Free Republic

SACRAMENTO - The Legislature's majority Democrats promised Wednesday to push a vote on a spending proposal containing several billion dollars in tax increases despite Republican opposition.

Gov. Bobby Jindal will have to repair his credibility after reneging on his promise to lawmakers not to veto a pay raise doubling their salaries, some of his key legislative leaders said Tuesday. Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, and House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, said Jindal's sudden about-face on the pay raise will make it hard for some lawmakers to believe him in the future. "He needs to rebuild trust and do a better job of articulating his position," said Chaisson, who promised he will continue to work with the governor on key issues for...

Area lawmakers who opposed raising their pay praised Gov. Bobby Jindal’s veto of the volatile increase on Monday. But two Democratic lawmakers interviewed said Jindal broke his word and others said the veto may jeopardize his proposals in the Louisiana Legislature. “When someone gives you his word and takes it back, you lose a lot of respect,” said state Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma and a supporter of the increase. The legislation, Senate Bill 672, would have raised the pay package of rank-and-file lawmakers from about $38,000 per year to nearly $60,000. It was set to take effect today. But Jindal...

Yes, Mr. Jindal did make a blunder — and a big one — an unforgettable one. And then to say he could veto it, but he will not. To the general public, this is a slap in the face! When we see all the needs out there — Department of Social Services, the group homes, nursing homes — they are understaffed and underpaid. There is no money for the nursing-home workers, and they are working for a pittance. We wonder why there is such a large number of complaints. How are you going to get trained workers for the pay...

Gov. Bobby Jindal's legislative director has resigned after serving fewer than six months with the new administration, which is embroiled in a controversy over the Legislature's large pay raise. Tommy Williams, 65, said Sunday the decision to leave was his and that he left on good terms. He did not offer reasons for his departure, but said he plans to return to his career as a professional lobbyist. "I cannot tell you how much I've learned and what a great opportunity I had," Williams said. Williams' resignation comes at a moment of intensely strained relations between Jindal and the Legislature,...

Of this, there can be no dispute: Gov. Bobby Jindal's honeymoon is over. The consensus at home is that Jindal lost his luster by declining to veto the Legislature's lavish pay raise. But Jindal is also playing to a national audience these days, and on that front, he's taking a different sort of hit. While Louisiana voters are up in arms over the revelation that Jindal is not above cutting political deals, the deal killer elsewhere in the country could be an unrelated bill that he signed last week, state Sen. Ben Nevers' "Louisiana Science Education Act." snip

Gov. Bobby Jindal was back in the New York Times this week, with a picture, but for all the wrong reasons. The toxic pay raise controversy enveloping him has gone national and his political world has changed. Within days, Jindal went from being a legitimate vice-presidential prospect to having his character questioned in his first crisis of public confidence, without his having done a thing. Meanwhile, pay raise-supporting legislators, who thought the worst was over, are now seeing recall movements popping up around them. So far, drives are directed at three freshmen represenatives and Speaker of the House Jim Tucker,...

Surrounding my condo entrance is a cedar fence. When Gov. Bobby Jindal was campaigning for election in 2007, I had no need to put up a sign to show my support and hope. A bumper sticker was already attached from his campaign four years earlier. The sign remained fresh, as the fence is covered by a patio and carport awning. This sign represented a feeling of hope and trust that Louisiana would finally elect a governor “of the people.” A leader who would live up to campaign promises and when it came time ... would do the right thing. I...

Gov. Bobby Jindal admitted Tuesday that he blundered in allowing legislators to pass a bill that would more than double their base pay. “I’ve learned my lesson,” he said during a news conference outside the Governor’s Mansion. However, Jindal said he still plans to allow the pay raise to become law. Vetoing the bill would give legislators a reason to reverse his initiatives, including changes to the state’s ethics laws, he said. “Everybody knows it would be in my own self-interest politically to veto this bill,” he said. “I’d probably be the most popular governor in modern polling history if...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, in Shreveport for a ceremonial signing of a tax cut bill passed by the Legislature, was met today by protesters upset over state lawmakers doubling their pay and the governor's decision not to veto it. Residents around the state want the governor to veto the pay raise bill. Jindal said he thinks the raise is a bad idea but he won't veto it, saying the Legislature should deal with the consequences of its actions. Jindal went to Chamber of Commerce Plaza in downtown Shreveport at noon today for a ceremonial signing of a bill sponsored by...

