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Archive for the ‘Health Care’ Category

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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Did Jindal and Caldwell cut a deal on health care litigation?

Posted in Attorney General, Ethics, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Politicians, Transparency, tagged on September 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

The following story was first reported by Capitol News Service, which is affiliated with this web blog, in June and though vehemently denied by Gov. Jindal’s office, we felt it was worth posting here.

Politics do indeed make strange bedfellows, especially when one of the partners is in denial.

When Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell entered the fray in challenging the recently passed federal health care law, he stood alone as the only Democrat among 14 state attorneys general doing so. The litigation, if successful, could also ultimately cost the state.

It also turns out that Caldwell may have been reluctant to become what he described as the “token Democrat” in the litigation, but was backed into a corner by Gov. Bobby Jindal. Jindal’s press secretary Kyle Plotkin, however, vehemently denied that.

Caldwell and 12 Republican attorneys general joined in the lawsuit filed in Pensacola by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is taking the lead in the litigation filed only minutes after President Barack Obama signed it into law. Virginia’s attorney general, also a Republican, filed a separate suit challenging the constitutionality of the law.

Caldwell initially declined to comment on Louisiana’s participation in the lawsuit, saying that he anticipated a spokesperson would be appointed by the litigation group to address media inquiries. “It would not be appropriate for me to comment in the interim,” he said.

Three days later, however, he did issue a brief statement and his office said, “No other statements will be made.”

“As Attorney General, I am duty bound by my oath of office to pursue a request by the Governor of the state of Louisiana for legal assistance, so long as it has substantial legal merit.”

Democratic attorneys generals in three other states apparently do not feel so duty bound. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, a Democrat, refused Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty’s request to join in the suit. Democratic attorneys general in Georgia and Nevada also have balked at demands by Republican governors of those states to challenge the health care law.

Some legal experts, according to the Associated Press, feel the lawsuit has dim prospects of success because, under the U.S. Constitution, federal laws prevail over state laws.

Caldwell said it was his decision to sign onto what he called Florida’s “well-drafted action” at the least cost to Louisiana in order to accomplish the same objective.

But his decision may not have been as willing as he attempted to make it appear.

In a subsequent address to employees of his office, the Attorney General said the decision was made more out of the necessity of saving jobs in his agency than any real hope—or desire—of overturning the health care law.

Four separate employees said Caldwell, in a candid admission, claimed that a deal was made with Jindal. Under terms of that agreement, the governor would not make additional cuts in the attorney general’s budget if Caldwell joined in the litigation. Caldwell agreed to be the “token Democrat,” they said, so that he might save additional job cuts by an administration whose stated goal is to reduce the number of state employees by as much as 5,000 per year over three years.

A spokesman for the Division of Administration said Jindal could not cut the attorney general’s budget at this late date even if he wanted to because the budget has already been submitted and is “set in stone.”

A side effect of the lawsuit, one source said, could be the jeopardizing of $300 million in Medicaid funding, negotiated by Sen. Mary Landrieu in return for her support of the bill.

Because of the heavy influx of millions of dollars in insurance payments, aid, and money for new construction following Hurricane Katrina, the federal government calculated on paper that state income increased by 40 percent. That resulted in a drastic cut in Medicaid funding, prompting Landrieu to do some 11th-hour horse-trading to restore the lost funding to the state.

The $300 million recovery, however, would be offset by the costs of the health care bill, according to Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine. Levine said the bill, because it was passed as an unfunded mandate, would mean a minimum additional cost to Louisiana of about $350 million per year to implement. “Unfunded mandates have been successfully challenged in court before,” Caldwell said in his written statement.

“As Attorney General I will not engage in political opportunism or partisan politics nor file any claim that does not have substantial legal merit,” he said.

Both Caldwell and Jindal were unavailable for comment on the reports of the agreement to spare Caldwell’s office further budget cuts in exchange for joining the lawsuit.

Plotkin demanded to know the source of the information but was told only that the information came from within the attorney general’s office and was corroborated by no fewer than four employees of Caldwell’s office.

“Your story (first published earlier this week in the Eunice News) is preposterous,” Plotkin told a reporter. “Moreover, you said you tried to call the governor and he and the attorney general were unavailable for comment. We have no record of any inquiry made to the governor’s office.”

