After much public pressure, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal finally made the right move last week when he vetoed the 124% increase in pay for members of the Louisiana Legislature. He was also correct in vetoing a $30,000 increase in pay for members of the Public Service Commission. These salary increases were too large and came at the wrong time, especially during tough economic times for Louisiana citizens.
Public service should be about serving the public. We, the people, are the employers, and these public servants are our employees. If we do not believe they deserve a raise, then clearly they should not receive one.
I highly doubt the public has a different opinion on the issue of pay for members of the Jindal administration. So, it is quite unfortunate that Governor Jindal has pushed through massive pay raises for top executives in his administration. Jindal is being inconsistent and is showing favoritism toward members of his cabinet.
For example, the Secretary of Economic Development Stephen Moret received a $75,000 raise and will now be making $320,000. His assistant Steve Grissom will be receiving an even larger raise of $94,040 for a total pay package of $237,000. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals Alan Levine will receive a $60,000 raise for an annual salary of over $160,000. The Director of Legislative Affairs will receive a $76,000 raise. The Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Waguespack will receive a $30,000 raise. Despite all of these excessive salaries, they pale in comparison to the jackpot winner Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek who will make $355,000 per year and receive a salary increase of over $50,000 per year.
All of these raises were proposed in the Governor’s budget and strongly supported by Jindal. He could easily strip these raises from the budget if he wanted. However, he defends these massive increases as necessary.
What is going on? What have these cabinet officials produced so far? Have we landed any major economic development projects that I did not notice? Unfortunately, it is too early to tell if these large investments will produce any results for the taxpayers. Stephen Moret is untested in his position. He may turn out to be the greatest Secretary of Economic Development in the history of this state, but the jury is still out. If he performs well, he should be rewarded handsomely, but not before.
If past history is any indication, the money will be wasted. Remember former Secretary of Economic Development Michael Olivier? We paid him $245,000 per year and what did we get for that investment? Not much. Olivier traveled quite extensively “promoting” Louisiana but it did not result in any tangible benefits for our state.
Now, we are going to compound our previous error by paying the new Secretary of Economic Development even more money. It makes sense to reward great results, but we should not pay these bureaucrats such huge salaries until they produce for the taxpayers. It is obscene that one department secretary in Louisiana would be earning a salary that is ten times what the average family in Louisiana earns. Serving in Louisiana state government should not be a pathway toward getting rich.
Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.
Coastal Erosion Problems, Upcomming Budget Problems, Housing Problems, Job Problems, Man oh Man, you gotta hand it to Bobby, HE'S MY HERO............... Written by
on 10/29/2008
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Mr. and Mrs. Rowley, I understand many problems Terrebonne Parish is going through where erosion control/floodwater protection issues are of primary concern........ On my website, www.strongconcrete.com - - - page 12 there are some rather substantial offers of aid for the State of Louisiana, and our neighboring states posted.... I have not updated my website since 2006..... The offers I posted were at the time considered to be what was immediately necessary, and for the most part they still are for the State of Louisiana and so I have not bothered to completely withdraw from public view those accomodations that I can make available to the citizenry of Louisiana... However, the extent or value of those offers was not carved in stone….. No, not saying they would lessen in scope or nature but rather they can easily be fine tuned and additional areas and additional scale can be provided…… The subject of erosion/flood protection is a very grave one indeed…. Not only for Louisianans, but for the rest of the Nation as well as is evidenced by the recent flooding events up North with the losses incurred along with the projected increases in market costs of associated abstracts in the form of grains and other agricultural commodities… Our economies are intertwined, their loss is our loss, and their expenses are our expenses….. Just as ours were, and in the event of future calamities will be, theirs as well…. Louisiana is a member of a common thread that makes up the fabric of a United States, and therefore it is apparent to me that we should turn our weaknesses into our strengths. One of those strengths would be the deployment of lower cost/higher quality flood water protection mediums and other erosion prevention/reversal abstracts. Where Terrebonne Parish is directly concerned or would be considered by or with Strongconcrete, I can easily put additional provisions above and beyond those posted on page twelve on the table to accommodate its needs… But first governing and administrative bodies need to step up to the plate. My intentions are to provide protection mediums utilizing my patented technology on an at cost basis…….. Senator Walter Boasso graciously flew to Alexandria, Louisiana and met with me for lunch last