The four retired state senators dispensed wisdom, told a few stories and agreed on two things: the increasingly partisan nature of Louisiana politics has not served the state, and lawmakers deserve a big pay raise.
“To have a better Legislature, you ought to compensate them with some higher amount,” said John Alario, who served 48 years in the Legislature, including two terms apiece as speaker of the House and president of the Senate.
Rep. Joe Marino, an independent from Gretna, is sponsoring a bill for the upcoming legislative session to increase pay from $16,800 per year to $60,000. It would be the first legislative pay raise in 40 years.
Joining Alario Tuesday at the 13th Annual Ed Renwick Lecture Series, organized by Loyola University’s Institute of Politics, were former senators Edwin Murray of New Orleans, Marty Chabert of Chauvin and Willie Mount of Lake Charles.
The four reminisced about serving during a time when lawmakers were not divided into Republican and Democratic camps. That development has accelerated since John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, became governor in 2015, and has contended with a Republican-controlled Legislature.
“We just never voted party,” said Mount, a Democrat who served from 2000-12. “You compromised and got things done. We were friends.”
Murray said the advent of technology has made the legislative process more transparent, with bills posted online for everyone to see.
“The (committee) chairman used to walk around with the bills in his pocket,” said Murray, a Democrat who served in the Legislature from 1992-2017.
Chabert noted legislative pork has a bad reputation but said that his district in south Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes depended on government help for roads, bridges and ports.
“Pork is a matter of taste. For four years, that’s all that I fought for,” said Chabert, who served a single term in the Senate as a Democrat but has been around the Capitol since he was a boy and his father Leonard was a lawmaker.
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