For What, Exactly?

From yesterday’s Times Picayune:

“BATON ROUGE -- The governor's pay should be increased by $35,000 a year and other statewide elected officials should get a pay boost of $30,000, a special compensation panel recommended Wednesday.

The Compensation Review Commission, which represents lawmakers and statewide elected officials, said the governor should be paid the same as the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, about $130,000. The governor's salary is $95,000.

The commission also recommended that the other statewide elected officials -- lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, commissioner of insurance and commissioner of agriculture and forestry -- receive $115,000 a year, a little less than the $117,200 salary of circuit court of appeal judges. The statewide elected officials are now paid $85,000 a year.”

Income snapshot New Orleans, Louisiana vs.
Median household income
	Local			$27,133
	National			$41,994
Source: 2000 census, U.S. Census Bureau

"The commission approved its recommendations to the Legislature on the new pay levels by a 5-0 vote. If passed by lawmakers at the April session, they would take effect July 1, the start of the fiscal year.

If the new gubernatorial salary passes as recommended, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who worked against a pay raise two years ago, would be the fourth-highest paid governor in the South and the 18th best-paid in the country, according to data supplied by the Council of State Governments, a think tank for public officials.

The regional average pay for Southern governors is $113,267; the national average is more than $106,000. Last year, the commission recommended setting the governor's at $101,650, an increase of 7 percent. [Editorial insert: Hello, TP editors! Ever hear of AP Style - numerals-under-10 rule? Ring any bells?]

It also recommended that the pay for other statewide elected officials be raised to $90,950, also a 7 percent increase."

Median household income, 2006: Even shittier.

Population 2000: 484,674
Population 2006: 190,000

Gouge your way, you can gouge your way....