year. I showed him several architectural renditions of my patented technology intended to serve in a variety of applications directed towards various elements of need in Louisiana…. They ranged from floodwalls, to levee matting, to artificial offshore islands and jetties….. There were applications for harbors and docks introduced as well….. It was a very nice visit, and stated a certain measure of interest and satisfaction with what he saw, and with what I told him…….. And that has been the last gratifying experience I have had on the subject of my technology…… What we have here, at this point in time, is the fact that there are people who are putting profit and greed over the immediate needs and safety of their neighbors, and there are also people that are in positions some were elected or appointed to that put their monetary desires or political desires over the reasonable needs of those that make their paychecks possible in the first place… at no small cost, and especially when potential detriment and destruction is taken into further consideration….. So Mr. and Mrs. Rowley, it is up to responsible citizens such as yourself to decide what you want…… And make those desires known. …….. I had a meeting with one of Governor Jindal’s aids at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge a few months back. While waiting for the elevator to take me back down to the Memorial Hall at the conclusion of our visit, and having already provided him with a some of the preliminary ‘basics’ I explained; “It is not so much what Louisiana can do for me, but rather what Louisiana is prepared to do for itself”…….. The elevator door slid open, and I departed……. I am not interested in chasing around politicians, or board members, or agency affiliations, nor am I interested in rally’s, or standing around on a street corner with a sign slung around my neck……… From top to bottom and from left to right there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of politicians, government workers, and organizations that are very much aware of who I am, and what I have……. Not only in Louisiana, but in Washington D.C. as well........ Since 2005 I have had thousands of visitors to my website……… My webalizer tells me so, and my reverse I.P. tracking system has given me a very good idea of whom or what they are or represent….. You see Mr. and Mrs. Rowley, they are waiting for you, the taxpayer, to demand what I can provide if that truely is what you desire…….. I will be more than happy to be of service to your parish, and to Louisiana. The worst thing that can happen is there would be more jobs made available, and lower costs for heightened protection for you and your neighbors…. And maybe an additional industry that has exportable benefits to be utilized in other regions of the United States as well…… Yeah, that Piyush and his Krewe sure is a perplexing group… Written by .............STRONGCONCRETE.......................
on 7/9/2008
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Politicians, dears, as you can see from the postings here and elsewhere, the citizens will not forget. Pi, dear, those huge raises to your cohorts will not be forgiven either. Wonder, how many of them will claim that they will donate their raises to charity or refuse to take the raise. Interesting, dears, interesting. Our fellow citizens, the movement for justice and equality in this state has begun. Keep it up, do not back down, damn the political torpedoes, full steam ahead. Written by RhettsWife
on 7/9/2008
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What we don't understand is how can they "find" money for all these raises when there was an article in the Houma Courier (July 2, Money squeeze puts levee building at risk) ,saying that they want Louisiana to come up with $1.8 billion for the levees.
We, the people of Terrebonne Parish have been begging and waiting for many years for something to be done about the flooding problem here. Not just from hurricanes but just tidal flooding is a major problem. We even put a tax on ourselves to help pay for our levee's. They have been running into problem after problem. The "Save our wetlands" theory seems to be more important than save our people and communities. If the levee's are not built the wetlands will be gone in less than 10 years and our homes will become the new wetlands.
But, It seems that these pay raises are more important and they can find money in the "budget" easily for that. No studies, no voting, no red tape !
Does Mr. Bush have someting against our State? He said he would help us. Here we are almost three years after the stoms and we only have patched levees and a small portion of the Morganza, which they are trying to stop. Finding every excuse in the book not to give us the money or permission to get it done.
What are they going to do when the majority of people HAVE to move out of Terrebonne Parish? We already are planning to move out of the parish in 3 to 5 years. We live quite a ways away from the "water" but had 5 feet of water in our yard, 3 feet in our house. We have had enough of the waiting and waiting. We waited for our insurance, the Road Home money, and are still waiting for the Road Home money to raise our home.
We feel that slave days are over. They are suppose to be working for us, not us working for them to fatten their wallets while we stuggle to put $1 in ours. Our cost of living is going sky high. But where is our raise? We are on a fixed income and only get a $30.00 to $40.00 a month cost of living raise. Our homeowners insurance eats that plus some.
They want to talk about Welfare reform, well lets start with the biggest welfare receipients there are, our elected officials.
When our Morganza is built maybe then they can have a reasonable pay raise !
