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Archive for the ‘Governor’s Office’ Category

College mergers: the elephant in the room

Posted in Budget, Economy, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Regents on November 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

Perhaps, at long last, the time has come to talk about the elephant in the room.

Up to now, timid lawmakers have only dared whisper of the possibility of closing Louisiana’s two predominantly black universities and merging them with larger, mostly white schools. But now perhaps more serious, yes, even bolder consideration should be given not only to closing Grambling and Southern universities, but perhaps a few others four-year colleges in Louisiana as well.

Letter writers and bloggers have broached the subject more frequently as of late as the state’s economic plight worsens but as yet no member of the legislature, the Louisiana Board of Regents, nor the University of Louisiana System’s Board of Supervisors has summoned the political courage to address the issue.

Nor has Gov. Jindal or anyone else on the fourth floor of the State Capitol dared suggest what should be the obvious solution to erasing a substantial portion, if not all, of the state budget deficit.

The existence of three four-year public universities within 40-50 miles of each other, though a benign issue in better times, has suddenly become a topic that must finally be addressed in the interest of fiscal responsibility.

In north Louisiana, the University of Louisiana-Monroe (ULM), Louisiana Tech, and Grambling State universities are situated only about 40 miles apart on I-20.

In south Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana University, LSU, and Southern University are in relative proximity to each other with Southern and LSU both in Baton Rouge and Southeastern only about 45 miles away in Hammond.

In the central part of the state, LSU-Eunice and LSU-Alexandria are a mere 50 miles apart. Granted, LSU-Eunice is a junior college, but does that justify the existence of two public institutions of higher learning so near each other serving essentially the same constituency?

For that matter, is there really a need for the University of New Orleans and Southern University-New Orleans to be located in the same city with Nicholls State less than 50 miles away in Thibodaux?

Three junior colleges, Bossier Community College, Southern University-Shreveport, and LSU-Shreveport sit within shouting distance from one another in the adjacent parishes of Caddo and Bossier.

That many junior colleges and four-year universities as close to each other as these schools do not represent the wisest investment of taxpayer dollars. When the state was flush with oil and gas money, it didn’t seem to matter. Political expediency was the order of the day and every part of the state wanted its own four-year school.

But that was before the existence of today’s $106 million state budget deficit. The combined budgets of ULM and Grambling were $126.3 million in 2009-2010 and the combined proposed budgets of the two schools for 2010-2011 approach $135 million. Add Northwestern to the mix and the numbers jump to $198.1 million and $210.3 million, respectively. Throw in the three junior colleges in the Shreveport area and, well, you get the picture. Strategic mergers in north Louisiana alone could wipe out the state’s budget deficit.

Merging two or more of the institutions would not produce an automatic savings equal to the combined budget of one or more of the schools being phased out because one school would have to absorb many of the displaced students, professors, and instructors.

But the elimination of athletic programs, (coaches’ salaries, athletic scholarships, and facility upkeep), administrative fees, including salaries for university presidents, the various vice presidents, deans, assistant deans, department heads, etc., by reducing the number of four-year institutions from the dozen we now have to only three or four would result in slashing expenditures by perhaps as much as several hundred million dollars.

Athletic programs and college administrations are not the only duplications that could be eliminated by a well-planned merger of universities. Curricula at many schools are nearly identical and replication could be eliminated in these areas as well. While some schools specialize in certain degree programs—the pharmacy program at ULM comes to mind—there is considerable overlap in curricula from school to school with many of those schools only a few miles from each other. The two existing law schools at LSU and Southern, for example, are located less than 10 miles from each other in Baton Rouge.

Why has this issue not been addressed by the powers that be? The answer is simple. Louisiana’s black political leaders and educators understandably want to protect their heritage at all cost and a big part of that heritage is represented by the two predominant black universities, Southern and Grambling and Southern’s Shreveport and New Orleans campuses. To close the black schools is to flirt with political disaster. The issue is an emotional powder keg that no one wants to ignite.

