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A report π-yush probably won’t post on the state’s web site: Louisiana is 10th worst-run state in the nation. Who knew?

Posted in Economy, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Prison on November 27, 2012| 4 Comments »

Piyush Jindal loves to regurgitate reports that tell of Louisiana’s wonderful business climate (with all but non-existent corporate taxes, cheap labor and a glut of laid-off state employees looking for work, why would the climate not be pro-business?) but here’s a report we aren’t likely to hear him say much about or post on the state web page as is his custom when the reports are favorable.

Louisiana has the 10th worst-run state government in the nation, according to a study just released by 24/7 Wall Street, an independent research company.

While acknowledging that measuring the successful management of a state is difficult, 24/7, which each year conducts an extensive survey of all 50 states, considered data from a number of sources. These included Standard & Poor’s, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Tax Foundation, Realty Trac, the FBI, and the National Conference of State Legislators.

Once all the data were extrapolated, each state was ranked on the basis of its performance in all categories, the study’s methodology report said.

“A state with abundant natural resources should have an easier time balancing its budget than one starved for resources,” the study said. “Despite this, it is the responsibility of each state to deal with the resources at its disposal. Each government must anticipate economic shifts and diversify its industries and attract new business.”

Those are particularly damning observations insofar as Louisiana’s ongoing fiscal crisis is concerned. Massive budget cuts have gutted the operations of many state agencies. Higher education, for example, once received two-thirds of its budget from state appropriations and the rest from tuition. That is completely reversed today as tuition increases of some 40 percent over the past several years coupled with budgetary cuts now has tuition providing two-thirds of all revenue for higher ed.

Another general criticism of poorly-run states that well may have been addressed specifically to Louisiana and the Piyush administration said, “A state should be able to raise enough revenue to ensure the safety of its citizens and minimize hardship without spending more than it can prudently afford. Some states have historically done this much better than others,” it said.

Piyush has steadfastly refused to consider any efforts to raise additional revenue, including tax increases. Instead, he has consistently pushed for more liberal tax incentives for businesses, a policy that has cost the state up to $5 billion per year, according to official estimates.

The 24/7 report cites North Dakota as the best-run state in the nation, the first time it has received that distinction. As of August of this year, North Dakota was the second-largest oil producer in the nation because of the use of hydraulic fracturing in the state Bakken shale formation.

The oil and gas boom brought jobs to the state, whose 3.5 percent unemployment rate was the country’s lowest in 2011.

North Dakota and Montana (the 18th best-run) were the only states that have not reported budget shortfalls since fiscal 2009.

Louisiana, on the other hand, earned its 10th worst-managed state on the basis of having:

• The 26th largest budget deficit (14.3 percent);

• The seventh lowest median household income ($41,734);

• The third highest percentage of its citizens living below the poverty line (20.4 percent);

• The 10th smallest proportion of its budget dedicated to social welfare due in large part to a lack of tax revenue (and this was before the latest round of budget cuts, including Medicaid);

• One of the highest violent crime rates in the nation (New Orleans had the highest murder rate in 2011);

• The 20th highest debt per capita.

Louisiana’s ranking as the 10th worst-run state puts it just ahead of Mississippi, the 11th worst, the report indicates. Mississippi had the lowest median household income ($36,919) in the nation, the country’s highest percentage of people living below the poverty line (22.6 percent), and the country’s fourth highest unemployment rate (10.7 percent).

California, with the second highest unemployment rate (11.7 percent) ranked as the worst-run state in the nation despite having the 10th highest median household income ($52,287.

Following are the 10 best-run states and some of the factors that got them their high rankings, according to 24/7:

1. North Dakota (lowest unemployment rate);

2. Wyoming (sixth lowest percentage of families living below poverty line);

3. Nebraska (second lowest in both unemployment and per capita debt);

4. Utah (11th lowest unemployment rate, tied for 17th lowest percentage living below poverty line);

5. Iowa (7th lowest per capita debt, 6th lowest unemployment rate);

6. Alaska (second highest median household income, 4th lowest percentage living below poverty line);

7. South Dakota (3rd lowest unemployment rate);

8. Vermont (5th lowest unemployment rate, 7th lowest percentage living below poverty line);

9. Virginia (7th highest in median household income, 7th lowest percentage living in poverty);

10. Minnesota (13th lowest per capita debt, 11th highest median household income, 10th lowest percentage living in poverty);