CorridorWatch, a Fayette County-based group that has been active in opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, wants to go beyond the Sunset Advisory Commission’s recommended shakeup of state transportation leadership. The group, led by David and Linda Stall, recommends that TxDOT answer to an elected six-member board led by a chairman appointed by the governor. CorridorWatch makes it recommendation, along with various other reactions to the Sunset commission staff’s recent report on TxDOT, in written comments submitted as part of the sunset process. TxDOT, like all state agencies, “sunsets” after 12 years unless the Legislature acts to keep it alive. As...

The reformist image of Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered by Republicans a top potential vice-presidential choice, has recently taken a beating after Mr. Jindal refused to veto a sizable pay increase that Louisiana legislators voted for themselves this month. The increase would more than double the salary of the part-time legislators effective July 8, to $37,500 from $16,800, with considerably more money available once expenses are added in. It has touched a nerve in this impoverished state. Conservative talk-radio show hosts and bloggers have denounced it, newspaper editorials have inveighed against it — The Times-Picayune of New Orleans called the increase...

The Louisiana Legislature adjourns today. Gov. Bobby Jindal should mark the occasion by vetoing the session's most offensive and self-centered legislation: the 123-percent pay raise lawmakers gave themselves. It won't be easy for him. He's said repeatedly that he won't veto the measure, and if he does now, he will have misled lawmakers. But if he doesn't veto it, he will have misled voters, breaking an unambiguous promise he made on the campaign trail to "prohibit" raises such as this. Perhaps Gov. Jindal will do right by voters if a few more call him with their objections to the pay...

The Legislature completed its work Saturday on the nearly $30 billion state operating budget, sending Gov. Bobby Jindal a spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that maintains most state programs at current levels and plows new money into education, health care and legislators' pet projects. The House agreed unanimously to adopt the Senate's changes to House Bill 1 by Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, marking the third year in a row that lawmakers have adopted the budget without a House-Senate compromise committee. State general-fund spending will grow by more than $1 billion, or 12.4 percent, in the fiscal year that...

Pay increases part of government trend The Legislature's newly approved salary increase is but the highly visible tip of an iceberg of substantial pay raises for Louisiana public employees in the past year, building pressure on the state budget. Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has shown some results in stemming government job growth, but he also has set an example of substantial salary increases for a few elite members of his team while refusing to stop the lawmakers' raise. When he took office in January, Jindal inherited a bulge in personnel costs for state workers as well as for a long...

Veto Heat on Jindal Pay raise becomes character issue The governor is trying to keep intense public opposition to the legislative pay raise directed at legislators, but, more and more, the volcanic controversy is turning into a test of character: his own. Speaker Jim Tucker dismissed the governor's latest demand that lawmakers suspend the pay raise they voted for themselves. With no further action expected from lawmakers before Monday's final adjournment, the issue, like the bill, lies with the governor. With editorial and public pressure mounting for a gubernatorial veto before the July 8 deadline, some Fourth Floor staffers, with...

Gov. Bobby Jindal faces a politically prickly decision regarding a possible veto on the pay raise lawmakers voted for themselves. But candidate Bobby Jindal left behind some resolute guidance that the governor should now consult. In his "Action Plan" for government reform, candidate Jindal last fall vowed to "prohibit legislators from giving themselves pay raises that take effect before the subsequent election . . . so the public can decide who deserves that compensation." Senate Bill 672 would more than double lawmakers' salaries effective July 1. Even worse, lawmakers' pay would automatically rise every year to adjust for inflation. Without...