The initial report, however, never said the governor’s office was called since at the time the story was being filed late last Thursday, Jindal was in Winnsboro. An attempt was made to call Caldwell but because it was the day before Good Friday, Jindal had sent his employees home early and closed the attorney general’s offices.

Plotkin then demanded that the reporter add a sentence to the initial story “saying that you never called the governor’s office.” The reporter refused, saying it was never claimed that the governor’s office was called so there was no reason to correct an error that was never made.

Plotkin, when asked for the governor’s version of what happened, insisted that Caldwell joined the suit “on his own volition.”

“You’ve caused a lot of problems for this office,” he said. “This story has been all over the internet and national television. Why don’t you call the attorney general and let him tell you what happened?” He was told that no fewer than four employees of the attorney general’s office had already related details of Caldwell’s address to his employees.

Plotkin, who had first contacted the reporter by email, was asked to reduce Jindal’s version of events to writing and to submit them to the reporter via email “so there would be no chance of any misunderstanding.”

Plotkin refused, suggesting again that the reporter call Caldwell.

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Here’s how we got where we are

Posted in Budget, Civil Service, Economy, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Taxes, Transparency on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

            The 2010 regular legislative session stumbled to a finish this week with the usual bickering over budget cuts for education and public health and appropriations for legislators’ home districts. Only this year the cuts were deeper in an effort to offset as much as $300 million in deficits which caused the local pork projects to be even more questionable.

            Even as state property was being sold off, agencies privatized, education and health care budgets slashed, and merit increases for state classified employees frozen (because the raises would cost the state $20 million), lawmakers managed to tack on $33 million in amendments to HB-76 to fund pet projects in their districts.

Otherwise known as the ancillary fund, or the Supplemental Appropriations Bill, HB-76 passed both houses without a negative vote, passing 88-0 in the House with 15 absentees, and 37-0 in the Senate with two members not present.

            Those not voting included Reps. James Armes (D-Leesville), Gordon Dove (R-Houma), Noble Ellington (D-Winnsboro), Rickey Hardy (D-Lafayette), Lowell Hazel (R-Pineville), Nita Hutter (R-Chalmette), Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), John LaBruzzo (R-Metairie), Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), Nick Monica (R-LaPlace), Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell), Erich Ponti (R-Baton Rouge), Gary Smith (D-Norco), Ricky Templet (R-Gretna), and Ernest Wooton (R-Belle Chasse), and Sens. Daniel Martiny (R-Baton Rouge), and Joe McPherson (D-Baton Rouge).

            HB-76, with the $33 million in amendments, includes but is not limited to the following appropriations:

  • Nearly $1.5 million on 50 parish councils on aging;
  • More than $3.75 million for municipalities and parishes for unspecific purposes;
  • Eddie Robinson Museum in Grambling ($20,000);
  • Festival and cultural activities ($40,000);
  • Louisiana Council on the Social Status of Black Boys and Men ($100,000);
  • Greenwell Springs Road Economic Development District ($100,000);
  • Louisiana Political Hall of Fame and Museum in Winnfield ($150,000);
  • Arts Program for decentralized arts ($750,000);
  • Jefferson Performing Arts Society ($210,000);
  • Jefferson Parish Human Services Authority ($255,000);
  • Livingston Parish for economic development studies for a parish airport ($25,000);
  • Vernon Parish Police Jury for fairground cattle fences ($20,000);
  • Tioga High School in Rapides Parish ($20,000);
  • Ouachita Parish for rehabilitation of J.S. Clark Cemetery ($30,000);
  • Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans ($100,000);
  • Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, Foster Grandparents program ($40,000);
  • East New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Commission ($70,000);
  • Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department’s Cops and Clergy Program ($25,000);
  • Tipitina’s Foundation in New Orleans ($10,000);
  • Construction of an animal shelter in St. Charles Parish ($250,000);
  • Animal shelter operations, St. Charles Parish ($50,000);
  • Construction of an emergency operations center in St. Charles Parish ($100,000);
  • St. Charles Parish Hospital for emergency room equipment ($175,000);
  • Gretna Fest ($200,000);
  • Heritage Festival in Gretna ($10,000);
  • Baton Rouge park improvements ($100,000);
  • Terrebonne Parish regional military museum ($20,000);
  • Farmers’ and Fishermens’ Market in Westwego ($100,000);
  • Westwego Performing Arts Center ($250,000);
  • Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum ($5,000);
  • New Orleans for workforce development, cultural, and enrichment programs ($300,000);
  • Renovation of high school gym in Marksville into a community center ($200,000);
  • New Orleans recreational and cultural activities ($75,000);
  • Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans ($25,000);
  • Louisiana Center Against Poverty, Lake Providence ($150,000);
  • City of Alexandria for health care related to sickle cell anemia ($35,000);
  • North Iberville Community Center ($50,000);
  • DeRidder Area Ministerial Alliance for God’s Food Box ($15,000);
  • Doyle High School in Livingston for band equipment ($10,000);

