Minutes before asking Louisiana senators to endorse a proposal that he said would put most of the state’s firefighters on equal footing with the other retirement plans paid for by local governments, Sen. Barrow Peacock last week took a quick sounding of his colleagues and decided to pull the bill, at least for awhile.
The support he thought was there for Senate Bill 3 had quickly evaporated after Gov. John Bel Edwards’ aides let it be known that the governor opposed the idea, saying it would decrease the benefits for newly hired firefighters.
“It made it politically uncomfortable for some senators,” Peacock said. “I understand the governor wants to support people who have helped him in the past. But this is something that I feel like if we don’t make these small steps, we make it so bad that the door slams on our retirement systems, and then we have drastic change.”
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