Is our Governor--Jindal the Spineless, the Bonehead or the Deceiver? It pains me to express such since two weeks ago I praised him effusively after a press conference. Now, the question is whether Dorothy should help him find a noggin, starch for his courage shirt or a light beam to honesty. Something is now sorely lacking in our Governor. Meanwhile, the honeymoon clock is screeching. The love affair with Bobby Jindal is officially dead. More importantly, the public needs answers, now, for Jindal to be effective in the future. It appears that certain legislators put a legislative gun to Jindal’s...

The people of Louisiana made it clear last week that they are adamantly opposed to a massive pay raise for lawmakers. But the Legislature didn't listen. Lawmakers did give up on the absurd idea of tripling their salary, but they voted instead to double it. Perhaps in their insular world that is what passes for sacrifice. In the real world, they still look greedy.

The Louisiana House of Representatives this afternoon approved higher pay for legislators. Prior to the final vote, the House unanimously approved an amendment that would lower the amount of a pay raise they seek and removed the language that would increase their wages in the future without having to vote again. Speaker of the House Jim Tucker proposed a salary increase to $37,500 from $16,800 with unvouchered expenses at $6,000 a year.

(Abridged English-language translation) Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá said yesterday that he will sign the bills approved by the Legislature freezing salary increases for representatives and senators. Although he indicated that the initiative is insufficient, the acknowledged that, at least, it involves freezing increases. "If I receive the bill, I will logically sign it, but the legislative reform the island expects and which all the candidates of the Popular Democratic Party are committed to is much more profound," the Governor clarified. The approved measures suspend automatic salary and per diem increases for legislators for four years, but they do not address...

The predominately Democratic California legislature is at it again, coming up with different ways to take your personal freedoms away for the sake of a few. On the heels of attempting to make spanking a misdemeanor, the legislature now wants to make it permissible for a landlord to prevent smoking in apartment buildings on the pretext of protecting other tenants from secondhand smoke. The spineless legislator who sponsored the bill didn’t have the courage to make it a crime under the state’s Health and Safety Code. The proposed legislation merely allows the landlord to make the decision, essentially making him...

House pay bill vote due Friday Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday he would let a bill that would triple legislators’ pay become law rather than use his veto pen. House Speaker Jim Tucker told the state House of Representatives on Wednesday that the pay raise bill would be scheduled for a vote on Friday. Jindal said he did not want to give legislators a reason to sidetrack the bills he wants passed. “I don’t want to give anybody any excuse for slowing down any of the important reform going through the legislature (that are) important to the people of Louisiana,”...

Behind-the-scenes negotiations are under way at the State Capitol to scuttle a proposal that would gradually eliminate the state income tax, lawmakers said Monday. As an alternative, the Jindal administration and the legislative leadership suggested a $302 million tax break, said state Sen. Buddy Shaw, R-Shreveport. The suggestion is identical to the way Shaw originally drafted Senate Bill 87 with one distinction. The alternative proposal is to phase in the tax break over two years beginning in 2009, a delay that Shaw opposes. Shaw said he does not want taxpayers to have to wait until 2010 — when they file...

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson. "This is a place for big challenges, not big excuses," he told state Transportation Department employees and highway experts from around the country at the annual Transportation Forum. Next year's legislative session, he said, can't be anything like last year's. "The Legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution," Mr. Perry said. "It is an abdication of responsibility." Before last year's...

ALBANY (1010 WINS/AP) -- The state Assembly has given final approval to legislation intended to protect teenagers who use social-networking sites from online predators. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo introduced the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act in January. It requires registered sex offenders to provide online screen names to state officials. They would share the identities with Web hangouts like MySpace.com and Facebook.com, who are authorized to prescreen or remove offenders. It also restricts use of the Internet by certain sex offenders on probation and parole. The Assembly also passed legislation that would increase criminal penalties for using...

BELTON - There appears to be no easy way to address the challenges that inflation has brought to the Texas Department of Transportation. “We’ve seen 60 percent inflation over the last five years for transportation projects,” said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman. To look to the federal government for assistance would appear foolhardy at this point as the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent by 2009. The fund was created in 1956 to ensure a dependable source of financing for U.S. interstates and highways. “The Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to go into the red very...

