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Archive for the ‘ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council’ Category

State Rep. Joe Harrison uses state stationery to solicit $1,000 contributions in order to support ALEC agenda

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Ethics, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Politicians, Prison, Privatization, Public Records, Retirement, Taxes, Transparency, Vouchers on July 5, 2012| 11 Comments »

It’s been awhile since we’ve written about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), but State Rep. Joseph Harrison (R-Gray) has proven himself a more than capable successor to former Rep. Noble Ellington (R-Winnsboro).

ALEC is a national organization comprised of hundreds of state legislators from around the country as well as corporations which fund the bulk of the organization’s expenses. Heading the list of those corporations is Koch Industries.

ALEC’s corporate members write “model legislation” for lawmakers to take back to their states for passage into law. Foremost among those are education reform, prison privatization, Medicaid reform, state employee pension reform and reductions of public services.

Ellington is the former state representative who served as national president of ALEC in 2011 and hosted ALEC’s national meeting in New Orleans last August. Ellington, after 24 years in the legislature, did not seek re-election last fall and upon leaving office in January, was hired as Chief Deputy Commissioner for the Louisiana Department of Insurance at $150,000 per year.

Now, not to be outdone, Harrison, the state ALEC chairman, has sent out a form letter on state letterhead soliciting contributions of $1,000 each to finance the travel of Louisiana legislative ALEC members to an ALEC conference in Salt Lake City July 25-28. The identities of the recipients of his requests for money were unknown.

The letter opens by saying, “As State Chair and National Board Member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), I would like to solicit your financial support to our ALEC Louisiana Scholarship Fund.”

But this letter wasn’t for college scholarships.

“Why does the scholarship fund need your support?” Harrison asked, perhaps rhetorically, in his letter of Monray, July 2. “With over thirty Louisiana Legislators serving on ALEC Task Forces, your support will allow the opportunity (for legislators) to attend conferences funded by the ALEC Scholarship Fund.

“These conferences are packed with educational speakers and presenters, and gives (sic) the legislators a chance to interact with legislators from other states, including forums on Medicaid reform, sub-prime lending, only privacy, environmental education, pharmaceutical litigation, the crisis in state spending, global warming, and financial services and information exchange. All of these issues are import (sic) to the entire lobbying community (note the reference to “lobbying community”).

“I, along with other members of the Louisiana Legislature, greatly appreciate your contribution to the scholarship fund. Your $1,000 check made payable to the ALEC Louisiana Scholarship Fund and can be sent directly to me at 5058 West Main Street, Houma, Louisiana 70360. ALEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization as designated by the IRS.”

It is no surprise that ALEC would be concerned about pharmaceutical litigation, environmental education, Medicaid reform and sub-prime lending since many of its corporate members comprise pharmaceutical companies, oil and chemical companies, medical providers and mortgage lenders.

Even though ALEC picks up the tab for legislators to attend conferences all over the nation, at least 16 Louisiana legislators filed expense reports with the House and Senate for reimbursement of more than $20,750 in expenses related to their attendance at last August’s annual meeting in New Orleans. Additionally, ALEC reimbursed many of those same legislators, plus 19 other members and former House and Senate members an additional $56,200 for other ALEC conferences in such locales as San Antonio, Chicago, San Diego and Washington, D.C.

It is not known if Harrison received any “scholarship” money to attend ALEC conferences, but records obtained from the Louisiana House of Representatives by LouisianaVoice show that he received $9,295.78 in expense reimbursements from the state to attend six conferences in New Orleans, San Diego and Washington, D.C. over a four-year period, from December 2008 to August 2011.

Those included:

• December 2008: Washington, D.C. ($1,896.43);
• September 2009: New Orleans “Out of the Storm Conference ($496);
• December 2009: Washington, D.C. ($1,981.24);
• August 2010: San Diego, California ($970.50);
• November 2010: Washington, D.C. ($2,031.14);
• August 2011: New Orleans ($1,920.97).

LouisianaVoice has submitted two public records requests to Harrison. The first asks for the names of the “over thirty” legislators who are members of ALEC and the second requests, since the contribution solicitation was made on state letterhead, that Harrison provide the identities of every person to whom the solicitation was sent.

It would also be of more than passing interest to know how much in state postage was spent on soliciting funds for a lobbying organization that denies it’s a lobbying organization.