Even in cities like Lake Charles, Thibodaux, Alexandria, and Hammond, where the issue is not one of black heritage, the local political leaders, chambers of commerce, and legislators will do all in their power to retain their four-year institutions as part of their own identity. They would never agree to turning Nicholls, Northwestern, McNeese, UNO, LSU-A, or Southeastern into junior colleges. Most of those have already been there and they don’t want to go back.

Nor would they be likely to agree to merge Bossier Community College, Southern-Shreveport, and LSU-Shreveport even though virtually every economic consideration suggests it would be the fiscally prudent action to take.

That’s not to say it can’t be done. Gov. Dale Bumpers did it in Arkansas in 1971, when Arkansas A&M, a predominantly black school, was merged with the University of Arkansas and the planets and stars remained in alignment. Nationally, more than six dozen college and university mergers have taken place. One of the most notable was the merger of Marymount College and Loyola University in 1973 into what today is known as basketball powerhouse Loyola-Marymount.

But as one political observer said years ago, “They’ll close LSU before they close Grambling.”

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Chaos & absenteeism define Jindal administration

Posted in Economy, Ethics, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Jobs, Legislature, Legislators, Taxes, Transparency, tagged , , , , , on November 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If there’s a single word that could describe both the political and fiscal plight of Louisiana, that word would be chaotic. Absentee governor also comes to mind.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, when he’s not flying off to any of a growing number of other states to campaign for Republican candidates, is telling cabinet members and department heads to lead and to stop “whining” about proposed budget cuts that threaten to further stymie the state’s already stagnant economy and to gut higher education.

College presidents from one end of the state to the other are grappling with ways to keep from shutting down academic programs and laying off professors and teachers. The college presidents challenged Jindal’s Facebook criticism of the state’s colleges and universities for “underperforming” and for their “inefficiency.”

Professors also are entering the fray, openly criticizing the governor for everything from chronic absenteeism to insensitivity toward higher education as manifested by the administration’s deep budgetary cuts.

One legislator, perhaps with some measure of justification, or perhaps with an eye on the governor’s office in next year’s election, likewise accused Jindal of being absent from the state in a time of crisis.

Rep. John Bel Edwards of Amite described Jindal as absent without leave during “the most serious budget crisis in our history.” Edwards, a Democrat, said that Jindal “is not minding the store” and has been less than honest with Louisiana’s citizens about problems facing the state.

Edwards isn’t alone among legislators in offering criticism of the governor’s repeated optimistic proclamations on his statewide “Building a Better Louisiana for Our Children” tour. Press releases from the governor’s office quote Jindal as saying his administration is “doing more with less” and has “significantly cut government spending and reduced the size of government—while pursuing innovative programs that are more effective at providing services for our people.”

Several state senators, however, have called Jindal to task for what they feel is a lack of candor. The said he should be more straightforward about the types of severe budget cuts that will be necessary in order to balance next year’s budget. They said Jindal has been misleading the public in talking up cost savings and office consolidations while refusing to acknowledge the far-reaching budget cuts that will be needed to close the budget gap.

The president of the LSU student body gained national publicity recently when he wrote to a newspaper in New Hampshire where Jindal was campaigning. The letter asked the governor to return home and address the budgetary problems facing higher education. Only when J. Ryan Hudson’s letter got national attention did Jindal finally agree to meet with students to discuss cuts to higher education.

More recently, an LSU professor voiced similar sentiments, saying Jindal should do his job and “stop playing games.” A.R.P. Rau added that the governor, while critical of university sabbatical policies, failed to appreciate the irony that he is often “absent without leave from the state, neglecting it for his personal national aspirations.”

Perhaps the most significant criticism, however, came from Ed Steimel, retired president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI). Steimel, calling himself a longtime supporter of Jindal, now describes the governor as “a major disappointment” and said he no longer supports him. Steimel-perhaps with tongue in cheek, but perhaps not-even suggested that Hudson and Jindal swap jobs.