            The appropriations for municipalities and parishes, for the most part, were approved with little or no explanation or justification other than for “infrastructure improvements.”

            Other appropriations amended into HB-76 by legislators were for police and sheriff’s departments, local fire departments, voluntary fire departments, parks, libraries, water and sewer systems, airports, parks, road repair and construction, and non-profit entities.

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We don’t need no stinking discipline

Posted in Budget, Campaign Contributions, Civil Service, Economy, Education, Ethics, Golf Courses, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Jobs, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Politicians, Transparency on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

            If the recently-concluded legislative session proved anything, it’s that lawmakers have little or no self-discipline when it comes to budgetary restraint in the face of overwhelming revenue shortfalls.

            Even as higher education was groping with ways to survive up to $310 million in cuts, legislators went on their annual spending binge. As if the $4.55 billion capital outlay budget crammed with local pork were not enough, legislators raided more than $140 million from the state emergency response fund, earmarking an additional $33 million for even more local projects in the ancillary budget, also identified as HB-76.

            The cuts to the Department of Health and Hospitals and higher education seemed not to matter a whit to some lawmakers. Rep. James Fannin (D-Jonesboro), defending the HB-76 pork, sniffed, “I don’t have an LSU in my district,” apparently forgetting for the moment that he most likely has quite a few constituents enrolled at LSU as well as LSU-Shreveport, Southern University-Shreveport, Northwestern State University, Louisiana Tech University, Grambling State University, or the University of Louisiana Monroe, all within an hour’s drive from his district.

            Not that LSU helped itself in the fiscal doom and gloom dialogue.

            Even as LSU System President John Lombardi was busy identifying $46 million in potential budget cuts, the LSU Board of Supervisors approved pay increases for two associate athletic directors. While faculty and support staff layoffs were being considered across campus, Senior Associate Athletic Director Verge Ausberry was awarded a 27 percent raise from $130,000 to $165,000. Fellow Senior Associate AD Mark Ewing, meanwhile, got a pay bump of 11 percent, from $155,000 to $172,000.

            Nor did Gov. Bobby Jindal attempt to stare down lawmakers, possibly out of concern of pushing the legislature into holding the first-ever veto session. He managed to veto 32 projects in HB-76 totaling only $2 million, leaving $31 million intact, and only eight projects totaling $20.1 million of the capital outlay bill (HB-2), trimming those expenditures all the way to $4.35 billion.

            For a year or more now, the media have trumpeted impending fiscal disaster as revenue shortfalls devastated agency budgets across the board. Yet lawmakers, seemingly oblivious to it all, continued to plow local projects into a budget already strained to the breaking point. If any of the 144 legislators were worried, no one appeared to exhibit concern. So eager to bring money back home were legislators that a $100,000 appropriation for Centenary College in Shreveport, a private Methodist school, was approved.

