There is still time for legislators to re-consider doubling their salaries, Indian American Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal said while playing down the impact of a recall movement against him.
He said the process is yet to play out and that there is still time for legislators to re-consider their doubling of salaries, a move that has enraged citizens.
Jindal has been against the idea of doubling legislators' salaries. But he baulked at the notion of vetoing the legislation, leading to a campaign to recall him.
That tedious process over the next six months would require nearly one million signatures. The relevant papers were submitted last week.
Tempers have been rising in the state ever since law makers, during the recent legislative session, raised their annual base salary from $16,800 to $37,500.
During his gubernatorial campaign last year, Jindal pledged to prohibit an immediate legislative pay raise. He has until July 8 to veto the bill, or it will become a law.
"I still think the pay is excessive. We still actually have over a week before that law goes into effect.... and there is still time to stop that. And we still have many options to make sure that we don't see legislators take a pay raise that would be more than double what they currently make. I think that's excessive," Jindal said on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday.
"I don't think any pay raise should go into effect until after the next election. The good news is we still have time to stop this excessive pay raise. And we're working with legislators on many options to stop that, over the next week," he added.
