Jim Beam, former editor of the Lake Charles newspaper in his column in Sunday’s paper exposes more of the inaccuracies in the comments House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, made on Friday in support of the obscene lege pay raise (SB 672). See column here.

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.

One of the things Beam discovered was that Tucker failed to point out was that in their 2003 recommendations to increase the base pay, the committee also recommended elimination of the per diems ($143 a day) paid during lege sessions and the annual $6,000 in unvouchered expenses.

Another thing Tucker failed to mention was the latest recommendation of the committee. In 2006 (the latest), the committee recommended an increase in the base pay of $2,736 or a annual base pay of $19,356. That’s a far cry from Tucker’s amendment which increased the base pay by $20,700 to $37,500. That almost 8 times the recommended increase.

If they had truly followed the committee’s recommendations the total annual compensation for a rank-and-file member would be $37,500, not the MINIMUM of $55,555 and $51,980 in even and odd years, respectively. Also, under Tucker’s amendment, the leges still get per diems for all interim committee meetings as well as special sessions.

Some people would say that Tucker lied. Not me. I say, he’s just ignorant. Some people say that Tucker is one of the smartest people in the lege. I can’t argue with that.

Thanks Mr. Beam, for enlightening me. I wouldn’t want to be as ignorant as one of the smartest people in the lege.

C.B.