State Treasurer John Kennedy, sounding more and more like a potential 2011 challenger to his fellow Republican, has offered his own plan to balance the state budget now estimated to be more than $100 million in the red. Kennedy said his 16-point plan would produce an overall savings of $2.6 billion.

The governor’s office, even as it was responding to the college presidents, launched a web page dedicated to criticizing Kennedy’s proposals, with Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater saying that the state treasurer’s ideas were “unworkable.” Kennedy angrily responded to Rainwater, saying, “Tell me you don’t want to do it. Tell me you don’t have the political courage to do it. But don’t tell me it can’t be done.”

When he became governor, Jindal increased the size of the Louisiana Board of Ethics by more than two-thirds, from 23 to 39 staff positions but now has directed the agency to cut staff by 35 percent. Ethics Board Chairman Frank Simoneaux said personnel cuts would be “particularly egregious to us.” He said the board already in understaffed for it to perform the duties it is charged by law to do.

Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein sent an Oct. 22 agency-wide email in which he said Jindal was “committed to providing the core health-care services and programs that our residents need.” At the same time, however, Greenstein announced a reorganization that “will lead to a reduction in staff.”

Even as Greenstein was parroting Jindal’s commitment to needed health-care services, physicians and legislators alike leveled stinging criticism of Jindal’s decision last week to scrap CommunityCare, a program which mainly serves children in providing primary-care physicians for Medicaid patients throughout Louisiana. By eliminating the extra $3 per patient per month paid physicians to coordinate care of individual Medicaid patients, Jindal said he hopes to cut spending by $16 million.

Nor is the governor the only one to incur the wrath of some observers. The same growing feeling of general frustration was also directed at the legislature.

A Baton Rouge retiree offered a proposal which isn’t likely to get many takers. He suggested that whenever cuts are necessary, legislators should be first in line to sacrifice. Bill Fontaine of the Baton Rouge suburb of Central said that would mean that salaries, staff, perks, and any other costs of making the legislature run must be cut proportionate to any cuts to higher education. “….imagine the legislators working for free when there is no budget to pay them…..” he said.

“But you see,” he added, “I’m a pessimist about legislative courage. I don’t think they have the courage to forgo some pay and/or benefits for the good of the people. They are just cowards and greedy grabbers….”

Even the Associated Press is beginning to call attention to Jindal’s growing propensity to speak of Louisiana’s economy in more glowing terms than its citizens back home can see.

Saying that the governor seems more focused on his own political future than on problems back home, AP points out that Jindal conveniently leaves out the bad news about the state’s finances when describing his administration’s accomplishments during appearances in other states.

The latest example of Jindal’s apparent propensity to embellish his image of the state came as recently as Oct. 27 in Wisconsin.

Appearing on behalf of eventual winning gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, Jindal and Governors Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Haley Barbour of Mississippi told Wisconsin voters that their strategies of cutting taxes and shrinking government worked in their states. Their pronouncements prompted Walker to call the three his inspiration when he is asked how he will create jobs and make government smaller. Calling them “great leaders,” Walker said, “They did it and we’re going to do it.”

Jindal boasted that Louisiana’s economy improved when he cut or repealed tax increases passed under his Democratic predecessor Kathleen Blanco, adding that Americans need leaders who can balance budgets, create jobs, and cut taxes. (Actually, the Stelly Plan to which he was apparently alluding, was passed in 2002, the final year of Republican Gov. Mike Foster’s administration.)

The “improved” economy of Louisiana is wrestling with the current budget deficit of $106 million. As if that were not sufficiently severe, next year’s deficit is pegged—by the Jindal administration itself—at $1.6 billion while others project an even bigger budgetary shortfall.

Back home in Louisiana, however, Jindal said it will be necessary for cabinet members and department heads to deliver better value with fewer dollars. “We don’t need whining. We do need leadership,” he said at a Capitol press conference. Then, apparently satisfied to leave the leadership to others, he immediately left for Pittsburgh to attend a fundraiser for the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania.

