Lawmakers Opt Out Of Faceoff
by WILL SENTELL - Advocate (excerpt)

Louisiana lawmakers are still reeling from one public relations disaster over their grab for higher pay. Not surprisingly, they opted not to stumble into another one by trying to override any of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s vetoes of 258 of their pet projects?

The pay raise push set off an almost unheard of wave of anger from rank-and-file taxpayers, much of it directed at the Legislature. What appears perfectly reasonable in Capitol hallways – nearly $60,000 for part-time work – triggered stunning anger among residents of one of the poorest states in the nation.

Yet if there is one issue that would have set off rank-and-file taxpayers again it would have been a bid by lawmakers to override Jindal’s vetoes of what critics call legislative slush funds.