            Among the projects legislators poured into the Supplemental Appropriations Bill (HB-76) and the Capital Outlay Bill (HB-2) were:

  • Nearly $1.5 million on 50 parish councils on aging;
  • More than $29 million for municipalities and parishes for unspecified purposes;
  • $43.7 million in arts programs statewide;
  • $600,000 for an animal shelters in St. Charles and Livingston parishes;
  • $6.9 million for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches;
  • $18.7 million for professional sports facilities in Jefferson and Orleans parishes;
  • $12.7 million for golf complex facilities in Orleans and Calcasieu parishes;
  • $9.37 million in ground water reservoirs;
  • $7.5 million in local sewer system projects;
  • $19.9 million in local courthouse construction projects;
  • $17.1 million for Bayou Segnette Festival Park and Sports Complex improvements;
  • $18.5 million for recreational improvements in Jefferson, Vernon, Tangipahoa, Orleans, East Baton Rouge, and Iberia parishes;
  • $3.8 million for an activity center in Morehouse Parish;
  • $3.5 million for land acquisition in St. James Parish;
  • $4.6 million for renovations to the Baton Rouge River Center;
  • $1.4 million for baseball stadium improvements in Baton Rouge;
  • $1.17 million for renovations to the Zephyrs baseball facilities in Jefferson Parish;
  • $3.5 million for museums throughout the state;
  • $2 million for a farmers and fisheries market in Jefferson Parish;
  • $11 million for the Audubon 2000 renovations;
  • $3.8 million for tennis center improvements at New Orleans City Park;
  • $26.5 million for the National World War II Museum;
  • $400,000 for a bike trail in Orleans Parish;
  • $1.7 million for the Little Theatre of Shreveport;
  • $1.1 million for the Louisiana Military Hall of Fame & Museum in Houma;
  • $1.8 million for a multi-purpose vocational center and shelter in Tangipahoa Parish;
  • $2.6 million for the Algiers Development District;
  • $2 million for the New Orleans Music Hall of Fame;
  • $2.4 million for YMCA facilities in Orleans and East Baton Rouge parishes;
  • $2.3 million for multi-purpose facilities in Franklin and East Baton Rouge parishes;
  • $5.4 million for the Forts Randolph and Buhlow Historic Site;

            Several million in additional funding was approved for local fire districts, police departments, municipal buildings, and sheriffs’ offices, bringing the cost of local pork projects to more than half-a-billion dollars, easily surpassing the $310 million in budget reductions to higher education.

            In the wake of such a bleak financial future currently being faced by the state, the obvious question is who would vote for such reckless spending? Try 86 of 105 House members and 35 of 39 Senators on HB-2. On HB-76 (the Supplemental Spending Bill), the count was 88 House members in favor and 37 Senators. In fact, it would be easier to name those who voted against the bills. Those figures are seven nays in the house for HB-2 and zero in the Senate. Zero was also the number of votes against HB-76 in both chambers though there were some notable absentees.

            House members voting against HB-2 were Jerry Gisclair of LaRose, Juan LaFonta of New Orleans, Rogers Pope of Denham Springs, Clifton Richardson of Baton Rouge, John Schroder of Abita Springs, M.S. “Mert” Smiley of Port Vincent, Mack “Bodi” White of Denham Springs.

            Absent House members or those not voting included Elton Aubert of Vacherie, Jared Brossett of New Orleans, Timothy Burns of Mandeville, Billy Chandler of Dry Prong, Gordon Dove of Houma, James Fannin of Jonesboro, A.B. Franklin of Lake Charles, John LaBruzzo of Metairie, Joseph Lopinto of Metairie, Rickey Nowlin of Natchitoches, Joel Robideaux of Lafayette and Karen St. Germain of Plaquemine.

            Senate members who apparently were too busy to vote on the second biggest spending bill on the final day of the session included Jack Donahue of Mandeville, Dale Erdy of Livingston, Robert Kostelka of Monroe and Jean-Paul Morrell of New Orleans.

            House absentees on the vote on HB-76 were James Armes of Leesville, Dove, Noble Ellington of Winnsboro, Rickey Hardy of Lafayette, Lowell Hazel of Pineville, Nita Rusich Hutter of Chalmette, Charles “Chuck” Kleckley of Lake Charles, LaBruzzo, H. Bernard LeBas of Ville Platte, Nickie Monica of LaPlace, J. Kevin Pearson of Slidell, Erich Ponti of Baton Rouge, Gary Smith of Norco, Ricky Templet of Gretna, and Ernest Wooton of Belle Chasse.

            Only two senators did not vote up or down on HB-76. They were Daniel Martiny of Metairie and Joe McPherson of Woodworth.

