

Senate Bill 672 proposes to give our legislators a pay raise of $39,200 per year, raising their total salaries from $34,955 to $74,155.

Gosh, with each regular session lasting 85 days, that’s fantastic pay for a part-time job.  This is especially true since the present earning capacity of a majority of Louisiana taxpayers, working 40 hours per week, 12 months per year, barely reaches the level currently earned by our legislators.

Have Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, and her cronies lost touch with reality?

Collectively, the lackluster performance of this legislative body has done little in recent years to deserve anything close to such a huge salary increase. With the surplus, however, it seems Sen. Duplessis can’t resist the temptation to grab a piece for herself and her fellow legislators. This surplus will not be around forever, especially with the state budget increasing exponentially each year.

Let’s try for something fiscally responsible for a change and retire some state debt or, here’s a thought, fix Louisiana’s nationally recognized substandard roads. Louisiana citizens will at least see tangible results with these expenditures.

Melinda Newman
librarian
Baton Rouge