Dr. John Sutherlin, political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe visited 'Mornings With Ken and Bernie' today and analyzed the recent legislative session.

According to Sutherlin,

What contentious budget process did we have when you have 104 reps against zero and 38-1 in the Senate.  In fact the only person to vote against this massive budget was State Senator Karen Carter Peterson.  Out of 143 people that were there she voted against it for 'principles'.

Dr. Sutherlin noted that,

The Revenue Estimating Committee has been 'off' for the last nine years.  Think about it, if your job is to estimate revenue and you're never within $250 million of being right at some point I would say 'you know what maybe we ought to get some other people to do some estimation'.

In discussing the recent appointment of Tim Barfield as Secretary of the State Department of Revenue at a salary of $260,000 which is more than twice the salary of the Governor's salary, Dr. Sutherlin said,

I'm going to get crazy on you here.  Nobody in government should make higher than double the median income of any Louisiana resident.  That would cap people off at about $96,000 at the most.  You could make exceptions.  Obviously Les Miles because God forbid if you lost Les Miles the state would go bankrupt.  Nothing is more important than LSU sports.

Dr. Sutherlin had a lot more to say about the budget process, the Legislature, teacher salaries and a lot more.  You can listen to the entire interview here:

More From News Talk 96.5 KPEL