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J. Ryan Hudson’s search for Piyush continues

Posted in Budget, Campaign Contributions, Governor's Office, Transparency on October 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Political ads normally don’t generate much excitement among voters because for the most part, they are disingenuous at best and packed with blatant lies and half-truths at worst.

But there was a series of ads in Kentucky that can be found by connecting to the links below. In the first two ads, Republican challenger Mitch McConnell attempts to “find” the missing incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Walter Huddleston whom McConnell paints as AWOL on several key votes. Huddleston, it seems, is too busy making speeches to tend to the more mundane matters of Senate votes.

A team of bloodhounds is employed in futile attempts to locate the missing Huddleston in such places as Los Angeles hotels and on the beaches of Puerto Rico, places where Huddleston allegedly received generous speaking fees. That was in 1984 and McConnell defeated Huddleston.

Now fast forward to 2008 and Democrat Bruce Lunsford reprises the bloodhound ads and uses them against McConnell in an unsuccessful bid to unseat the four-term Republican.

Here are the links:

Perhaps this same tactic could be employed to find our own AWOL governor.

LSU student body President J. Ryan Hudson, he of the timely letter to the missing Gov. Jindal, could lead a team of bloodhounds out of the front gates of the university as he calls out, “Piyush, Piyush, where are you? Please come home.”

As a determined Hudson trudges through swamps and across Louisiana’s prairies, he encounters military veterans with recently-awarded medals given them by Jindal, but no Jindal. “He came through here, pinned this medal on me, said something really fast, and disappeared,” the veterans say, shaking their heads and adding, “That boy sure talks fast. Couldn’t understand half of what he said.”

Hudson labors on, going from church to church in north Louisiana only to find over and over that, “Yes, the governor was here. He popped in during our services, passed out some checks, and left.”

The bloodhounds pick up the governor’s scent at helicopter pads located near the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge, but now he’s off to Florida, New Hampshire, New York, Missouri, Georgia, California, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Iowa where he delivers staccato endorsements of fellow Republicans while condemning the federal stimulation money that he accepted anyway and then heads off to another fundraiser in yet another state.

Hudson, realizing the dogs are exhausted and in grave peril of suffering the same fate as the bloodhound in the classic movie “Cool Hand Luke,” finally gives up in the realization that Jindal may have the job he wants, but without a Hurricane Gustav or a major oil spill, he becomes bored rather quickly and must seek other venues to get valuable face time with the television cameras.

Reluctantly, he takes the bloodhounds home and returns to LSU to witness, along with the combined student bodies, administrators, and professors at all of Louisiana’s universities, the dismantling of Louisiana higher education in the interest of transparency. Meanwhile, Piyush can be heard from somewhere far away, as if through the fog of a bad dream, telling us to stop whining.

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DHH gets the word…..by email. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

Posted in Civil Service, Economy, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs on October 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is a copy of an email sent out to all employees of the Department of Health and Hospitals last Friday by DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein:

October 22, 2010

Dear Colleagues:

Every time I write or meet with you, I hope that our discussions are focused on positive ways for us to do our jobs better and more effectively serve our state’s people. Today, we will do that, but we will also be tempered with our budget reality, the challenging economic times faced by our state and nation, and the real impact they will have on the DHH team. Indeed, since I came to Louisiana last month, I have seen the great devotion and passion each of you brings to your work and the value you add to our collective efforts.

Today, Governor Jindal issued an executive order announcing the state’s $106.7 million shortfall from the 2010 fiscal year and directed each of the state’s departments to take a hard look at our operations and find ways to work better, smarter and more efficiently. Our Governor has long been committed to providing the core health care services and programs that our residents need, while providing maximum value for taxpayers. But, today, like so many families in our state, DHH has to live within our means. We are faced with a $20.8 million reduction as part of this shortfall, and we examined our administrative operations as well as programmatic. Further, we have recognized a $50 million funding deficit in Medicaid caused by unfunded increases in utilization.