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Who needs emergency funds when we got pork?

Posted in Budget, Golf Courses, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Politicians, Revenue, Transparency on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

            After all the hoopla in the State Capitol over legislators’ piling spending projects into HB-76, Gov. Bobby Jindal ended up vetoing only 32 of those projects, according to the eight-page veto message released by the governor’s office. That represents only 7.3 percent of the 438 individual spending projects.

            Legislators went on their annual spending spree, pouring $33 million in appropriations for local projects that included museums, sidewalks, water and sewer systems, automobile purchases, fire districts, recreational facilities, and even maintenance for a privately-owned cemetery. Jindal, who has consistently advocated restraint in reckless spending, however, could bring himself to slash only $1.8 million, or 5.5 percent, from the bill.

            Several legislators complained that Jindal was being vindictive in cutting expenditures in the districts of legislators who opposed parts of his legislative agenda this year, including an effort to open records in the governor’s office to public scrutiny. The governor’s vetoes, however, were no different than in other years with other governors. Some, however, felt the cuts could—and should—have been even deeper given the state’s dire economic forecasts.

            Appropriations that survived Jindal’s veto pen that may seem questionable included:

  • $150,000 for the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame and Museum in Winnfield;
  • $25,000 for economic development studies for an airport for Livingston Parish (the northern part of Livingston is only about 10 miles from Baton Rouge’s Ryan Airport);
  • $20,000 for fairground cattle fences in Vernon Parish;
  • $30,000 for rehabilitation of the privately owned J.S. Clark Cemetery in Ouachita Parish;
  • $250,000 for construction of an animal shelter in St. Charles Parish;
  • $250,000 to the city of Westwego for the Performing Arts Center;
  • $200,000 for Phase I of converting a high school gym to a community center in Marksville.

Jindal’s vetoes included the following projects:

  • $20,000 for the Eddie Robinson Museum in Grambling;
  • $75,000 for the Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Forest Hill;
  • $100,000 for the Louisiana Council on the Social Status of Black Boys and Men in New Orleans;
  • $40,000 for a grants program for festivals and cultural activities;
  • $50,000 for Kent House Historical Site;
  • $50,000 for Kent Plantation House;
  • $21,560 to add a left turn lane on Sharp Road in Baton Rouge;
  • $100,000 for the purchase of 1,461 beds at Winn Correctional Center;
  • $100,000 for the purchase of 1,461 beds at Allen Correctional Center
  • $75,000 for a nurse and a substance abuse counselor at J. Levy Dabadie Correctional Center;
  • $20,000 for the Rapides Children’s Advocacy Center;
  • $50,000 for repairs to the Lake End Park and Swamp Gardens in Morgan City;
  • $15,000 for the East Baton Rouge Parish School system;
  • $50,000 to install air filling equipment at a fire station in Algiers;
  • $10,000 each to the towns of Homer and Haynesville;
  • $300,000 to fund the Algiers Development District;
  • $45,000 for the Terrytown Volunteer Fire Department;
  • $300,000 for the City of New Orleans Westbank Redevelopment;
  • $82,000 for the City of Baton Rouge;
  • $6,000 for the Odyssey House of Louisiana, Inc. in New Orleans;
  • $50,000 for Camp Minden;
  • $30,000 for the City of Springhill for a portable generator;
  • $20,000 for street and water equipment for the Town of Cullen;
  • $20,000 to purchase a police car for the Town of Sarepta;
  • $15,000 each for Main Street Programs for the towns of Minden and Springhill;
  • $45,000 for infrastructure improvements for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office;
  • $50,000 for cultural programs for the City of Alexandria;
  • $35,000 for sickle cell health care services for the City of Alexandria;
  • $7,500 for Kingsley House in LaPlace;
  • $25,000 for a walking track for the City of Cankton.

 

So, as the state continues down the slippery slope toward next year’s deficit projected to be $2 billion or $3 billion by this time next year, the legislature continues to earmark money already in short supply to fund charities, municipalities and parishes and other non-governmental organizations.

            The casual observer might wonder why lawmakers continue to spend like a drunken sailor while others could point out the difference is that a drunken sailor quits spending when he runs out of money.

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