State Police Superintendent Col. Michael Edmonson
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A nearly $15 million pay raise for Louisiana state police could be derailed or scaled back by lawmakers questioning whether the salary hike is appropriate when the state is grappling with deep financial problems.
The raise is up for consideration Friday by the joint House and Senate budget committee.
Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said the money is needed to keep trooper pay competitive with other law enforcement salaries. He’s said the pay grid for troopers hasn’t been adjusted in 12 years.
Current starting salary for a trooper is $35,609. Edmonson’s proposal would boost that to $46,610, a nearly 31 percent increase. Pay for troopers who finish their first year would grow from $40,906 to $50,932 under the proposal, a nearly 25 percent boost.
Dollars for the trooper pay raise would come from a more than $50 million fee hike on uninsured motorists that lawmakers passed on the final day of the last legislative session.
Lawmakers say money available from that fund might be better spent keeping services from closure as the state faces a $1.4 billion shortfall in the budget year that begins July 1 and another possible deficit in the final five months of the current fiscal year.
Edmonson’s office sent lawmakers a study showing 10 other state and local law enforcement agencies in Louisiana offer higher officer starting salaries than the state police. It also shows only seven states offer a lower salary for state troopers who have completed their first year.