KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Some lawmakers say Jindal told them the pay raise was reasonable

Some lawmakers say Jindal told them the pay raise was reasonable

By Caroline Moses

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Some Louisiana legislators are miffed about Governor Bobby Jindal's veto of their proposed pay raises. The governor says that from the beginning, he thought the raises were "excessive" and "unreasonable." Now, some legislators say that's not true.

56 House members and 20 senators voted in favor of more than doubling their own pay. They put their reputations, and some say, their political futures, on the line for this vote, only to have Governor Jindal change his position and veto it in the final days. "I clearly made a mistake by telling the legislature that I would allow them to handle their own internal affairs and that I would stay out of this page," the governor says.

Senator Danny Martiny of Metairie says Jindal never stayed out of the legislature's business. He says the governor even told him on more than one occasion that their final pay raise proposal was reasonable. "The governor can say whatever he wants -- he knows darn well what he told people (lawmakers)," he says. Martiny says he would not have voted for the raise if the governor had worked against it. Some other legislators say the same.

Martiny says the fact is Jindal never squashed the issue, so the bill made it all the way to his desk. "Now, who he cut a deals with, he didn't cut a deal with me. But I was assured by him and his staff throughout this process. He never said I'm supporting it, but that I have no problem with it and I will not veto it," says Martiny. He says he and other frustrated legislators have no plans for any kind of revenge, but he says they won't trust the governor's word on much of anything at the Capitol.

House Speaker Jim Tucker said last week that there will likely be a special session early next year. That will be the next time legislators will have to work with Governor Jindal. Governor Jindal's press secretary says the governor has "always, at every turn, opposed the pay raise." She also claims legislators are trying to "re-write history."