Dear Governor Jindal,

Very early in your first term as governor of Louisiana you are facing your first real test. Unfortunately, you appear to be backing-down from this initial challenge. That would not bode well for the remainder of your term.

It is being widely reported that you will not veto the vulgar, massive, legislative pay raise (SB 672) headed to your desk.

Wanting you to succeed, not for your sake, but for the sake of over four million people in our state, I thought I’d share with you some information that might cause you to reconsider retreat.

In today’s Baton Rouge paper it was reported that you “strongly disagree” with what you call an “over the top” pay raise. That’s good, because most of the people of Louisiana agree with you.

However, you were also quoted as saying: “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….”

That sounds good Governor, but those “important reforms” are not nearly as important to us as the raises which clearly aren’t “reform.”

In fact, the people of the state are more upset about this pay raise than anything I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime of living in Louisiana. Frankly, if you don’t side with us on this issue, all the other reforms that you are pushing (and have passed) will be meaningless.

Consequences

If the legislators kill all your proposed legislation, who does it hurt? It hurts the people of Louisiana; the exact same people that the legislators represent.

Governor, surely you don’t really believe the legislators want to return home after shutting down the session, killing all your reform legislation and tell their/your constituents that they did so because you vetoed their pay raise to which their/your constituents were so opposed.

The Power

Governor, you have been invited by the legislators to a knife fight. What the legislators don’t seem to know is that should you choose to fight, you will have a very large gun with unlimited ammunition. I’m no expert on knife fights, but historically, the man with the gun in a knife fight wins.

The people, in our constitution, granted you the power to stop this foolishness without having to submit to extortion.

The power is called the veto. You can veto not only any legislation that has the effect of law, but you can use the line-item veto in any appropriation bill to eliminate funding for anything including those slush funds/NGOs that are so close to the hearts of the legislators.

Governor, don’t let the legislators bluff you out of this knife fight. Strap on your gun. Take the fight to them. That’s what the people want to see.

C.B.