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Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Jindal’s economic yo-yo has perpetual ups and downs; is Louisiana better than the worst or worse than the best?

Posted in Economy, Education, Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Prison, Privatization, Revenue, Taxes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2012| 4 Comments »

If you feel you’ve been getting mixed signals about the need for more state revenue vs. the need for more tax cuts, there’s good reason.

If you’re a bit confused about the fiscal health of the State of Louisiana, you’re certainly not alone.

If you think you can call for budget cuts, college tuition fee increases, and spending freezes in-state and then run around the country and crow to Sean Hannity about how good things are in Louisiana, then you’re Gov. Piyush Jindal.

Only Piyush would insist on having it both ways.

If you have your head out of the sand and are not fooled for one nano-second by his Protestant church appearances and pseudo-reform measures, then you’re a Louisiana voter with at least a modicum of intelligence.

For your edification and in no particular order, we offer the following condensed news items about Louisiana’s economy that have appeared over the past several months. The lone exception to that time frame is the first story that appeared four years ago and which set the stage for those to follow:

• May 2008: Gov. Jindal repeals the Stelly Plan, estimated to cost the state as much as $300 million per year. Jindal said the repeal could save single tax filers as much as $500 per year and joint filers up to $1,000. What he did not say was that single filers would need to make as much as $90,000 and joint filers $150,000 per year to realize the maximum savings.

• July 2011: Louisiana earns a no. 1 ranking for economic development for the third consecutive year from the Southern Business and Development magazine. The Lake Charles American Press said, “Much of that credit belongs to Gov. Bobby Jindal.”

• April 2012: The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference projected a drop in $210 million in revenue for the remainder of the current fiscal year and another $304 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. “The problem is the economy, lamented Greg Albrecht, chief economist for the Legislative Fiscal Office.

• October 2011: President Obama should take a cue from Louisiana on job creation, Jindal tells Faux newsman Sean Hannity. “Every year I have been governor, our employment rate has been below the southern and national averages,” he said. “We’ve added 45,000 jobs in economic developments and $10 billion in private capital investments, three years in a row.”

• May 2012: Louisiana’s full-time college students may be forced to pay an extra $300 per semester in new fees to help cover massive budgetary cutbacks by colleges and universities. College tuition costs in Louisiana have increased 30 percent since Jindal took office in 2008.

• April 2012: Even with the state’s budget problems piling up and income projections plummeting, Jindal continues to see his administration through rose-colored glasses. “More people are working in Louisiana than ever before,” he said, citing 44,000 imaginary jobs added over the past year. Sen. Ed Murray, keeping it real, asked, perhaps somewhat rhetorically, “When is our state going to see the positive impact (of the alleged jobs)? We keep having to have budget cuts because revenues are down.”

• June 2011: a reporter writing in the Detroit Free Press noted that Louisiana jumped to No. 1 in Site Selection magazine’s 2011 overall competitiveness ranking in terms of attracting corporate investment. He said Louisiana and Jindal were doing “a lot of smart things to turn (the economy) around.” Comparing Louisiana to Michigan, the reporter said, “If Louisiana could rebound during the downturn of 2008-09, there’s hope here, too.”

• March 2012: Jindal issues Executive Order No. BJ 2012-3 initiating a spending freeze for state agencies pursuant to projected budgetary shortfalls. The spending freeze augments a hiring freeze ordered in July of 2011.

• April 2012: In an email to supporters, Jindal touts a number of industrial expansions in the state. “The bottom line is that Louisiana is on the move,” he said. “Our state is climbing up in the rankings and securing economic development wins that build momentum for a better and more prosperous Louisiana. There’s still work to be done, but we’re making tremendous progress.” Jindal called for continued tax cuts, revamping workforce training programs and “transformative education reforms.” He said Louisiana is taking steps “that signal to the business community that our state is the best place in the world for companies to invest and create jobs.”

• April 2012: Since 2008, the year Jindal took office, Louisiana’s per capita income ranking has soared from 29th in the nation to 28th. The per capita income of $38,578 for the state in 2011 compares to the national average of $41,663. But we are ahead of Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. We do rank near the top in violent crime, however. While we’re way down at 33rd in rapes, we’re 18th in robbery, 14th in auto theft, 9th in burglary, 4th in assault and—drum roll, please—first in murder. Overall, Louisiana ranks third in violent crime.

