Louisiana budget shortfall: should we repeal State Trooper raises?

Sure, why not.

Okay.

I say just cut their force in half IMHO

They should receive a cut. higher education is much more important than state trooper pay raises.

It is too bad we don't have a governor that has a back bone. Areas that are untouchable should be cut. Also education should take a hard look at cutting some schools that don't pull weight vs taking from everyone. The short term pain of some bitching would be much better than harming the state long term.

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300 million being cut from Higher Ed. Gas economy suffering. On verge of getting lowered credit rating for 7 years of budget shortfalls, yet they get a 20% raise?

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money is being generated by LSP:

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Starting pay, with benefits, would go from around $35,000 to $46,000. The increase was approved last summer but the money just became available, and still needs to be shifted from a fund that collects increased fines from drivers without insurance. The joint legislative budget committee is set to vote on moving that money Friday.

Louisiana State Police says the raise is well over due, especially when comparing their current salary to departments like Gonzales that start pay at about $44,000 a year. But departments like Baton Rouge that start pay around $31,000 a year complain it puts them at a disadvantage, especially when it comes to recruiting new officers.

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pretty sure the same can't be said about higher ed. I don't know that public higher ed has ever actually paid for itself. Higher Ed can take a hit and should. Its a bloated, inefficient system that needs to live within its means and get off of the taxpayers credit card.

They received the 20% raises AFTER they knew about the massive budget shortfall. My guess is that they don't care. Louisiana is a police state. They protect the top dogs and the top dogs protect them.

Law enforcement has become a huge industry and the source of a lot of political power at local levels.

Do you know how many tickets theyd be writing if we took their raises?

Yes. Over paid as it is.

Start regulating overtime for all government workers is a good start. There's no excuse for government employees to be consistently clocking >5-10 hours of overtime.