Republican legislators trotted out the first parts of their anti-illegal immigration package of bills Tuesday, and things went about as well as could be expected. Which is to say, not well at all. In case you missed it, the Reeps have determined that illegal immigrants are to blame for most of the state's gaping budget deficit. (Democrats are to blame for the rest of it.) To remedy this problem (the illegal problem, not the Democrat problem), GOP lawmakers put together what they call a "border security" package of "20 common-sense measures" they said "would help the state secure the border...

“California does not have a revenue problem; California has a spending problem.” Candidate Arnold Schartzenneger, 2003 When Arnold ran for office during the recall, he was swept in on a tidal wave of discontent. Most Californians saw a budget that was out of control with no fiscal safeguards. Millions of Californians agreed with the governator and he won in a landslide. We were overtaxed, not under taxed. The governator was to be the new sheriff in town. He would cut the budget, root out fraud and waste and trim the fat. Our muscle bound superhero was just the man for...

The president of the Illinois Senate is sitting in his statehouse office, talking in gravelly tones about political strategies and counter-strategies. Out of nowhere, the theme from "The Godfather" begins playing. It turns out to be the ringtone on his cell phone - an appropriate song for the man who amounts to Barack Obama's political godfather. Emil Jones Jr. helped Obama master the intricacies of the Legislature. When Democrats took control of the state Senate, Jones, though he risked offending colleagues who had toiled futilely on key issues under Republican rule, tapped Obama to take the lead on high-profile legislative...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

FORT WORTH -- The Trans-Texas Corridor is now so controversial, merely uttering the words in most political circles is taboo. "We're calling it a 'regional loop' because you can't say 'Trans-Texas Corridor' in the state of Texas anymore," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is a lightning rod," he told visiting state representatives this week while explaining how the corridor would connect to regional highways by 2030. Opposition to the proposed construction of a $184 billion network of toll roads during the next 50 years is so strong statewide that...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

Loose cigars are safe, cloned meat doesn't have to be labeled and English won't become Maryland's official language. Bills dealing with those issues are among the dozens that state lawmakers in Annapolis have rejected. When House members returned for a rare Saturday session, they found a long list of proposed bills that were rejected by committees, or in some cases, withdrawn by their sponsors. The losing bills include a formal recognition of English as the state's official language and a bill to ban the sale of cigars in packages of less than five.

Topeka — Agreements with Mexico and Canada are setting the stage for construction of a huge highway that will gobble up Kansans’ property and jeopardize U.S. security, representatives from a wide range of groups said Monday. “Through incrementalism, apathy and inattention, our national sovereignty is being sacrificed on a cross of greed, socialism and globalism,� said state Rep. Judy Morrison, R-Shawnee. Morrison has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 5033 urging Congress to withdraw from further participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement and Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. At a hearing before the House Federal and State Affairs...

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

In the midst of inflation, funding difficulties and halted expansion projects, a budget error on the part of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may have exacerbated their challenges. "TxDOT does some mysterious accounting," said Rep. Chuck Hopson (D-Jacksonville). "They had close to $1 billion counted in their budget twice." "That was a serious error on our part and we have made changes to try to prevent that type of error from occurring again," said TxDOT Spokesman Chris Lippincott, adding that the amount added twice in their financial statement was unrelated to the $1.2 billion in federal rescissions, which are...

Senior executives of the Texas Department of Transportation can expect some heavy grilling from state legislators when the state Legislature convenes next January, state Rep. Jim McReynolds said Friday. Speaking to the monthly First Friday luncheon of The Chamber, Lufkin-Angelina County, McReynolds said many legislators, especially those from rural East Texas, are unhappy with TxDOT leaders over the Trans- Texas Corridor project and how it has incorporated plans for an Interstate 69 through the region. McReynolds said he attended all four of the TxDOT hearings on the TTC held in his district, which included one in Diboll, and "never heard...

