The new governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal is trying to clean up state politics. He pushed for a $50 per meal cap on lobbyists and legislators. Many state legislators are whining that they’ll be forced to discuss important state matters over Nacho Grandes rather than a proper cajun meal.
Mr. Jindal was unable to persuade lawmakers to pass another bill that would have ended retirement benefits for public officials convicted of crimes related to their state work.
Similar indulgences, of course, have gone on in other state capitals, though Louisiana does rank low nationally on state ethics charts. Here, however, they are carried out with particular frankness: lawmakers are known to scour the chambers for willing lobbyists when a day’s session ends, hoping to cadge a dinner invitation. They need not look far.
Mr. Jindal took that penchant on as well, effectively aiming a blow at the Capitol’s de facto sister institution, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where business is transacted nightly, courtesy of lobbyists (“sponsors,” in legislators’ parlance).
The governor, ignoring cries of pain and going against the unswerving devotion to Louisiana’s food culture, pushed for the $50-a-meal cap, at any restaurant. No more unlimited spending.
In a town where legislators have been known to proclaim paid-for meals a principal draw to public service, this was an especially unpopular move. Last week, State Representative Charmaine L. Marchand of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans said the limit would force her and her colleagues to dine at Taco Bell, and urged that it be pushed to $75 per person, to give them “wiggle room.”
Apt. 11d 
The Taco Bell must be darn expensive in Louisiana!
When Rhode Island lowered the gift rule to $25/gift, with a cumulative maximum of $75 in a year, there were a bunch of lame objections about how that would barely pay for doughnuts. (Note: doughnuts are sacred in Rhode Island.)
But what do you know! Public officials have adjusted. The Capital Grille probably lost some business; but it has never been clear to me why state business needs to be conducted over expensive meals.
LikeLike
I think part of the problem is that the base salary of state legislators is so low that legislators think that these perks are part of the package. I think the base salary of legislators in NJ is $39,000. It’s supposed to be a part time job.
LikeLike
I live in New Orleans for four years. This post has had me chuckling ALL DAY!
You know half that total is alcohol.
LikeLike
Laura, I don’t think low pay is the problem. In PA, the base salary for the legislature is about $70k or so and the leaders make much more. During a very briefly enacted pay raise (salaries from $81,000 to $145,000), one of them hired two relatives for no-show staff jobs. He didn’t even get prison time or lose his pension.
[Note: By ‘briefly enacted pay raise’, I am referring to an incident a couple of years ago when the PA legislature voted itself a pay raise in the middle of the night. They also voted to make the raise effective in the middle of the term, despite the clause in the PA constitution that explicitly prohibits just that. The court said the raise was ok, because their salaries were increased by the same bill, a bill that stated if any part of the raises were over-turned, all of them were. The legislators quickly realized that this could cost most of them their jobs and backed-down. The Supreme Court said that they were keeping their raise (the raise for the courts was sort of a meta-raise, tying their salaries to that of the federal court) based on no legal reasoning that anyone has ever been able to explain to me. One Supreme Court justice and 17 legislators lost in the next election and many more retired rather than face re-election. Several of them knew they were playing with fire when the voted for the raise, but the leadership (which got much bigger raises out of it) threatened to pull committee assignments for those who didn’t cooperate.]
LikeLike