The cost of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s security detail has doubled to more than $3 million since the Republican governor entered office nearly eight years ago, but the Louisiana State Police tells The Associated Press the hefty price increase isn’t largely driven by Jindal’s frequent travel.
Protective services for the governor cost just under $1.5 million in the 2007-08 budget year when Jindal first took office. The price tag rose to $3.1 million in the 2014-15 year that ended June 30, according to data provided to The Associated Press.
State lawmakers have complained about taxpayers footing the bill for Jindal’s trooper bodyguards as the governor increased his out-of-state trips, seeking to raise his national profile and readying for a GOP presidential campaign he announced June 24.
Col. Mike Edmonson, the superintendent of state police, acknowledged that Jindal’s frequent travel boosted some costs for the state police bodyguards who have hotel, flight and car rental expenses they wouldn’t have otherwise.
“The bottom line is when he goes, we go. That’s what we’re mandated to do,” says Edmonson, a Jindal appointee. “He’s still governor. It doesn’t matter if he’s in-state or out of state.”
However, Edmonson says the growing price tag for the Jindal family security detail shouldn’t be blamed on travel. He notes state troopers received a sizable pay raise, averaging 20%, over the last year that he said accounted for much of an $830,000 growth in salary and benefit costs for the protective services detail over the last year alone.
“I’m seeing more of an increase because the troopers’ rate of pay has gone up,” he says.
Lawmakers raised the salaries again this year, though that second pay hike wasn’t reflected in the security cost data because it didn’t take effect until July 1. Benefit expenses for troopers also have increased in recent years, and the costs of protecting Jindal’s three children, as they’ve grown older and their after-school activities increased, also have swelled, says Maj. Doug Cain, a state police spokesman.
The price tag of travel-related spending—on taxis, flights, hotels and car rentals—have fluctuated yearly, costing taxpayers a total of about $643,000 over all eight years Jindal has been in office.
