KEY TAKEAWAYS: Gov. Jeff Landry says no state pay raises without teacher raises Statement follows voter rejection of Amendment 3 funding plan Potential teacher pay cuts of $2,000 and $1,000 loom for 2026–27 Lawmakers face $200 million cost challenge to maintain or increase stipends   Gov. Jeff Landry tied pay raises for judges, district attorneys, state firefighters and statewide elected officials to compensation for teachers Monday when he declared “nobody in state government” would get a pay raise if public school teachers don’t receive one. It’s the first comment from the governor since voters soundly rejected five amendments to the Louisiana Constitution on Saturday, including four Landry personally campaigned to approve. Amendment 3, backed by the governor, would have given K-12 school teachers and support staff a permanent pay raise that’s mostly been covered through temporary stipends the past three years. “In light of Amendment 3 falling short, I want to make it very clear — if our teachers don’t get a permanent raise this year, nobody in state government gets a pay raise. I mean nobody,” Landry wrote on the social media platform X. The governor made this statement online while visiting Greenland as a special envoy for President Donald Trump. Louisiana lawmakers, who are in session through June 1, have been considering salary increases for judges, district attorneys, Landry’s cabinet secretaries, firefighters in the state agriculture department, and statewide elected officials, including the governor. A bill to give the governor and other statewide elected officials a pay raise also includes new allowances, housing stipends and other forms of compensation for state legislators, though it wouldn’t raise their salaries. The governor has a significant amount of control over whether those raises become law. He can veto the proposals even if legislators approve them, and Louisiana lawmakers very rarely override such a decision from the governor. Landry’s office has not responded immediately to requests for comment about whether his pay raise opposition applies to positions such as prosecutors, who are paid with local and state funding and were hoping for a state salary increase. ‘ The governor’s staff also hasn’t said whether Landry supports the legislature finding a new way to give teachers a permanent pay increase now that Amendment 3 failed or if he’s OK with continuing with stipends for a fourth year. Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, has said multiple times — including once it was clear Amendment 3 would fail — that lawmakers would not include another temporary teachers’ stipend in this year’s budget. Without the stipends, public school teachers and school support staff would see pay cuts of $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, in the 2026-27 academic year. Lawmakers already face a significant financial shortfall and have to make reductions to the budget plan the Louisiana House approved last month. The state lowered its revenue projections earlier this month by $113 million for the current budget cycle and $104 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The drop in revenue is largely the result of personal income and corporate taxes coming in lower than expected after Landry and the legislators reduced them in 2025, state economists said last week. State lawmakers would have to find $200 million in order to maintain the stipend for teachers and support staff. It would be even more expensive to give out the permanent $2,250 and $1,125 raises attached to Amendment 3. “We would be hard pressed to find $200 million,” Senate Finance Committee chairman Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, said Monday. “We would be hard pressed to find that money.” Democratic leaders in the Legislature have already said they will be fighting against a pay cut for teachers. “The stipend should be permanent at a minimum and increased at best,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Kyle Green, of Marrero. “We are absolutely going to be pushing for the stipend to be made permanent.” “My personal preference is we find a way to fund that,” said Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Gerald Boudreaux,  of Lafayette. “There’s going to have to be a whole lot of conversations.” “It’s going to have to be the Legislature. It’s not going to be Republicans or Democrats.  It going to have to be the will of the Legislature,” Boudreaux said of avoiding a teacher pay cut. Amendment 3, which 58% of voters statewide rejected, would have freed up money to give teachers and support staff permanent raises by dissolving three public education trust funds that help pay for early childhood education, universities and other K-12 school programs. The fund balances would have been used to pay off employee retirement debt at K-12 school districts and universities early to make money available to cover the educators’ salary increases. Without that funding source, lawmakers would have to take the money from elsewhere to cover those costs. Henry has previously said the public’s decision to vote down the amendment indicates they aren’t interested in a pay increase for teachers. But Amendment 3 was also linked very strongly to the governor who has angered Democratic and Black voters in recent weeks over his handling of the congressional elections. An opposition campaign urging people to “Vote No on All” five constitutional amendments as a means of protesting the governor surged in the days before the election. It likely contributed to the voters rejecting all the constitutional amendments, regardless of their content. ...read more read less