Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has called on the state’s legislative and judicial branches to join the executive department in freezing employee salaries in fiscal 2011.
Jindal said the state will save $77 million next year by ending the policy of annual raises for more than 90,000 executive agency employees. He said the savings include $29.6 million from the state general fund.
“It would certainly be my advice to the other branches to follow what the executive branch is doing,” Jindal said Monday at his weekly press briefing.
House employees will not receive a pay increase in fiscal 2011, but no final decision has been announced in the Senate.
State judges and court employees are scheduled for a pay raise of between 4.5% and 4.9% in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Judicial system pay increases in fiscal 2010 increased the budgets of the appeals courts by $1.3 million and district courts by $1.6 million.
