“It’s a very difficult bill to pass,” Cortez said during a March 30 webinar sponsored by the nonprofit Public Affairs Research Council. He said fewer and fewer people are running for legislative seats “because of the money and the 24/7 news cycle.”
Low pay, long hours an issue
The Legislature approved a pay hike in 2008, but then-Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed the measure after promising to let it become law.
“It put a lot of bad taste in a lot of legislators’ mouths,” Schexnayder said.
Ann Duplessis, then a state senator from New Orleans, sponsored the 2008 measure to boost base pay to $37,500 per year immediately.
“You’re looking for the best and the brightest. And you have to pay for the best and the brightest,” Duplessis, now a bank executive, said recently.
She and Marino believe that more and more legislators are resigning their seats because of pay.
Chris Broadwater was a Republican House member from Hammond who found that his legislative work kept him too often from his law practice.
“If you do the job right, it consumes all of your time,” Broadwater said of being a legislator.
He resigned his seat in 2018, six years after he took office, to take a senior position with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. He now works as an attorney for a private contractor in Baton Rouge.
Rob Shadoin was a Republican House member from Ruston who also found himself without enough time for his law practice.
“The legislative pay does not offset the lost income from practicing law,” Shadoin said. “It caused me to go into my savings and retirement.”
Shadoin resigned in 2018 and became the deputy secretary of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
To be sure, many people don’t sympathize with the argument that lawmakers deserve higher pay.
“I think Legislature is a part-time job. They shouldn’t give themselves a raise,” Jake, a caller from Amite, told Marino when he appeared Wednesday on “Talk Louisiana,” the Baton Rouge radio program hosted by Jim Engster.
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