Facing our challenges head-on, I asked every office to fully review their budget and programs, remembering that our top priority is to protect and improve the public’s health. Starting with administrative staff, including my office, we focused our plan on consolidating functions and streamlining how we work, while considering every source of funding to offer the same services provided today at less cost.

Today, our plan to address this combined $70 million void in our budget includes Medicaid reductions, program consolidations and savings, facility closures or privatization and staff reductions. In Medicaid, a combination of reducing provider reimbursement rates, closing eligibility processing offices, eliminating the CommunityCare program, standardizing limits on emergency room visits for adults, and restructuring certain financing methods are part of our strategy to preserve access and focus funding on programs that truly improve the long-term health of enrollees.

In the Office of the Secretary, we reviewed our core functions and streamlined work flow to reduce our total positions. OAAS and OBH are making better use of federal funding sources, reducing administrative positions and consolidating regional management. OCDD will transition clients from Bayou Supports and Services Center to private providers and other state centers, as well as transition operations of four Leesville group homes to private providers. OPH will achieve savings by consolidating functions and management positions in regional and central offices, and most significantly, redistributing and reconfiguring staffing and services offered by several parish health units across the state.

These reductions, consolidations and reconfigurations of programs and services will lead to a reduction in staff. To alleviate the burden of this transition, a task force led by the assistant secretaries for each program office is working with DHH’s Human Resources Division and the Louisiana Department of Civil Service to ensure impacted employees are provided, whenever possible, opportunities to fill needed vacancies in other offices or departments. In addition, the transition task-force is exploring initiatives to encourage private providers to hire displaced state employees. Further, each office is working closely with every impacted staff member, family, provider and legislator to ensure we are communicating effectively and timely.

I wish the news today was better.

Our state continues to face tremendous financial challenges and will certainly face our greatest challenge yet next year. The responsibility we have to our residents cannot allow us to think and act the same. We must think differently and innovatively.

Soon, we will send you a news release that will fully explain our budget reductions and the impact on our state. If I or a member of my staff can answer questions or provide additional information, please contact us.

Sincerely,
Bruce

Below is the October 22 “General Notice of Impending Layoff” to DHH employees from Undersecretary Jerry Phillips:

In accordance with the requirements of Civil Service Rule 17.12 (s), general notice is hereby given of impending layoffs to be effective no later that January 30, 2011, in the Department of Health and Hospitals. Positions occupied by employees affected by the proposed layoffs are located statewide in all Offices of the Department.

Once the layoff plans have been approved by the Director of Civil Service, they will be made generally available to all employees. Each employee who is directly affected by any layoff will receive two individual notices prior to the effective date of the layoff.

Responsibilities of Employees Affected in a Layoff (Civil Service Rule 17.19):

The responsibility of employees affect in a layoff are listed below. This rule applies to active employees and includes employees who are on leave for any reason, on detail to special duty and on temporary interdepartmental assignment.

a) The employee shall read or otherwise make himself aware of agency-distributed information concerning the layoff.

b) The employee shall supply all informaton required by the agency to determine adjusted state service date in the format and by the deadline set by the agency. Failure to do so will result in the employee’s adjusted service date being set at the date of their most recent hire.

c) If the employee is absent from work, he shall provide to the personnel specified by his agency, correct and current information as required by the agency on how he may be reached at all times.

d) The employee shall respond to a relocation offer in a manner determined by the agency. Failure to do so shall be considered a declinaton of the offer.

e) For purposes of meeting the job qualifications of the relocation offer, an employee must have a grade from Civil Service only in the instance of an employee moving from a sub-professional level job to a professional level job. The employee must have the gradfe before the effective date of the layoff to be eligible for that position. The grade need not be active, it may be expired; however, it must be a grade for the test currently in use and must be verifiable.

f) Once an employee accepts or declines a relocation offer, the decision is final.

More information will be provided by LouisianaVoice as details emerge.