….and here are the 10 worst-run states, along with some of the reasons for their less than desirable standings:

41. Louisiana (20th highest per capita debt, 7th lowest median household income) 3rd highest percentage living in poverty);

42. Florida (tied for 6th highest unemployment rate);

43. South Carolina (8th highest unemployment rate, 9th lowest median household income, 9th highest percentage living in poverty);

44. New Mexico (8th lowest median household income, 2nd highest percentage living in poverty);

45. Nevada (largest budget deficit in nation, highest unemployment rate in nation);

46. New Jersey (5th highest per capita debt, 4th highest budget deficit, 13th highest unemployment rate);

47. Arizona (3rd largest budget deficit, 13th highest unemployment rate, 8th highest percentage in poverty);

48. Illinois (11th highest per capita debt, 2nd largest budget deficit, 10th highest unemployment rate);

49. Rhode Island (3rd highest debt per capita, 3rd highest unemployment rate);

50. California (2nd highest unemployment rate, 18th highest percentage living in poverty).

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A message to national media: please leave our governor alone; he already has the job he wants, so let him do it!

Posted in Budget, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Judges, LSU, Prison, Privatization on November 18, 2012| 13 Comments »

This may come under the heading of beating a dead horse, but if Piyush Jindal, henceforth known as the Brahman Brutus of the Republican Party, truly has the job he wants as he has repeated ad nauseum, then why the hell doesn’t he stay in Baton Rouge and do the job he was twice elected to do?

If Piyush will satisfactorily address this one question, then we promise to leave him alone.

Lest anyone think we’re sticking our neck out by offering to lay off this pathetic excuse for a governor, fear not: there’s no way on earth he can reconcile his job to his constantly trotting off in every direction on the compass to address national issues and the problems of the Republican Party.

There’s just no way he can square up the two diametrically opposed activities.

To the remaining Piyush loyalists (and the numbers, believe it or not, are shrinking, Jeff Sadow notwithstanding), ask yourselves one question;

If Piyush truly has his sights set on being governor of Louisiana for the next three-plus years, why do you think he ignores state media and only gives interviews to national media like Fox News, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Politico and The Huffington Post?

Again, why does he refuse all state media requests for interviews?

• Do you really think the New York Times gives a flying fig about Louisiana’s projected $1 billion budgetary shortfall projected for next fiscal year?

• Do you cling to the faintest notion that CNN worries about the fate of Louisiana’s poor who are facing the loss of medical care because of the closure of state hospitals?

• Do you entertain any shred of belief that the Washington Post is even remotely concerned about that expanding sinkhole in Assumption Parish that swallows up more land each day while threatening the area with potentially explosive gases?

• Do you feel that Politico even knows about the incredibly senseless loss of about $5 billion a year in state revenues because of ill-advised tax breaks, exemptions and credits given to corporations who provide pitifully few jobs to Louisiana residents?

• And why do you think The Huffington Post should be concerned about 1,000 state employees who have been kicked to the curb by this administration (with still more to follow with the completed privatization of the Office of Group Benefits, the anticipated attempt again to sell or, in the alternative, close state prisons?

• Do you actually expect Fox News to investigate the appointment of former legislators to six-figure state jobs to beef up their retirement—jobs for which they are plainly unqualified or to ask probing questions about the awarding of the glut of six-figure salaried jobs in the Department of Education (DOE) to people who are allowed to work part time and to work from their homes in such places as Los Angeles and Tallahassee, Florida? Or to inquire into the hiring by DOE of a former Kansas City school official who left that system under a cloud after the awarding of a $37 million contract to an insider who had worked as a consultant on the project?

In the most recent spate of interviews, Piyush the Pontificator has been quite generous in his criticism of the Republican Party in general and Mitt Romney in particular after having campaigned for Romney with all due enthusiasm during the recent presidential campaign.

So, just where was he with all his sage wisdom during the campaign itself?

