By: Julie O’Donoghue | Louisiana Illuminator
The Louisiana Legislature included a new round of double-digit pay increases for seven of Gov. Jeff Landry’s 14 cabinet secretaries in the state budget they approved Friday. They will take effect in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Those receiving increases include: Environmental Quality Secretary Courtney Burdette ($25,000); Dustin Davidson at Conservation and Energy ($25,010); Gary Westcott, Public Safety and Corrections ($25,000); Rebecca Harris, Children and Family Services ($25,000); Glenn Ledet, Transportation and Development ($22,637); Tyler Bosworth, Wildlife and Fisheries ($24,990); and Charlton Meginley, Veterans Affairs ($23,992).
See total compensation for Louisiana’s cabinet secretaries below.
The pay hikes come at an awkward time as the new budget doesn’t include stipends that public school teachers and support staff workers have received the past three years, worth $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. Landry has promised to move money around in the existing state budget to avoid a teacher pay reduction but hasn’t released the plan for doing so yet.
The new raises for Landry’s department heads builds on previous pay boosts some have received over the past two years. In all, 12 of the governor’s 14 cabinet members have received salary increases since Landry took office in January 2024, with nine getting pay hikes of $20,000 or more.
Over the past two years, four cabinet members have been given increases close to Louisiana’s average public school teacher salary, which was just under $56,000 in 2024 according to the Southern Regional Education Board.
Landry’s department heads for Environmental Quality, Energy and Conservation, Children and Family Services and Louisiana Works have received salary bumps between $51,000 and $61,000 since 2024. The annual pay for these roles is now around $200,000.
The governor’s office said in a statement Friday that Landry’s cabinet members have helped save the state a significant amount of money by finding strategic ways to reduce spending.
“At the end of the day, you get what you pay for,” Landry spokesperson Kate Kelly said. “We want to attract top-notch people who can continue delivering results and saving taxpayers money.”
Landry’s cabinet members also make less than their counterparts in other Southern states, according to the governor’s office.
Kelly pointed to the heads of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection ($215,000), Texas Parks and Wildlife ($268,000) and the Georgia Department of Transportation ($550,000) as examples of officials in the South who make more money. The positions pay $40,000 to $325,000 over what their counterparts in Louisiana receive, according to public employee salary databases from those states.
Florida, Georgia and Texas are also significantly larger states than Louisiana, with 2.5 to seven times more residents.
Louisiana lawmakers temporarily removed the 2026 cabinet secretary pay raises from the budget last month after Landry threatened to veto any state government worker salary increase if teachers’ pay was cut.
Once legislators promised the governor they would also keep teacher pay level, the cabinet member pay hikes and several other salary increases were inserted back into the budget.
The legislators also found funding to give across-the-board pay bumps to state judges, forestry department firefighters, election workers and prison guards, even though the plan to avoid a teacher pay cut hasn’t been settled yet.
“It’s not a good look when you pass a budget when raises for your top staff, and you still can’t explain how you are going to keep teachers from getting a pay cut,” said Jan Moller, executive director of Invest in Louisiana, a progressive group that advocates for policies that benefit low- and middle-income families.
A separate proposal to increase salaries for the seven statewide elected officials, including the governor, failed to pass. Each would have seen additional compensation of tens of thousands of dollars. Instead, lawmakers gave six of the officials, excluding the governor, a $1,000 monthly housing allowance and $500 monthly stipend each, starting in 2028.
Another approved measure will allow legislators to claim their daily workday reimbursement, currently set at $178, and travel expenses up to 10 more days a month starting in 2028. They will also be able to claim up to $1,000 per month from the state to cover their housing expenses in Baton Rouge.
Other compensation increases were easier to provide than the teacher pay increase because replacing the educators’ stipends is extremely expensive. Landry and lawmakers will have to find an additional $200 million in order to avoid an educator pay cut for the 2026-27 school year.
By comparison, the across-the-board raise for prison guards inserted into the budget cost $18.5 million.
The governor and legislators were relying on voters to approve a constitutional amendment on May 16 to fund a permanent teacher pay raise that would have mostly replaced the stipends. After its failure, Landry and lawmakers have scrambled to come up with an alternative funding source.
The state has also seen a downturn in revenue collections since Landry and legislators cut personal income and business taxes last year. That means there is less money to go around for general government services.