State Government's Responsibilities

[dd]

There was an interesting editorial yesterday in the Advocate. The heart of the opinion was that it is not the state government's responsibility to pay for local fire and police protection. The supplemental pay began during the Edwards era in order to get the sheriffs support. It went on to say that politics (re-election) is the purpose of Blanco's proposal I was able to down load only a portion of the opinion, here it is. ================================================
At $300 a month, the supplement has not gotten out of hand. In terms of the state's current wealth of revenue, a $125-a-month increase sought by the governor is not a budget-buster, assuming that the post-Katrina boom in state revenue continues. At $36 million a year, it is one of the more modest proposals that will curry favor with particular interests.

In light of the often-heroic performance of many uniformed officers in the Katrina and Rita crises, Louisiana is more aware than ever of the contributions of first-responders.

If the governor and Legislature wanted to grant, from the post- Katrina surpluses, a one-time bonus in recognition of their work, that would be a way to achieve both political and policy ends without a long-term addition to a program that undermines sound governance.

[zoe10850]

The original logic of state supplemental pay was that the sheriff, a state officer, was charged w/enforcing state laws as are municipal police. The money was to "supplement" salaries at a local level where budgets may have been insufficient to keep qualified officers. In fact, the pay has been abused by some (see Lafayette lawsuit) and now firemen, constables, state wildlife agents and even state police have been added. Why a state employee would receive state supplemental pay eludes me.

I believe supplemental pay was instututed in 1969, which predates EWE by a few years..think Big John was the Guv at the time.

I do not believe in bonus payments to any public employees whether police, teachers, or whatever. Police received huge overtime pay in affected areas (and earned it). Teachers were paid even though they did not teach.

The surplus should be dedicated to something more permenant like protecting our vanishing coastline, levee protection etc. Wasting money on salaries will accomplish nothing except to convince a few people that Blanjstare should be re-elected, which she should not (IMO).