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Sen. Elbert Guillory: Arrogant and blatantly self-serving but delightfully tacky in promoting his ‘hard work’ sans ALEC

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Retirement on May 22, 2012| 2 Comments »

For sheer audacity, it’s hard to top the performance of State Sen. Elbert Guillory (D-Opelousas) last week.

Guillory, the poster boy for ALEC and Piyush Jindal lapdogs, was the lead author of the gaggle of state retirement bills, including Senate Bill 740 which assures state retirees they will not be getting a cost of living adjustment for 10-15 years.

Despite Guillory’s efforts to put the best spin on the retirements which wound up being a general hodgepodge, he was trumped by Jindal Deputy Chief of Staff Kristy Nichols who insisted the administration “got what we wanted.” It was a classic example of mutual one-upsmanship in an effort by both to save face.

The only part of the retirement package to be approved in its original form was a provision to base retirement incomes on employees’ best five years income instead of three years as is presently done.

Jindal’s effort—through Guillory—to force state civil service employees to work to age 67 before qualifying for retirement—was amended drastically. Only employees with zero to five years experience would be required to work to 67 while those with six to ten years will be required to work to age 62. All others will remain the same.

Guillory in a particularly self-serving email to Capitol News Service, said, “Now that you have had an opportunity to review the Senate Retirement Committee’s work, I’m sure you appreciate the hard work and responsible outcomes produced by those seven men. No “fix,” no “buyout” by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). No underhanded tactics. Just hard work addressing a serious fiscal problem in careful responsible manner.”

Perhaps. But it would have been nice if the legislator had been working that hard the past 25 years to live up to its self-imposed requirement to pay down the unfunded accrued liability (UAL) of the state’s four retirement systems. Because of typically bad political policy, the legislature, in its infinite stupidity, decided to use those funds for other things, in the process allowing the UAL to grow unabated.

Now, though, state employees are being called on to make good on the legislature’s promise a quarter-century later. What’s more, the onus of the entire amount has been placed on the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS) and higher education members of TRSL even though the LASERS share of the UAL is only about $6.3 billion. The balance of the UAL belongs to the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL), the Louisiana School Employees Retirement System (LSERS) and the Louisiana State Police Retirement System (LSPRS).

Guillory was asked why the pension reform changes are only being applied to LASERS and higher education employees in TRSL, he said state police and hazardous duty workers, who are exempted (fo far), “put their lives on the line. They face bullets every day. They have special disability issues. They have special survivorship issues, so they are in a special category. Their situation is more special. The same is true with K through 12 teachers. I’m not sure I want to see a teacher at age 67 still trying to handle the young students of today. There are just some special circumstances for teachers.

Two things are somewhat revealing in those comments. First of all, what he said about “young students of today” would seem to refute Jindal’s blanket condemnation of teachers while ignoring discipline problems and uninvolved parents as the root of most of public education’s current problems.

Second, as a reader recently wrote, if we are to believe Sen. Guillory, rank and file employees are not “special” or any particular value or importance. “We are also to believe that rank and file jobs do not involve any hazardous duties.

“Try telling that to employees of state psychiatric hospitals who are injured in the line of duty on a regular basis. Or tell that to Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) employees who are struck by vehicles while repairing our highways. Or worse yet, try telling that to the families of the two Department of Insurance employees who were murdered recently while doing nothing more than gather routine regulatory information from an insurance broker.

“The simple lesson here is that Gov. Jindal has employed a very old and frequently successful ploy of divide and conquer with his so-called pension reform,” the reader said.

But Guillory’s most unabashed display of arrogance came during Senate debate over House Bill 61, which would create a new “cash balance” retirement plan for new hires, beginning July 1, 2013. Guillory said the plan would reduce state costs while containing the growth in long-term liabilities of the pension systems involved.

Sen. Sherri Smith Buffington (R-Keithville) said she was concerned over the provision for retirees to take a lump-sum pension benefit. She asked what would happen if a retiree spends the pension income to which Guillory incredulously replied, “We cannot protect people from making bad decisions in their lives.”

Guillory went on to say that a retiree might then have to apply for food stamps, welfare and other government programs.

Right. That’s going to save the state a boatload of money, right Senator?

That prompted one person to refer to Guillory’s plan as the “Cat Food Retirement Plan.”

