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Please click here and ask Gov. Jindal to sign SB 6 into law!

SB 6 by Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) deserves to be signed into law on its own merits. But its passage became even more urgent when three bills allowing retirees to return to work without losing their whole retirement benefit were tied to SB 6 in the waning days of the legislative session.

“We understand that Gov. Jindal has drawn a line in the sand with his no new taxes pledge,” Monaghan said. But on one side of this line are cheaper cigarettes, addiction, cancer and death. On the other side is better health. There ought to be no political downside for the governor to allow the extension of this existing tax.”
- LFT President Steve Monaghan

Click here to tell your senator and representative to override Governor Jindal's veto!

(Baton Rouge – May 25, 2011) As Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion budget deficit, the Legislature has advanced bills that would eliminate Louisiana's corporate and personal income taxes. Another would make it even more difficult to pass budget bills in the House of Representatives. This is apparently being done without significant opposition from the governor’s office.

(Baton Rouge – May 12, 2011) Governor Bobby Jindal and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should be in no hurry to appoint an interim state superintendent of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

In a series of press conferences around the state, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition made a powerful case for raising new revenues for the state, and announced that the coalition will have a lobby day on Wednesday, May 4.

(Baton Rouge – April 9, 2010) As their colleagues around the nation face questions about the value of their salaries and benefits, public employees in Louisiana are campaigning to demonstrate what they mean to their communities.

(Baton Rouge – February 17, 2011) Governor Bobby Jindal’s announcement that he will seek even more tax breaks, adding to the more than 440 already in place, is an example of the poor choices that have contributed to Louisiana's current fiscal crisis, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

“Just one day after announcing that education funding will be frozen for another year, the governor now says that he wants to add to the more than $7 billion in tax loopholes that are starving the services Louisiana families depend on,” said Monaghan.

Congratulations to the St. Martin Federation of Teachers and School Employees, the newest member of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers family. The St. Martin Federation was presented with its official charter at the Federation’s 46th annual convention in Lake Charles on November 21.

(Kenner, LA – December 9, 2010) In a historic vote Wednesday night, the Jefferson Parish School Board granted collective bargaining rights to the district’s 3,000 paraprofessionals and school related personnel. The 5-3 vote marked the greatest expansion of bargaining rights in the parish since teachers won a collective bargaining agreement in 1977.

Taking dead aim at conventional wisdom, two keynote speakers at the LFT’s 46th annual convention made the case that Louisiana needs more money in order to fund vital services, and that voters will support raising revenues if they believe the money will be spent wisely.

Since both of those messages contradict Gov. Bobby Jindal’s hard-line demand for budget cuts, the stage is set for confrontation when the legislature convenes in April.