State's Payment To Sheriffs Could Increase
Times-Picayune (excerpt)

House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, has criticized Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposed fiscal 2008-09 budget for continuing to spend one-time revenues on recurring expenses, albeit in a lower proportion than during previous administrations. But Tucker could soon find himself asking the lower chamber to support a bill that adds to the budget's bottom line, even if by a minuscule percentage.

House Bill 613, which has cleared committee, would increase the state's per diem to local jails that house state prisoners. The current rate of $22.39 would climb to $24.39, with a total estimated cost of $7.25 million.

The Louisiana Sheriffs Association is backing the measure, which could come up on the House floor as early as Monday. The House Committee on the Judiciary has already scaled back Tucker's original version, which would have enacted a $1 per prisoner increase each year until 2015, with an annual adjustment based on the consumer price index thereafter.

The bill's total price tag represents only a fraction of a $30 billion state budget, but it comes in a session in which many lawmakers are grousing about spending while also pushing a litany of crime-related bills that drive up the cost of operating the state prisons.

Besides Tucker's bills, most of the other proposals carry a higher price tag because they increase the mandatory sentences for many crimes.