• May 2012: Chief Executive magazine announces that CEOs nationwide rank Louisiana as the most improved state for business in the U.S., going from 27th in 2011 to 13th this year. “Since we took office in 2008, we’ve worked tirelessly to create a business environment where companies want to invest and create jobs for our people. We’ve reined in government spending, eliminated job-killing taxes on business, created customized workforce training programs and overhauled our governmental ethics laws.”

• November 2011: The U.S. Census Bureau, in noting that poverty has been on the rise since the 2008 recession, release statistics that show the poverty rate for Louisiana to be 18.8 percent, which is 3.5 percent higher than the national average of 15.3 percent.

• April 2012: Area Development magazine ranks Louisiana No. 6 among the Top States for Doing Business in 2011. Business Facilities magazine named the Louisiana Office of Economic Development’s (LED) FastStart the nation’s best state workforce training program in both 2010 and 2011, calling the Louisiana program “the gold standard for workforce training solutions.”

• May 2012: Legislators are considering whether to use Louisiana’s “rainy day” fund to help offset a $211 million shortfall projected by the Revenue Estimating Conference. “I don’t know that there are a whole lot of options left at this point in time,” said House Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles). Jindal’s office indicated that the governor would consider using the rainy day money. “We’re prepared to make reductions, but we’re open to different ideas from legislators that part of a balanced budget that doesn’t raise taxes and protects critical services,” said Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin.

• April 2012: Pollina Corporate Real Estate names Louisiana the most-improved state in the nation in its ranking of business-friendly states. “We have noticed an increase in the number of companies that are considering a move to the state or want to have the state evaluated as a potential location,” the report said.

• February 2012: Gov. Jindal proposes a $25.5 billion state operating budget that would close prisons, eliminate more than 6,000 state jobs, cut rates for health-care providers who treat the poor and freeze, for a fourth consecutive year, per-public basic state aid to public schools. Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater said a projected $895 million shortfall would mean “holding the line on certain anticipated cost increases.”

• April 2012: Southern Business & Development magazine named Louisiana as the 2011 State of the Year for the third consecutive year. Louisiana earned the highest project score per capita in the magazine’s history.

• April 2012: Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington), questioned the lack of accountability in allowing LED to offer increased tax breaks for payroll, relocation costs and corporate income and franchise taxes for businesses the state wants to attract. “It looks like we just give sort of a blank check to the Department of Economic Development, and it doesn’t come from their money. It comes from the treasury,” he said. The various state tax exemptions have cost Louisiana more than $18 billion over the past four years.

Incentives already offered by LED include Enterprise Zone, Quality Jobs, Restoration Tax Abatement, Industrial Tax Exemption, Research and Development Tax Credit, Sound Recording Investor Tax Credit, Digital Medial Incentive, Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit, Live Performance Tax Credit, Louisiana FastStart, Technology Commercialization Credit and Jobs Program, Modernization Tax Credit, Small Business Loan Program, Micro Loan Program, Bonding Assistance Program, Veteran Initiative and Mentor-Protégé Tax Credit.

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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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Requiem for the governor’s retirement package; meanwhile, he’s off for another riveting speech, this time in New Jersey

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Charters, Education, Governor's Office, Retirement, Vouchers on April 25, 2012| 3 Comments »

Between speaking engagements in New York and New Jersey, something strange happened to one of the crown jewels in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s legislative.

The governor’s retirement bills are scheduled to be taken up for debate on the Senate floor on Wednesday and early indications are they are in trouble.

Jindal, flush from his education reform successes, couldn’t wait to dash off to an ill-advised keynote speaking engagement before the New York Republican state dinner. Next, he’s off to New Jersey next month to speak at the American Federation for Children’s national policy summit in Jersey City. More about that in due course.

In the interim, opposition, led by Cindy Rougeou, executive director of the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS), has grown statewide to his sweeping state employee retirement reform package that not only slashes retirement benefits for state employees, but requires them to pay more and work longer to get them.

That’s right. Said another way, Piyush would require that state employees chip an additional 3 percent of their paychecks in order to qualify for fewer benefits—and to work longer to get them.

As if that were not bad enough, a Dallas law firm retained by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said everything about the retirement bills stinks. The bills are illegal, said the report by Strasburger Law Firm, because they break contracts with state employees, something expressly forbidden by the U.S. and Louisiana constitutions.

Not to be outdone, the administration promptly retained an outfit named Buck Consultants at a contract cost of $400,000 to counter the Strasburger report. To date, the contents of the Buck report have not been released.