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J. Ryan Hudson and Time magazine had it right

Posted in Budget, Campaign Contributions, Economy, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Public Records, Taxes, Transparency on October 21, 2010| 1 Comment »

J. Ryan Hudson made the most of his 15 minutes.

Just in case you haven’t been paying attention lately, J. Ryan Hudson is the LSU Student Body president who wrote the now-famous op-ed letter to the Keene (New Hampshire) Sentinel in which he opined that Gov. Bobby Jindal “is spending more time in your state than the one he was elected to represent.”

As class sizes at LSU have grown, higher education has undergone $280 million in budget cuts over the past two years and is facing another $290 million in cutbacks, prompting Hudson to write that Jindal should pay more attention to state budget shortfalls than spending time campaigning for Republican candidates in other states.

“On behalf of the students whose hopes for a brighter future will soon be crushed, I beg you to return to Louisiana and fix your state’s serious problems,” Hudson said. “You’ve neglected your constituents long enough.

“You’ll have a much better chance of becoming president if you save, instead of destroy, Louisiana’s universities,” he said, implying that Jindal may have a not-so-secret agenda aimed at seeking higher office.

To be sure, Hudson’s letter was brash, maybe a little rude, and certainly timely.

And, sadly, all too accurate.

Jindal, rather than anchoring himself to the Capitol’s fourth floor office, chooses to globetrot on behalf of Republican candidates most in Louisiana have never heard of while refusing to endorse Republican candidates in Louisiana. One can understand his reluctance to speak out in favor of David Vitter in his Senate race against Charlie Melancon given Vitter’s political baggage, but Secretary of State Jay Dardenne can’t wrangle an endorsement from Jindal even though Dardenne’s TV spots stress his wish to work with Jindal in promoting the governor’s programs.

Even more difficult to comprehend is Jindal’s reluctance to tackle state finances head-on. After all, hasn’t he been telling us over and over that he has the job he wants? If that’s true, then he should stay home and do that job.

Oh, sure, he pays lip service to reducing, or streamlining, state government. But as the state budget turns an ever-darkening shade of red, he stands adamant in his refusal to address a tax increase in the wake of dwindling state revenues.

Tax increases are never pleasant, especially with statewide elections only a year away, but neither is the prospect of a state becoming insolvent. That’s a very real prospect.

And Jindal, along with an out-of-control legislature, must shoulder the blame. The state had money, but the legislature, drunk with one-time revenue, went spend-crazy this year and Jindal wouldn’t—or couldn’t—summon the courage to rein in the insanity with his line item veto power.

Time magazine describes half the states as having joined the federal government “in the fiscal sick ward” as high unemployment and the recession combined with drastically reduced income to deliver a weakened economy that appears at times to be spiraling out of control.

Barely into its new fiscal year, Louisiana is already facing a $100 million deficit, thanks to depressed oil prices and reduced tax revenues, the magazine said. To deal with the crisis, the state has frozen hiring, deferred maintenance on state buildings and canceled $500,000 in new equipment. Legislators, meanwhile, are talking tax increases. “We’ve run out of windfall from Washington,” the state budget director lamented. “We’ve run out of exotic tax measures. Our economy has run out of gas, and in Louisiana, when you run out of gas, you run out of money.”

Sound familiar? The by now all too familiar theme should resonate with anyone who follows Louisiana politics.

But that story actually ran in Time on Nov. 8, 1982—almost exactly 28 ominously prophetic years ago when Ralph Perlman was budget director and Dave Treen was governor. Louisiana has held seven elections and has chosen five new governors since then. The more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same.

Today, nearly three decades after that story, Louisiana is wrestling with a $108 million budget deficit less than four months into the 2011 fiscal year than began on July 1. Even worse, the administration is anticipating a staggering projected shortfall of up to $2 billion next year.

It’s not as if the administration and legislators were not forewarned: Greg Albrecht, the chief economist for the Legislative Fiscal Office, said in May that he didn’t expect state income tax revenue to meet earlier forecasts.

Now, Gov. Bobby Jindal finds himself trying to find a way to cut state budgets yet another 35 percent—when he’s in the state, which is becoming more and more infrequent. Some legislators said they see the present fiscal malaise as a chance to downsize government in lieu of falling back on the usual accounting tricks to balance the budget.

