By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

• Natchitoches, Louisiana

"I've never been more surprised by anything in my life than being asked by the new Governor to become Speaker of the House of Representatives," State Representative Joe Salter of Sabine Parish told the Piney Woods Journal. "I was on a trip in Mississippi when I got a phone call from then Governor-elect Kathleen Blanco. As soon as she said `this is Kathleen', I said that I wanted to personally congratulate her on her election victory since I had not talked to her since election night."

"We talked for a couple minutes, and then she said, `I've got a favor to ask of you,'" the new Speaker recalled. "I said, Kathleen I will do anything that I possibly can to help you. That's when she floored me with her request that I considered becoming the new Speaker of the House. I was flabbergasted."

"One of the reasons that I was so surprised was because two or three or Representatives had been calling me asking me to help them become speaker of the House," the low-key Representative Salter noted. "I did tell the new Governor that I would seriously consider her request. I then talked to my family, meditated about it, and then called the State Reps that had been asking for my help to become Speaker and told them about my call from the new Governor."

"They all told me that they would support me, so I called the Governor-elect back and told her if that was what she wanted me to do, that I would do it," the new Speaker explained. "I certainly had no thoughts of my own in attempting to become Speaker. Although I've been in office since the mid-80's, this will be my last term in office due to term limits. I guess that this is a good way to end up your political career as Speaker of the House."

The former Florien High School Principal and Sabine Parish School administrator was first elected Representative in 1986 to fill out an unexpired term. Salter has been reelected five times since with little opposition. Ironically, Sabine parish was the only Piney Woods parish in which Kathleen Blanco received less votes that her run off opponent in the November 15, 2003 election that carried her into the Governor's Mansion.

On the important issue of jobs and economic growth, Speaker Salter had these thoughts on how the new Governor will approach this problem, "I think that first and foremost, she will try and grow the existing business and industry in the state while getting a good economic program put together to present to corporations to come to Louisiana. No one in office knows Louisiana like Kathleen Blanco does."

"I look for a real push by her to further develop the tourist industry in Louisiana," Representative Salter pointed out. "She did an outstanding job in promoting Louisiana during her eight years as Lt. Governor. She brings a lot of assets to the Governor's office."

"Beyond any doubt, Governor Blanco will also focus on education and health care," Speaker Salter also noted. "Two things that I am learning fast in this new job of Speaker is that now I'm more involved in representing all of Louisiana than just my home District. And secondly, that this is more than a full time job that will require me to spend considerable time in Baton Rouge."

Representative Salter was in Natchitoches to address the annual Twin Valley Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council banquet meeting. Twin Valley RC&D, which serves eight Northwest and Central Louisiana parishes was organized in 1969 and is currently one of 368 RC&D Councils in the USA with seven RC&D Councils operating in Louisiana. Rep. Salter has been a longtime supporter and participant in Twin Valley activities.

James "JW" Scarborough of Natchitoches is current Twin Valley Chairman with Randell A. Fletcher of Grant parish as Vice Chairman and Jerry W. McDonald of Sabine Parish serving as Secretary/Treasurer.

Joe Salter grew up in the south Sabine parish town of Florien which is now just a few miles from the shores of Toledo Bend Lake. Salter finished high school at Florien in 1961 before Toledo Bend Lake was a reality. After a stint at NSU for academic studies, Salter went back to Florien High School.

"I came back to Florien as principal in 1969," Salter recalled. "Some of the teachers who taught me were still on the faculty. But we had a lot of fun working together and had a real good school."

Eleven years later, Joe Salter left the principal's job at Florien and took a job with the Sabine Parish School system working out of the Administration office in Many from which he retired in 1998. By the time the now Speaker of the House retired, he had logged in a total combined 33 years as a classroom teacher, principal, and school administrator. There is little doubt that Salter, as Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representative will have a tuned-in ear for the education needs of all of Louisiana.

The RC&D Councils of which Salter has been supportive of for years were originally founded by former President John F. Kennedy in 1962. The "vision" of Twin Valley RC&D Council since it was organized in 1969 has been to encourage economic growth through development, conservation and planned utilization of the natural resources in Central and Northwest Louisiana. The "mission" of Twin Valley is to help work together at the local level to take advantage of the sources of technical and financial assistance available to improve their standard of living and to make their communities better places to live.

Holly Morgan, well known Forester with the US Forest Service and member of the Twin Valley RC&D Council received the Southwest States RC&D "Outstanding Council Member" of 2003. Other area elected officials of note who joined Speaker Joe Salter and RC&D Chairman J.W. Scarborough at the head table were Mayor Wayne McCollum of Natchitoches, State Representative Taylor Townsend of Natchitoches and State Senator Mike Smith of Winnfield. Numerous other Mayors, Police Jury and Parish Officials from the eight Twin Valley coverage areas were also in attendance at the annual meeting in Natchitoches held at the NSU Union Center on the evening of January 26, 2004. NSU President Randy Webb also attended.

Speaker Salter also told the Journal, "We are going to have a two week special session in mid-March to address some budget and financial issues. One of those issues will be to eliminate the utility tax on home propane use."

"Then on March 29, we will go into our regular legislative session which will run until June," he concluded. "I'm looking forward to my first session as Speaker."

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