National pension law expert Robert Klausner, representing LASERS and TRSL attempted to warn legislators against the bill’s passage, saying the proposed bill breaks employee contracts. “There’s no reason to pass an unconstitutional law,” he said. “All it does is create a field day for lawyers.”

Several weeks ago, with the Legislative Auditor hired a Dallas law firm to analyze the proposed retirement bills, the law firm came up with much the same response as Klausner.

To counter the auditor’s expert, the Division of Administration hired Buck Consultants of Boston at a cost of $400,000.

A LouisianaVoice public records request for a copy of the Buck report resulted in the release of a six-page document—about $66,667 per page. That report had just a three-paragraph narrative at the end. The rest consisted only of actuarial notes which projected a reduction of annual state contributions (the portion the state contributes to employee retirement funds) to LASERS and TRSL if enacted.

Jindal’s proposal—through Guillory’s bills—to move from a defined benefit to a defined contribution pension plan was a virtual clone of the “Defined-Contribution Retirement Act” model bill as drafted by ALEC at its New Orleans national convention last August, Guillory’s claims in his email to LouisianaVoice notwithstanding.

But that was just one of the bills proposed by ALEC.

A copy of ALEC’s complete proposed retirement reform legislation was obtained by Common Cause of Washington, D.C., which filed Freedom of Information Act requests for ALEC records.

The ALEC proposals and those of Guillory in the Senate and Rep. Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell) in the House are nearly identical in most aspects.

So, all things considered, it’s a little difficult to buy into Guillory’s braggadocio about his committee’s “hard work, no buyout by ALEC.” Nor do we agree that a “serious fiscal problem” was addressed in a “careful, responsible manner.”

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Notable Quotables (In their own words)

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Broadband, Internet, Notable Quotables, Privatization, Transparency on May 10, 2012| 1 Comment »

“WHEREAS, ALEC believes that innovation, private investment, and market competitition, not additional regulations, should drive the continued deployment and adoption of broadband information services, and

WHEREAS, the FCC has moved forward with a plan that would impose its authority on the internet and regulate the provision of broadband information services, and

THEREFORE, be it resolved that ALEC voices its support of lawmakers and regulators avoiding the unnecessary, burdensome and economically harmful regulation of broadband internet service companies, including the providers of the infrastructure that supports and enables internet services…”

–Part of the resolution passed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) at its 2010 national conference in San Diego, the resolution which may have persuaded Gov. Piyush Jindal’s administration to deliberately fumble away an $80.6 million federal grant to make broadband internet service available to 21 rural Louisiana parishes.

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It’s just an innocent little ol’ bill that would abolish payroll deductions for Children’s Museum & LaCAP, among others

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Attorney General, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Retirement, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2012| 9 Comments »

Freedom of expression for state employees, even when they pay for it, is squarely in the crosshairs of the Jindal administration.

State lawmakers in Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Idaho, Washington, Michigan, Wyoming, North Carolina and Florida have all passed or attempted to pass anti-public employee union legislation sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

More recently, the ALEC-sponsored movement has moved to Louisiana in the form of two House bills, one of which (HB 1023) is authored by ALEC member Rep. Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport). The second, HB 88, is the handiwork of Rep. Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville).

Seabaugh’s bill would prohibit mandatory payroll deductions from the paychecks of public employees for membership dues for “any entity which engages in political activity” while HB 88 by Hensgens is more narrowly worded in that it would apply only to public school officials who belong to organizations that are politically active.

Jindal would probably claim that he had nothing to do with the bills, that they were the product of free and independent-minded Seabaugh and Hensgens. But let us not overlook the fact that Jindal contributed $2,500 to each of their legislative campaigns last August.

That is enough for Louisiana’s teachers’ unions to feel that the bills are nothing more than reprisals for their opposition to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s sweeping education reform bills.

The bills could also apply to payroll deductions for membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). For doctors and nurses who work in state facilities, it also could conceivably apply to membership dues for the American Medical Association and the Louisiana State Nurses’ Association.

What about all the attorneys for the Louisiana Attorney General’s office and executive legal counsels for all the state agencies, including the governor’s office? Most of those are members of the State Bar Association and most of those pay dues through payroll deductions.

The Louisiana Retired Teachers’ Association, Louisiana State Troopers Association, Professional Fire Fighters Association and even the alumni foundations of state colleges and universities are political active to some extent.