Written by Roy & Lori Rowley
on 7/9/2008
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Good recollections as in a distinct memory of some very very very bad things..... Written by ....Addendum...
on 7/8/2008
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You see my dear; inconsistency can be construed as a mental ailment closely akin to a schism… Or do you not remember that some people were actually arrested and taken away for standing up in movie theaters during WWII here in America and shouting dissent towards the then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Sort of like what Robert Desmaris Sullivan or however his name is spelled does when he rants and raves about George Bush and Dick Cheney……. What do you think we are dealing with here, the adventures of Walter Mitty or something? You have expressed dissatisfaction, you do have a website/blog? You have raised dissent……. You even advocated recall, now you back down……. What would you think would be the line a person has to cross before a totalitarian agency kicks in your door with jack boots????? Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,,,,,habe ich geschwiegen,,,,,,,ich war ja kein Kommunist…..Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,,,,,,,habe ich geschwiegen;,,,,,ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat……….Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,,,,,,,,habe ich nicht protestiert;……ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter……….Als sie mich holten,,,,,,,,gab es keinen mehr, der protestierte………. That is a poem that was originally written in Duetche ‘Germen’ by Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller…. He passed away in 1984… He was a protestant pastor in Germany during the rise to power of Adolf Hitler…. I had a friend who grew up during the war as a little girl in Holland….. She was a few years older than my mother….. She had good recollections of what happened in here homeland…. She is dead and gone now…. And some folks when speaking to her would say she was crazy…… No, she was simply shocked into a different way of thinking….. I am glad she was able to immigrate to America. The poem in English goes something like this……It is not a verbatim translation, but it is considered to be a rendition that captures Pastor Niemöller’s feelings on the subject………In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist……Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew…….Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist……
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant……..Then they came for me -and by that time no one was left to speak up…… Yeah, that Bobby Jindal…… Me thinkist me seeist a lotteth smoketh…………………………..
Written by .........Ditto... on da re-ditto......ditto ditto.
on 7/8/2008
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Jindal has LIED, and that is That!!! No one can ever resurrect themselves from the flames of having lied and everyone knew and knows it!!! The people of this state must REMEMBER these lies about first of all, the Legislators' Raises, which he finally vetoed, and secondly, he was definitely against doing away with the Stelly Tax Plan, then he "turned around" and favored it, and even claimed it as one of his accomplishments, but, OH, too Late, Jindal, you are on your way for the third and last strike---just one more LIE, which I'm sure you've already done, but it is just that I have no immediated knowledge of it, but there will be more LIES, citizens and voters of this state---JUST YOU WATCH WHAT I SAY!!! Sidney Touchet... Written by Sidney Touchet
on 7/8/2008
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Why wait for election time my dear.... are you pulling a Steve and letting the cries of 'recall' fade away?????? Written by
on 7/8/2008
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Look it up, dear, we will have to remember that word come election time. Written by RhettsWife
on 7/8/2008
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Did you know that the average American spends approximately six months at red lights throughout his or her life? But then again the question could be asked: "What is average?". And to take it a step farther, if someone doesn't spend six months at a red lights during their lifetime, do they owe any taxes on that? But then again there are some women in bordello's that spend years at a red light.... Nayuck-nuck-nuck-nuck......... Written by ....Seeing Red....... white and blue..............
on 7/8/2008
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I'd look it up, but I have Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia......... Written by Tangled up in blues
on 7/8/2008
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Did you know that Pi, depending on the source, is a perfect example of Floccinaucinihilipilification.. Written by .......Look it up.................................
on 7/8/2008
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Jeff, my poor disillusioned friend........ You write; What is going on? What have these cabinet officials produced so far?................. Well sunshine, for a partial answer to your printed query may I suggest you read the post at an earlier story on this webpage: Governor Jindal Signs New Orleans Mental Health Bills....
Focus: Mental Health Problems - - - - Written by BayouBuzz Staff.....Dated 7/8/2008.. This is perhaps the 'Month of the Brown Shirts' or it will probably become something closely akin to 'Korps der politischen Leiter' which in essence will be Gleichschaltung.... They have already been elected, they are already in place.......... Now all they need is an immenent train wreck like Obama to get into office for their plans to come into fruition......................... Written by ................STRONGCONCRETE....................
on 7/8/2008
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After much public pressure, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal finally made the right move last week when he vetoed the 124% increase in pay for members of the Louisiana Legislature. He was also correct in vetoing a $30,000 increase in pay for members of the Public Service Commission. These salary increases were too large and came at the wrong time, especially during tough economic times for 
