No sooner had I posted a story earlier today lamenting the depth of political corruption and chicanery in Louisiana than up pops yet another story about which every single one of the state’s 4.5 million citizens should be irate.
While this is not a call for the pitchforks and torches, the citizenry should be up in arms over a letter to State Rep. Helena Moreno (D-New Orleans) from a New Orleans teacher named Gwendolyn V. Adams.
It’s a letter that should go viral because it hammers home once again the question of one of the best examples of political corruption in the state.
Legislator’s Tulane scholarships.
Tulane is one of the biggest tax scams going. Act 43 of the 1884 legislature obligated Tulane to give scholarship waivers to state legislators and to the mayor of New Orleans and they in turn select the recipients of the scholarships.
Altogether the 145 scholarships cost Tulane something on the order of $7 million per year, based on current tuition costs. https://admission.tulane.edu/sites/g/files/rdw771/f/LegislativeScholarshipFAQ.pdf
So, what did Tulane get in exchange for such a legislative requirement?
Tax exemptions. Specifically, property tax exemptions totaling about $25 million per year. https://louisianavoice.com/2013/10/22/deja-vu-all-over-again-house-clerk-butch-speer-denies-public-access-to-tulane-legislative-scholarship-records/
The scholarships are supposed to go to deserving students in legislators’ respective districts who otherwise might not be able to afford a college education. Instead, they quickly became a form of political patronage whereby family members, judges and political cronies shoved deserving students aside, taking the scholarships for their kids. http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/scholarships_00a.htm
I first wrote about the issue way back in 1982 and it has been written about by numerous publications and reporters since but the abuse persists as legislators continue with their “in-your-face practices of doling out scholarships to family, friends and political hacks.
The story I wrote was about then-State Sen. Dan Richie awarding his scholarship to the relative of Rep. Bruce Lynn of Shreveport who gave his scholarship to Richie’s brother.
The practice has continued unabated ever since with scholarships going to recipients like family members of former Crowley Judge Edmund Reggie, who received some 34 years’ worth of Tulane scholarships valued at about $750,000, based on 1999 tuition rates. The son of former St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Walter Reed received a scholarship valued at about $172,000 over four years. http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/scholarships_13a.htm
The latest to come to light is Rep. Moreno who, although she represents a district in Orleans Parish, awarded her scholarship to the son of her Jefferson Parish political consultant Greg Buisson, whose company, Buisson Creative, was paid nearly $14,000 by Moreno in 2010.
She is currently a candidate for New Orleans City Council at-large.
Here is Adams’s letter to Moreno:
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Thank you Gwendolyn V. Adams. I hope that the constituents of State Rep. Helena Moreno become aware of this travesty and vote her out of office. Certainly not vote her into office.
Not to be unnoticed is the fact that a teacher, who paid or raised money to pay for this letter’s publication, uncovered this story. Not a journalist, not law enforcement and certainly NOT Tulane University. Reminds me of the allegation backed with sufficient evidence and emails secured through public records requests that Department of Education Superintendent John White falsified his EDL3 credentials by intimidating one of his LDE employees into knowingly approve his application and then BESE Chairman James Garvey to sign off on them. The story, uncovered and researched by several teachers is bound to catch up with White but chances are it won’t be because of BESE, AG, LLA, NOLA.com, The Advocate or any weak kneed politician.
Is there a link that one can go to to get information on who received scholarships from whom?
For the latest list (2016-17), try this link:
https://www2.tulane.edu/government_affairs/upload/Legislative_Scholarship_Recipients_2016-2017.pdf
To see the names for earlier years, change the URL (web address) to reflect earlier years, (ex. change 2016-2017 to 2015-2016) This works back to 2012-2013. I don’t know the location of the list in years before that.
https://www2.tulane.edu/government_affairs/upload/Legislative_Scholarship_Recipients_2016-2017.pdf