Each of those either employs full time lobbyists to represent their interests before the legislature or do so themselves. That’s pretty far-reaching, but within the definition of either of the two bills.

The Louisiana Department of Education has an undetermined number of Teach for America members and they, too, may pay dues through payroll deduction. Teach for America is about as politically active as any other organization already mentioned.

There are others. Acadian Ambulance has an entire team of lobbyists who stand ready to twist legislative arms on behalf of their client. So what about state employees who have purchased membership with Acadian and set up payroll deductions?

Louisiana Health Service & Indemnity Co., the parent company of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana, made $17,500 in political contributions in 2003, including $10,000 to Jindal. That would constitute political activity by any definition.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield provides health insurance for tens of thousands of Louisiana active and retired employees—through payroll deductions.
The same would apply to UnitedHealthcare which also provides health care coverage and which employs lobbyists and actively provides financial support to various political campaigns.

The same goes for scores of life insurance companies which provide coverage to state employees—again, through payroll deductions. Ditto for such organizations as Humana, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Girls Scouts of Louisiana-Pines to the Gulf, Louisiana Citizens for the Arts, Louisiana Children’s Museum, LaCAP Federal Credit Union, the four state retirement programs (LASERS, LSERS, LSPRS AND LTRS).

One would assume that the Sierra Club, Ducks Unlimited, the Coastal Conservation Association and the NRA are politically active and would thus, be forbidden to extract dues via payroll deductions.

Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said he is convinced that Seabaugh’s bill was filed as a form of reprisals against teachers for their part in trying to sink Jindal’s education reforms.

“This is an effort to silence the voice of opposition,” Monaghan said. “Because we defend public education and stand up to the politicians who seek to bully, some want to strike us down.”

Dr. Michael Walker-Jones said the bills were “an attempt to shut down the voice of public employees totally.”

Bridget Nieland, vice president of Communications and director of Education and Workforce for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), however, said the idea that non-profit groups would be affected by the legislation were nothing more than a “scare tactic” being used by union leaders in an effort to garner opposition.

One opponent of the proposed legislation said the bills were based on two false assumptions—that taxpayer dollars are being used for political purposes and that payroll deductions of union dues is tantamount to compulsory unionism.

“Union members’ dues are not taxpayer dollars,” said Les Landon, writing on Facebook. “They (dues) come from the salaries earned by employees who have a right to spend those dollars as they wish, including for political purposes.”

Seabaugh, a member of ALEC, was reimbursed $2,060.52 in taxpayer dollars for his attendance of the ALEC National Conference last August—in New Orleans.

Seabaugh apparently saw no problem in spending public dollars to attend the conference by an organization which drafts hundreds of laws favorable to business and industry and adverse to the interests of public employees.

Those drafts are provided—some say spoon-fed—to state lawmakers — to take back to their home states for passage. Among bills written by ALEC and promoted in Republican-controlled state legislatures are privatization of state agencies, the sale of state prisons, school vouchers and charter schools, and major public employee retirement reform.

Nick Dranias, director of Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute, speaking on behalf of a similar bill to abolish payroll deduction in Arizona, said, “No special interest is supposed to have a law that forces government to negotiate in a secret backroom for advantages that benefit only their private interests.”

All sample legislation adopted by ALEC, including last August’s national conference in New Orleans, is done so behind closed doors. The media and general public were barred from the New Orleans conference as they are at all such conferences.

It would be interesting to hear Dranias offer his take on that “special interest” negotiating “in a secret backroom” on behalf of its “private interests.”

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Don’t even talk to Senate Hypocrite-in-Chief Martiny about retirement reform; he’s too busy looking out for colleagues

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Retirement on April 27, 2012| 3 Comments »

Even as the administration pushes back floor debate on Gov. Piyush Jindal’s retirement reform for state workers, the full Senate on Wednesday made sure that its members were protected.

While thousands of state employees faced the uncertainty of their careers and retirement years, 35 members of the upper chamber, led by Sen. Daniel Martiny, a self righteous Metairie Republican, flipped a collective bird at state civil service workers in particular and Louisiana citizens in general.

And worst of all, Martiny had the unmitigated gall to accuse a Senate colleague of grandstanding.

Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, Pot.

The furor was over Senate Bill 727 by Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge), which would have barred a few members of the Senate and a couple of former members from membership in the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS).

