There’s a good argument to be made for giving Louisiana lawmakers a pay raise, starting with the fact members of the state legislature last received one in 1980. You wouldn’t have to try too hard to convince me that being a legislator is a full-time job, given the near 24-7 accessibility to constituents via smartphones and email.
As the proposal from Rep. Joe Marino, I-Gretna, stands now, lawmakers would see an increase from $16,800 annually, not counting their per diem pay, to 75% of the median household income in Louisiana. Currently, that would make legislative pay around $40,000 a year.
But whatever goodwill lawmakers amassed to approve a pay hike for themselves in a committee meeting Tuesday evaporated the next day when their colleagues snubbed a proposal to raise Louisiana’s minimum wage from the federal basement of $7.25 an hour to $14 by 2028. In doing so, Republicans on the House Committee of Labor and Industrial Relations applied economic theory so brain-twisting that it likely caused economist John Maynard Keynes to turn cartwheels in his grave.
Committee member Rep. Larry Frieman, R-Abita Springs, said his daughter moved to take a better paying job in Mississippi, where the minimum wage is also $7.25. It’s the same rate in Texas, which Frieman noted “has a better atmosphere in Louisiana” in regards to greater economic opportunity.
If we’re understanding Frieman correctly, Texas and Mississippi can offer better paying jobs because their businesses aren’t forced...
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Tennessee doctor has pleaded guilty to committing millions of dollars’ worth of Medicare fraud through her Brentwood optometry practice. Helen Boerman, 48, pleaded guilt...