That appears to follow a pattern. It was only a year ago that another somewhat cheaper ($49,999.99) report was ordered by the administration from Chaffe and Associates of New Orleans. That report was supposed to support the administration’s efforts to privatize the Office of Group Benefits (OGB).

It practically took a triple dose of Ex-Lax for legislators to get the administration to (ahem) cough up a copy of the report.

Even while the Buck report was still pending, the administration began backtracking, amending, re-writing and tweaking its retirement bills.

Nothing like having your ducks in a row ahead of time. Another cliché, flying by the seat of your pants, comes to mind. So does FUBAR.

Probably one of the sleaziest tactics employed by Jindal (oh, where do you start when discussing the administration’s sleaze factor?) was his attempt to dump the entire $18.3 billion unfunded accrued liability (UAL) on LASERS. Of the four state retirement systems—state employees, teachers, school employees and state police—LASERS accounts for $6.3 billion of the total UAL. Yet, Jindal never opens his mouth about the remaining three retirement systems and his “reform” package does not include any of the other three. Only LASERS.

Said another way (the governor is not the only one who can wear out a phrase; we can play, too), John, Pete, Sam and Piyush each have bank loans. Sam owes $10,000; John $700, Pete $300 and Piyush owes $7,000. The bank decides to call in all the loans but instead of seeking a pro rata share from each debtor, it sends Piyush the bill for the entire $18,000.

Well, that certainly seems fair.

Such is life in the administration of Piyush Jindal. Up is down, left is right, in is out, and the playbook of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is sacrosanct.

So now, while his retirement bills appear to be headed toward a torturous death on the Senate floor, our globe-trotting governor prepares for yet another victorious appearance before a friendly audience.

Ever notice, by the way, that the guy absolutely, positively never appears anywhere where the crowd is not friendly—and controlled?

Ever notice that Piyush absotively, posilutely never puts himself in the position of having to answer tough, probing questions?

Give him an audience of ALEC members, LABI meetings, or chambers of commerce and you can’t shut him up (as witnessed by his performance last week in New York) but never will you catch him speaking to an audience of state employees or teachers. Prudent or cowardly? You decide.

So now Jindal is off to New Jersey where he will speak to the American Federation for Children, formerly called All Children Matter until it was fined $5.2 million in 2006 for funneling campaign money into Ohio through the organization’s various state networks. All Children Matter was also fined an unspecified amount for illegal political activity in Wisconsin.

The American Federation for Children, nee All Children Matter, is run by Betsy DeVos, former chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. Her brother, Erik Prince, is the founder of Blackwater USA, the private security firm that made international headlines in 2007 when its guards killed Iraqi civilians and then attempted to bribe Iraqi officials to quell criticism of their actions.

Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos, contributed $16,000 to Jindal’s first two gubernatorial campaigns in 2003 and 2007. Her husband owns Amway; Amway is a member of ALEC. The circle is now complete.

Betsy DeVos called Jindal one of the nation’s most committed education reformers. “The governor serves as an example of how strong leadership and a bipartisan approach can improve the lives of children, and we can’t wait to hear how he will inspire other governors across the country to stand up for children,” she gushed.

Perhaps he can serve as an inspiration of how not to reform state retirement.

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The Piyush Purge begins: school superintendents’ emails to school employees sought by Gov. ‘Dear Leader’ Bobby Jindal

Posted in Education, Governor's Office, Teague on April 17, 2012| 15 Comments »

Gov. Piyush Jindal, aka Bobbin Hood (robs from the poor, gives to the rich), certainly loses no time.

No sooner does he ram through his education “reforms,” which, among other things, removes from local school boards all authority over parish superintendents, than he institutes his reign of terror.

It seems that the administration, even before passage of his education reforms, had already initiated a policy of monitoring email communications between some, if not all, parish school superintendents and school employees.

That’s the word out of northeast Louisiana and at least one of the Florida parishes.

Livingston Parish Superintendent Bill Spear, speaking last week at a parish chamber of commerce luncheon, revealed that Jindal’s administration has wasted no time in making a public records request for emails concerning proposed changes to education sent to Livingston parish school employees.

The emails, without question, are public record, available for the asking to anyone interested enough to ask for them.

It’s just that it seems rather peculiar that someone as busy as the governor of a state and who plainly has ambitions for bigger and better things would have time to review the emails of a parish school superintendent.