The legislature passed a law a few years back prohibiting members of the House and Senate from joining LASERS but the law “grandfathered in” those legislators who were already LASERS members.

Martiny is one of those. The others are Sharon Weston Broome and Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, both Baton Rouge Democrats, Ed Murray (D-New Orleans) and John Smith (R-Leesville).

Claitor’s bill also would have provided that any legislator who is presently a member of LASERS as of June 30, 2012, may retain accrued service credit but that those members “on and after July 1, 2012, be ineligible to be a member of the system” and that employee and employer contributions would cease as of July 1.

Had the bill passed, it would have adversely affected two formers members of the legislature—former Rep. Noble Ellington (R-Winnsboro) and former Sen. Troy Hebert (D-Jeanerette).

Ellington, the immediate past national president of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), did not seek re-election last fall after 24 years in the legislature. He was promptly hired to the number-two job in the Department of Insurance at $150,000 even though Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said at the time of his hiring that Ellington had virtually no experience in insurance.

Hebert was hired by Jindal to head the Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control Board at $107,800.

Their higher salaries stand to have a significantly positive impact on their retirement incomes—at a time when Jindal is attempting to rip the heart out of state employees’ retirement by making them pay more and to work longer to qualify for fewer benefits.

Claitor said legislative pay ranges from $30,000 to $38,000 per year but now that Ellington’s retirement can be based at least partially on his higher salary, he stands to reap much greater benefits.

Martiny, with a flair for the obvious—and the dramatic—pouted and then ranted in arguing against Claitor’s bill.

In short, he threw a hissy fit.

Of course, being one of the five senators who are still members of LASERS, he had no dog in that hunt; nothing self-serving there by the good senator.

No retirement reform for legislators either—just for state civil service employees. Screw the employees but take care of our own.
Can you say “double standard?”

Ellington and Hebert “are doing the job,” he said of the two former legislators-cum-unclassified fat cats.

How would he know what kind of job Ellington is doing? For that matter, what does he know about Hebert’s job performance? Has he seen their personnel performance evaluations?

Could it possibly be that he would lavish such praise because all three are current or former members of ALEC?

ALEC is a tight fraternity comprised mostly of Republican legislators from across the U.S., but there are a few Democrat members as well, including fellow senators Francis Thompson of Delhi, David Heitmeier of New Orleans, Elbert Guillory of Opelousas, and Ben Nevers of Bogalusa.

In fact, no fewer than 16 of the 39 members of the Louisiana State Senate are members of ALEC.

They include Senate President John Alario (R-Westwego), Robert Adley (R-Benton), Norbert Chabert (R-Houma), A.G. Crowe (R-Pearl River), Heitmeier, Gerald Long (R-Natchitoches), Martiny, Dan Morrish (R-Jennings), Nevers Neil Riser (R-Columbia), Thompson, Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe), and Mack “Bodi” White (R-Central).

To a person, they were among the 35 senators who effectively defeated Claitor’s bill by returning it to the calendar where bills go to die.

Only two joined Claitor in voting against killing the bill. They were Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) and Jody Amedee (R-Gonzales).

We would never say that ALEC money may have influenced the vote but consider this: thirteen of the 35 senators who voted to kill the bill received a combined $239,600 from ALEC member corporations and when you add the $65,000 received by Ellington while he was in office, that total jumps to $304,600.

Perhaps there’s no connection between the vote and the ALEC corporations but certainly is peculiar how ALEC beneficiaries all tend to vote together on controversial issues.

Here’s the breakdown on contributions by ALEC:

• Alario—$14,500;

• Adley—$49,900;

• Chabert—$7,000;

• Crowe—$3,000;

• Heitmeier—$8,000;

• Long—$26,000;

• Martiny—$36,000;

• Morrish—$5,500;

• Riser—$7,000;

• Thompson—$8,000;

• Walsworth—$9,000;

• White—$8,500;

• Guillory—$45,200.

“We have a bad reputation in this state as legislators and public officials because we keep filing bills like this and telling people we are crooks,” Martiny said during floor debate. “It’s sad when we have to grandstand on one another.”

Well, Senator, we never said you were a crook. Those are your words.

As for our description of your performance, however, arrogant, idiotic, duplicitous, hypocritical, embarrassing buffoonery does come to mind.

And yes, it indeed is sad when you grandstand.

Because we are watching.

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