Lege Watch

Representative Jim Tucker still insists that he’s smarter than you:

Tucker said Wednesday that calls to his office complaining about the raise are diminishing as people realize lawmakers haven’t had a pay increase since 1980 and the raise amounts to a 3 percent annual increase.

No, Mr. Tucker. We’re not calling because we realize it’s pointless, and that talk will not overcome your greed, dishonesty, and willingness to ignore the fact that we have a Constitutionally mandated part time legislature.

So rather than waste time talking, we’re arranging your removal from office.

Representative Jim Tucker and quite a few others are attempting to defend themselves by saying that they are only paid $16,800 per year. This is not true. They actually take home a great deal more than that. The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana has the facts on what they actually get, and we’ve created this handy visual using their figures; click to see a larger graphic:

But their compensation doesn’t end with an average pay of over $35,000! They also get

• mileage - .485 cents per mile
• health insurance - 75 percent of the member’s portion of the premium and approximately 50 percent of the premium for the member’s dependents.

And to ensure that their part time legislative work does not cost them anything, the following is also provided for:

• housing - based on seniority legislators may stay in the Pentagon Barracks with rents ranging from $300 to $375 per month. (For the rest, a cursory Google search revealed that there are a variety of corporate apartments available to rent for short periods for well under $1000 per month; easily covered by the unvouchered expense of $6,000 per year.)
• office allowance - a first time setup allowance of $2,000, a $500 per month for rent and utilities, plus $500 each term for equipment and furnishings, plus up to $1500 a month more for district office telephone lines, office equipment and supplies, and other approved reimbursable expenses.
• computers - a desktop, a laptop, and high speed internet
• an assistant - up to $3,000 per month salary for an unclassified state employee assistant to cover things while they work at their regular jobs for the majority of the year.

So if we’re going to talk about how legislators are compensated, let’s have the facts, not the deception.

Please download this graphic, post it on your blogs, spread it around however you can.

While it is technically true that they get paid $16,800 per year, it is by far not the whole story. They are being deliberately dishonest in order to make this problem - angry voters - go away. It is time to hold them to account.

A new website -Recall Pay Raise Tucker - if you’re in Jim Tucker’s district, get yourself over there and register ASAP:

WE NEED 9,000 SIGNATURES IN PAYRAISE TUCKER’S DISTRICT 86 TO FORCE A RECALL ELECTION. THAT WOULD SEND A MESSAGE TO THE REST OF THE LEGISLATURE THAT’LL HAVE THEM SHAKING IN THEIR BOOTS!

Fifty volunteers each collecting 180 signatures from District 86 voters will put us in position to recall Payraise Tucker. Plus we’ll already have contact information from hundreds or even thousands who have submitted their name to this website. We’re coming for you Payraise Tucker, we’re coming!

Once a recall petition is filed, the clock starts ticking - you have 180 days, and the signature rules are stringent. So don’t waste a minute, MAKE SURE you’re complying with every part of the law, and get Tucker recalled!

There’s a short list of Senators and Representatives who are doing the right thing and refusing the pay raise. The rest are gladly taking the money, and apparently don’t care about voter anger.

But one person stands out in his cluelessness and arrogance. House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers. He’s been a proponent of the raise all along, and jammed it through the system in the face of howls of outrage from the voters. And now, having gotten his way, he’s going to pretend to do the “noble” thing: he will take the pay raise but will donate it to charity.

If he thinks picking the taxpayers pockets to give to a charity of his choosing will somehow ameliorate his flipping off voters statewide, he’d better think again.

The same goes for the other lawmakers who intend to establish scholarships. If the taxpayers wanted to set up a scholarship in your names - or any scholarship at all - we would ask. That you will pick our pockets and then use the money to glorify yourselves, as if you’ve done some great thing for society, is adding insult to injury. If you honestly believe the pay raise is wrong, don’t take it. We are certainly not fooled by your faux generosity. Donate your own money - don’t donate ours!

At CB Forgotston’s:

Tucker claimed that his amendment to double the base pay of leges was an attempt to follow the recommendations a citizens’ compensation committee made in 2003.

Unfortunately, for Tucker, Beam read the reports from the committee.

I guess it all depends on what the meaning of the word “recommendations” is.

And from the report that Forgotston links to -

Good government groups still think the proposed salary is too high. A spokesman for one of them said a $30,000 base pay, plus the $6,000 expense allowance, would put legislators more in line with other Louisiana workers, who average about $35,000 a year.

Other Louisiana workers don’t make that kind of money for a part time job. And at the rate government is growing in this state, we’re going to need second, part-time jobs to pay for it.