Unless…

Unless there are underlying motives of reprisals against those who do not fall into line quickly enough.

This governor has already exhibited a sufficient propensity to take swift and severe actions against subordinates who dare express an independent opinion that is at odds with his.

Inspired by the phrase coined by an acquaintance who shall remain nameless because he is a state employee, we have applied the term Teagued to those who have felt the wrath of Piyush:

• Department of Social Services grant reviewer Melody Teague in October 2009 testified against Jindal’s proposed streamlining of state government. She was fired the very next day. It took six months but she got her job back;

• Office of Group Benefits (OGB) Director Tommy Teague, husband of Melody, wasn’t quick enough to bow and scrap when Jindal proposed the privatization of OGB. Fired.

• Jim Champagne, executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, disagreed with Jindal’ plan to repeal the state’s motorcycle helmet law. Out the door;

• Ethics Administrator Richard Sherburne hit the bricks when Jindal gutted the Ethics Board’s adjudicatory authority, giving that authority to administrative law judges. Jindal neutered the board after he was hit was an ethics fine shortly after taking office. Coincidence? Not likely.

• Tammie McDaniel, a member of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), questioned budget decisions by the administration and was immediately asked to resign by Jindal. She did after first resisting his heavy-handed methods;

• Martha Manuel, executive director of the Office of Elderly Affairs, was critical of an administration decision to move her agency from the governor’s office to the Department of Health and Hospitals. Axed by phone;

• State Rep. Harold Richie (D-Bogalusa), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and vice chairman of the House Committee on Insurance, was stripped of his vice-chairmanship of the latter after voting no on a tax rebate for those who donate money for scholarships to private and parochial schools while sitting on the former.

With passage of Jindal’s sweeping education reform package, the state, through the Department of Education, now assumes authority over local school superintendents.

The local school boards will continue to hire the superintendents but they will answer to State Superintendent John White and not the local boards that appoint them.

That would be moral equivalent of the Louisiana Supreme Court’s suddenly deciding to micromanage the affairs of a local traffic court or the Louisiana State Police commander’s monitoring the time clock of the Shongaloo town marshal.

Simply put, such action trivializes the office of the governor.

Could Jindal’s demanding copies of superintendents’ emails to local school employees be the first step down a slippery slope toward disciplinary action for imagined sins of the local superintendents?

If so, it would seem reasonable that the next logical step for this governor would be to seek out and destroy the school employees themselves, especially teachers who dare question the reforms, for punishment.

That’s the way Piyush Jindal operates.

It’s also the way it’s done in Third World dictatorships around the globe.

One would think it’s not the way it’s done in a free society.

One would be wrong.

It’s a bone-chilling message that the citizens of this state, whether state employees or not, should not ignore.

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Education Dept. latest agency to receive layoff notification

Posted in Civil Service, Education, Governor's Office, Layoffs, Transparency on April 14, 2012| 11 Comments »

Employees of the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) are concerned, as are most state employees, about proposed radical changes to the state retirement plan that could radically alter the lives of tens of thousands of state workers.

But for some in the department, there is a greater concern: a Notice of Impending Layoff that went out on Tuesday, April 10.

“In accordance with the requirement of Civil Service Rule 17.12(a), notice is hereby given of an impending layoff to be effective no later than June 30, 2012, in the Louisiana Department of Education,” began the memorandum from State Superintendent John White.

“This layoff is being proposed due to elimination of 58 authorized positions (which includes vacancies) from the Table of Organization and a reduction of state funds in the Operating Budget for FY 2013,” White said.

It is not immediately known how many active employees will be affected, but there were indicates that most of the 58 positions to be abolished were unfilled positions.

“Once the layoff plan has been approved by the Director of Civil Service, it will be made available to you via the LDOE Intranet,” white said.

Employees to be impacted by the reduction in force are scheduled to be notified this week, the memorandum said. “Any questions concerning this matter should be directed to Kim Fitch, Human Resources Director,” it said.

Affected employees, among other things, are required to respond to any relocation offer. Failure to comply will be considered a declination of the offer, White said.

“Once an employee accepts or declines a relocation offer, the decision is final,” he said.

Similar notices have gone out to other agencies in past months, including the Office of Risk Management, the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance and the Department of Health and Hospitals.

A similar notice is expected to go out soon to employees of the Office of Group Benefits where about 130 employees are expected to lose their jobs to the privatization of the agency’s Preferred Provider Organization (PPO).

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