Sen. John Alario, D-Westwego, called the situation “a grand opportunity for us to scale back government.” Alario, the legislator primarily responsible for the often-criticized state’s $22 million purchase of the financially troubled Players Tournament Club golf facility in Marrero, said downsizing “could never be done if you didn’t have to be faced with this situation.”

Jindal, in lieu of raising taxes, seems intent on slashing higher education and health care. Meanwhile, he keeps popping up in Florida, New Hampshire, New York, Missouri, Georgia, California, Ohio, and Minnesota to campaign for GOP candidates.

Legislators say the anticipated budgets will close hospitals for the poor and cripple higher education while college presidents call the proposed cuts “catastrophic.” Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco says a 35 percent cut would effectively shut down government services and that education would undergo a “meltdown to mediocrity.”

Jindal says spending cuts are preferable to higher taxes and that additional privatization may be in store as a means to save the state money.

He missed his chance to cut spending at the end of the last regular legislative session when he could have exercised his line item veto power to bring the Capital Outlay bill more into line. He had the opportunity to veto more than $450 million in Priority One spending but chose to veto only $9.4 million—all in Priority Two, or second year spending. Among the Priority One appropriations in the Capital Outlay Bill that were allowed to stand were:

• $800,000 for land acquisition for the proposed Allen Parish Reservoir;
• $1.4 million for the proposed Bayou Dechene Reservoir in Caldwell Parish;
• $2.6 million for the Washington Parish Reservoir Commission Feasibility study;
• $17.2 million for Bayou Segnette Festival Park land acquisition and sports complex improvements;
• $28 million for modifications to the Performing Arts Center in Jefferson Parish;
• $2 million for construction of a playground Basketball Gym in Orleans Parish;
• $1.8 million for construction of the Little Theatre of Shreveport;
• $2.6 million for a new Westbank YMCA in Algiers;
• $2 million for the New Orleans Music Hall of Fame;
• $6 million for construction of a new courthouse in Baton Rouge;
• $2.8 million for the Dryades YMCA in New Orleans;
• $5.4 million for the Red River Waterway Commission;
• $7.7 million for the renovation of the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette;
• $2.5 million for improvements to the Coteau Water System in St. Martin and Iberia parishes;
• $2.4 million for the Union Parish Law Enforcement District;
• $1.8 million for construction for the Robinson Film Center in Caddo Parish;
• $12 million for construction of a convention center complex in Shreveport;
• $3.8 million for a new tennis center in Orleans Parish;
• $4.7 million for construction of the Louisiana Artist Guild Arts Incubator in New Orleans;
• $26.5 million for expansion and construction of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans;

Millions more were spent on construction projects that included recreational facilities, councils on aging, courthouses, sheriffs’ offices, jails, drainage projects, work on parish and municipal road and street construction projects, community centers, and water systems.

As if that were not enough, when legislators found extra money lying around, as they always seem to do during each legislative session, the House quickly pushed HB 76 through, appropriating an additional $33 million in local pork projects. Some of those expenditures:

• $150,000 for the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame in Winnfield;
• $500,000 for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities;
• $500,000 to “organizations which assist small towns and rural areas with their water and wastewater systems;”
• $250,000 for construction of an animal shelter in St. Charles Parish;
• $1 million to the Lafayette Parish Consolidated Government for infrastructure construction;

Of that $33 million, Jindal vetoed only 32 projects totaling less than $2.5 million.

That’s a sign of a weak governor—one who lacks the singular courage to scale back reckless spending by legislators when the very future of the state depends on it, demands it. As a result, higher education and health care will continue to suffer while golf courses, community centers, baseball parks, sheriffs’ offices, ground water reservoirs, and other local projects will flourish while legislators take the credit and bask in the gratitude of constituents back home.

The name of that 1982 Time magazine article that chronicled economic hard times for state governments?

“Living Beyond Their Means.”

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