Thursday, July 17, 2008

07:36:27 PM

When Bobby Jindal ran for Governor on “ethics,” he was really running against the Legislature. Polling showed him that legislators collectively were less popular than used car salesmen, although each individual legislator is loved by his or her constituents. So he made the Jindal Swindle all about how incompetent and corrupt we are. He even dared to call us incompetent and corrupt in his inaugural speech.

Now the Governor is asserting to the public that he has found over 258 separate instances of “slush funds,” “pork,” and implied waste or fraud that we supposedly hid away inside HB1. If we legislators let this stand, if we just squeeze our eyes and tear up, turning away like little children caught doing wrong, then the public will take our silence as total confirmation of every lie they have heard about how crooked we are, how lazy, “part-time,” shiftless and worthless we are. Our constituents will think, “It must all be true. Their guilty silence over the 258 bad things the Governor found in that bill proves it.”

None of us ran for office, fighting for months on end, risking our good names, begging strangers for money, neglecting our families and our jobs, working ourselves into red-eyed zombies just so we could be another pair of clapping hands in the Jindal Swindle applause machine. If we let this outrageous abuse of the line item veto stand, that's all we'll ever be, an embarrassingly silly cog in the governor's applause machine. We'll be broken as a body with diminished power and even less respect from a public which already disdains us and thinks we aren't worth the money we're paid.

The Governor is betting that we don't have the guts to vote for a veto session. I do. He is certain that we only care about our own petty little political horizons. I don't. Believing that we are inept cowards, the Governor thinks he can get away with this kind of massive abuse of the line item veto. Not while I live and breathe. I will not confirm Jindal's grandiose self-opinion that he is Louisiana's all-powerful Maharajah instead of being merely one more one-term Governor.

If these line item vetoes stand, each of us can discard our dignity and prepare for a term as a slave and vassal. Should you ever seek to act independently, he can and will threaten to take away all of your money and your amendments with yet more abusive line item vetoes, secure in the knowledge that when he first abused this power the gutless Legislature couldn't or wouldn't stand against him. It is a simple certainty that if we don't stick together now, each of us will be separately stuck over and over. Nothing you do will ever again be safe. If you escaped harm this time, you're next as he slowly “reigns” us in. Every bill, every bit of progress, everything you manage to get passed for your constituents will be on the line every single time little Timmy Teeple says that the Jindle Swindle expects your “help.”

If we meet to override this outrageous onslaught of vetoes, the Governor will try to spin that we are doing it in “retaliation” over the pay raise, or perhaps because we are bitter about his blatant lies. That is why I personally, and all of us as a body, should be making speeches and constantly teaching the press and anyone else who will listen that this override is all about Jindal's unconscionable abuse of the line item veto. Trying to improve his own political future, he has attacked Louisiana's children by vetoing numerous programs aimed at reclaiming youths from the justice system, multiple YMCA initiatives, and even Boy's and Girl's Clubs. He has attacked the elderly poor by stripping out funds for their meals and their care. He has attacked Katrina victims by vetoing Habitat for Humanity...twice. He has removed all economic stimulus from our state at a time when it is desperately needed. This, he has the chutzpah to describe as the “New Louisiana.” Broke and poor, victims of another Jindal Swindle. With these vetoes he has single-handedly undone for Louisiana all of the benefits of the Federal stimulus program by killing jobs and shutting down helpful assistance programs while depriving our economies of the further stimulus effects which we had passed. Each of these programs would have had a multiplying effect in local economies all over our state.

We will seek to override because this problem transcends party or any other difference. A blanket override is the legislative branch's appropriate response to an out-of-control Governor who is seeking to overstep his authority and deprive the Legislature of our constitutional right to control the budget. We categorically reject the idea that over 258 expenditure items in HB1 could possibly have all been wrong or wasteful or unjustified. That is simply not credible, prima facie. All of us, whether Democrat, Independent, Republican or No Party know that this is one moment when we must stand together to defend our rights and our dignity and our honor as legislators.

In a July 13th column in the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate, Mark Ballard wrote, “It’ll actually be good to hear legislators lambaste the governor, if for no other reason than in the past lawmakers grumbled at unpopular decisions but rarely did anything about it. “This 144-member Legislature, which took office in January and included 63 first-time lawmakers, is taking its first tottering steps towards independence.”

He ended his commentary thusly, “...legislators are pushing back. Perhaps many of them have looked at their own election results to see that they attracted more votes in their district than the governor did last year.” (http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/24789819.html), Indeed.

Let's review a few points about the Louisiana Constitution. Article III, section 16 grants revenue raising and spending powers only to the House (and the Senate via the power of amendment). Despite this, you will hear administration flunkies promise to “give” you something “next time.” Laugh at them. You, and you alone as an elected member of the Legislature, have the constitutional authority to decide how state funds are spent.

What does the Louisiana Constitution say about the line item veto? Article IV, section 5 (G) states:

1. Except as otherwise provided by this constitution, the governor may veto any line item in an appropriation bill. Any item vetoed shall be void unless the veto is overridden as prescribed for the passage of a bill over a veto.

2. The governor shall veto line items or use means provided in the bill so that total appropriations for the year shall not exceed anticipated revenues for that year.

Clearly, the writers of our state Constitution believed that the line item veto would be used only as a last ditch defense against the state going over budget. The Constitution never contemplated the kind of outrageously abusive behavior this administration has shown us. No Louisiana governor ever before has so viciously tried to undermine the fiscal authority of the House and Senate. None of his 258 vetoes had anything to do with meeting revenue limits. HB1 was already in balance with a $2.5 billion surplus based on oil at $88 per barrel (every dollar above that is adding $10 million to our revenue). Instead, his vetoes are deliberate grandstanding meant to create a campaign bullet point for a future presidential race. Jindal is throwing you, your reputation, and all of your hard work overboard just so he can one day stretch out his neck on a national stage and crow, “Look how hard I pinched pennies out of those poor children and old folks back in Louisiana.”

Jindal slyly pretends to the world that he can “reign in” and “control” us, but we all know how hard we worked to earn our places in the Legislature and that our dignity demands that we be uncontrolled and independent.

Join me in voting to override these 258 “window dressing” vetoes en masse. We must show the Governor and the public that this Legislature knows what it is doing and is prepared to fiercely defend the authority of our constitutional offices as proud Representatives and Senators for the state of Louisiana. Please let me know your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and response. If you would like to chat with me, my cell phone number is 225-XXX-XXXX. I look forward to hearing from you.

Straight from the heart,

Yvonne Dorsey

Senator, District 14