Jindal's Punching Bags
by Sam Hanna, Jr. - The Ouachita Citizen (excerpt)

If Gov. Bobby Jindal was hoping the anger among some state lawmakers would eventually subside in light of his veto of a legislative pay raise, he can rest assured some of them will remain ticked off for awhile.

That's a safe assumption since the governor vetoed some 258 items state lawmakers tucked away in House Bill 1 in the regular legislative session. Those items authorized the expenditure of taxpayer monies on projects ranging from an African-American museum in Monroe to playground equipment in Sen. John Alario's district near New Orleans.

For those who aren't hip on legislative speak, HB 1 is the legislation that outlines the state's expenditures for a given fiscal year. In this reference to HB 1, we're talking about the state's plans to spend our tax dollars in the 2008-09 fiscal year, which began July 1.

Though Jindal's line-item vetoes totaled some $16 million, that's not a great deal of money if one will recall the state budget stands at roughly $30 billion. Do the math.

Still, Jindal's vetoes of state funding for the so-called NGOs, or non-government organizations, were as if the governor added salt to a wound. The wound, in this case, stemmed from Jindal's veto of the pay hikes lawmakers approved for themselves a few weeks ago.

Now legislators have another issue, or issues, to complain about. Suffice it to say, though, the only people who will lend a sympathetic ear to any gripes over the vetoes are the folks who would have been on the receiving end of the people's money.

Yet, in listening to and reading the comments some lawmakers offered to the media on the heels of Jindal's vetoes, one got the impression a coup was about to ensue on the steps of the capitol. That's a bit of stretch, but you get the picture.