You see, you Piyush proponents, he was, as he has consistently been with most issues he has confronted, blindly naïve in foresight an 20/20 vision in hindsight. But he recovers so nicely that he thinks he never leaves a trace of his rumbling, bumbling, stumbling agenda.

Perhaps Bob Mann said it best in his recent post on his web blog Something Like the Truth http://bobmannblog.com/ when he compared Jindal to a passenger on the Titanic who, seeing the iceberg, conveniently ignored the danger but later was critical of the ship’s captain for his performance at the helm.

But let’s examine the record.

The only part of Piyush’s sweeping state employee retirement program reform package that passed during this year’s legislative session was the so-called “cash balance” plan where by new hires would come in after July 1, 2013 under a 401 (k)-type pension program.

Unclear—because the Piyush administration, in its headlong rush to reform, neglected to obtain a ruling on the IRS and Social Security status of the cash balance plan.

An adverse decision could force state employees—and the state—to contribute to both Social Security and Medicare, which would add to state employee and state costs.

The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) board voted last week to ask the legislature to delay the July 1 start of the new program because the administration has yet to request a clarification of the IRS and Social Security status.

State employees do not pay into Social Security and thus, unless they have sufficient quarters in the private sector, do not currently qualify for Social Security benefits or Medicare.

The IRS determination period does not begin until February, according to Maris LeBlanc, deputy director of LASERS. It is not clear how long it will take to obtain a determination and LeBlanc said to her knowledge, the Social Security equivalency letter, which is required from the administration, has not been submitted.

Division of Administration (DOA) spokesman Michael DiResto said DOA would submit the letter regarding that status to federal officials this week.

The Louisiana Retired State Employees Association (LRSEA) has filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation was approved without the legally-required two-thirds vote because there was a cost involved in implementing the new program.

House Speaker Chuck “the Genuflecting Gelding” Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), predictably parroting the Piyush position, maintains there was no extra cost in the implementation and that a simple majority vote was sufficient.

The legislature’s own actuary, however, differs with Kleckley and Piyush, making the determination that there was a cost.

So, who do you believe: the one who is paid to evaluate the cost of legislation or the one who desperately wants to cling to his political appointment as House Speaker?

Meanwhile, you can look for Piyush on any major network news program—because he has the job he loves.

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Let’s ask our state leaders: What were you thinking? Have you thought your actions through to a logical conclusion?

Posted in BESE, Boards, Civil Service, Commissions, Contract, Contracts, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Higher Education, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Privatization, Public Records on October 27, 2012| 17 Comments »

Whenever I see a story about some stupid criminal I find myself wishing I could be alone in a room with the poor sap just so I could ask him three questions:

• What was your thought process?

• Did you think this through to its logical conclusion?

• Did you ever, at any point in time, think this would end well for you?

That’s all. Just those three questions.

Until now, I had always limited this wish to stupid criminals:

• Like the guy who pulls up at the drive-through window of a bank and slips a note in it saying “This is a holdup.” The teller, pulls the drawer in, reads the note, flips it over and writes on the back, “I don’t see a gun,” and sends note back to the guy who obligingly puts his gun in the drawer and sends it in to the teller;

• Like the guy who writes his holdup note on any piece of paper with his name and address on it or who is wearing a work uniform with his name tag fully visible;

• Like the guy who tries to outrun police on the interstate;

• Like any idiot who tries to resist a half-dozen police officers;

You get the picture.

But now I have expanded my sentiments to wishing I could pose the same question to some of our bumbling state politicians—particularly our self-promoting, egocentric, ambitious, absentee governor who insists—with a straight face, no less—that he has the job he wants even as he ignores a multitude of problems at home while auditioning for any job that will promote his shameless career goals.