State Representative Jim McReynolds previewed the 2009 legislative session at Friday's First Friday Chamber luncheon, with the hot topics going into the biennial madhouse listed as the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor, the growing issue of water supply, and the battle over the top 10 percent rule that allows Texas high school students to be admitted to any state college if they graduate in the top 10 percent of their class. According to McReynolds, the legislators are "not too happy" with the Texas Department of Transportation, which has been under fire for its proposed I-69/TTC plans. "This (the I-69/TTC) is something we never...

On Wikipedia's site in regards to the Florida legislatures overwhelming decision to buck the DNC and go with their own front-loading primary date, I noticed an amazing coincidence:The Florida legislature voted via House Bill 537 to move forward the date of their state's primary to January 29th, causing a chain reaction which moved many other states’ primaries and caucuses to much earlier dates. The vote passed with bipartisan support 118 to 0 in the House, 37 to 2 in the Senate.Now many of you may recall that after the tussle between the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court...

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

Two-thirds of Florida voters say they want tougher government action against illegal immigration. Continue to 2nd paragraph And, on the surface at least, the Florida Legislature is responding. A dozen bills calling for stronger immigration enforcement and regulations have been filed in the Legislature this year - more than double the number last year. The movement is in step with dozens of other states, which are trying to confront illegal immigration themselves in the absence of federal reform. But in a state with the third-largest immigrant population in the country - an estimated 3.5 million - these bills already face...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

>Nebraska State Senator DiAnna Schimek's 20-year legislative career is nearly over. She feels victimized, no doubt, by the voter-enacted term limits that make this her final year in power. Still, Senator Schimek hopes to go out with her boots on, firing one final shotgun blast to maim or kill the initiative process she has long abhorred. You see, it was only through the voter initiative that Nebraskans passed term limits . . . three times. Yup. It took three petition drives and three votes of the people. Of course, term limits passed overwhelmingly each time. But a charmed third initiative...

Sometimes the truth just has a way of coming to light. A public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation this week wrote a column in the Herald-Press describing the financial woes facing TxDOT and how because of those problems the state’s transportation department doesn’t have the money to deal with many of the state’s transportation issues. Apparently, several of the state’s senators do not feel that is the case at all. David Dewhurst called out the state’s interim chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Hope Andrade, on this very issue, according to a story from the Associated Press....

Not one of the 11 East Texans who approached the podium at Wednesday's hearing on Interstate 69 voiced support for the planned highway. "This is highway robbery, and we should not pursue this project," said David Simpson, a Longview resident and fifth-generation Texan. "This process has bypassed the Constitution. It has bypassed the U.S. Congress, and I'm opposed to it because of the unconstitutional way that it has been pushed through." The public hearing, held at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center, was a chance for residents to comment and ask questions about Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor would extend...

Grimes County commissioners and County Judge Betty Shiflett made sure they attended a TTC/I-69 meeting at the Walker County Fairgrounds last week, as residents previously demanded they take a stronger stance against the proposed route through Grimes County. Shiflett received a roaring applause from audience members with her speech that ended with the question, “What part of “no� do you not understand?� Shiflett added that Grimes County was not given an option for having a town meeting, just the environmental meeting. “Representative Lois Kolkhorst stole the show as she announced loud and clear that she was against TTC I-69,� said...

Poor planning inside the Texas Department of Transportation -- and not a shortage of state or federal funding -- is to blame for an ongoing cash crunch that led the agency to stop most road work in 2008, members of two state Senate committees said. "I think we have an agency in turmoil. I think we have an agency in chaos," state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said during a joint meeting of the Senate finance and transportation committees in Austin. "I think it's intellectually dishonest to blame Congress or the state Legislature for problems caused by poor planning." Bad estimates...

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

The majority of residents from Walker and area counties made it clear Wednesday night how they feel about the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor. They are strongly opposed to it. An estimated 800 people took action on the controversial issue. The second town hall meeting in Huntsville, offering a chance for open dialogue between residents and the Texas Department of Transportation, took on a different tone than the initial meeting Jan. 23 at the Walker Education Center. With the main building at the Walker County Fairgrounds able to accommodate the large crowd, property owners and other residents expressed their dissatisfaction with Gov....