But there are others:

• Any legislator (like Noble Ellington or Jane Smith) who runs for office on the promise of looking out for the folks back home but then accepts a six-figure salary in some department for which he or she has zero qualifications. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Louisiana Workforce Commission Executive Director Curt Eysink) who sends out an email saying there will be no merit raises for employees because of budgetary constraints while almost simultaneously approving a 41 percent increase for a single employee. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein) who would attempt to withhold the name of the winner of a $300 million contract with DHH from a legislative committee charged with confirming his appointment as secretary. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle) who would resign in the middle of a major crisis involving a potentially toxic sinkhole in order to selfishly run for a public office that he thinks will set him up for a run for governor in 2015? What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Alcohol and Tobacco Control Office Commissioner Troy Hebert) who would send a uniformed agent to inspect bars where she had recently worked undercover and purchased drugs from dealers. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Superintendent of Education John White) who, on the night before he was to testify before a legislative committee about the New Living Word school in Ruston, sent emails to the governor’s office that he would try to “take some air out of the room” and to “muddy up” the narrative over the his approval of 315 vouchers for the school that had no classrooms, no desks and no teachers. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like White) who, within a matter of a few weeks, would hire a $144,000 part-time public relations officer from Florida and a consultant from Los Angeles to serve as a shill for the Department of Education’s (DOE) computer Course Content at a salary of $146,000—both of whom are allowed to commute and/or work from their homes. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head who, while giving no merit increases for three years and while even laying off rank and file employees, continues to give healthy salary increases to employees already earning in excess of $100,000 per year. What were you thinking?

• Any legislator who sees nothing wrong with private Christian schools receiving vouchers but who goes ballistic when it is learned that an Islamic school applied for vouchers under the same program. What were you thinking?

• Any governor who, while busy traveling all over the country promoting his aspirations for a cabinet position should Mitt Romney be elected president, approves closures of and budgetary cutbacks for state hospitals where cutbacks and closures result in the loss of treatment availability for indigent citizens. What were you thinking?

• Any governor who, while spewing outright lies in his many out-of-state visits about how he has the most ethical, most transparent and accountable administration in the country, continues to hide his office behind a veil of secrecy, refusing to provide public records or to grant media interviews. What were you thinking?

• Any inaccessible, unreachable, unavailable, unaccountable governor who, in an attempt to further shroud public agencies from having to answer directly to Louisiana citizens, attempts to force disputes with state agencies to be handled via telephone hearings instead of face-to-face hearings. What were you thinking?

• Any legislator who allows this governor and these bureaucrats to snub their collective noses at the citizens of this state with their arrogant actions and their attitude of defiance and mockery.

• Any citizen of Louisiana who would rather watch Dancing with the Stars than hold these sorry excuses for public servants accountable.

What the hell are any of you thinking?

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100 pay increases approved for state’s top earners following Gov. π-yush 2010 pay freeze order; hiring freeze also ignored

Posted in Attorney General, Budget, Civil Service, Commissions, Economy, Education, Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Jobs, LSU, ORM, Office of Risk Management, Public Records, RSD, State Agencies, Transparency on October 22, 2012| 10 Comments »

Editor’s note: The information contained in this story was received via printouts from the Louisiana Department of Civil Service of those earning $100,000 or more for the years 2009 through 2012. Each year was listed separately. Accordingly, when the name of Patti Gonzalez of the Office of Risk Management did not appear until the 2012 printout, the indication was she had received a pay increase. This was not the case and there was no explanation as to why she did not appear in prior years but Ms. Gonzalez says she has not received an increase since March of 2010.

Likewise, no state elected officials received pay increases as their salaries are set in statute. Civil Service printouts did indicate pay increases for all but two statewide elected officials but this apparently was in error.

Rank and file state civil service employees have gone without pay increases, merit or otherwise, since 2009 but at least 104 managers, directors, supervisors and five statewide elected officials already making in excess of $100,000 a year have received increases over the past three years.

Not included in the tabulation were doctors, nurses, pharmacists, higher education professors or, with one exception, those who were promoted from one job to another and got raises.

Altogether, more than 3,200 state employees earning more than $100,000 per year accounted for an annual payroll of approximately $432 million—an average of about $135,000 each.

The average pay of a state civil service employee is approximately $39,600.

In most cases—but not all—the pay increases were 4 percent increases. A 4 percent increase for one making $100,000 would be $4,000. That would fund four such increases for workers earning only $25,000 a year.

There were those, however, who did better. Much better.

Michael Diresto went from $103,792 in 2011 to $118,792 this year, a $15,000 (14.5 percent) bump. He was listed by the Department of Civil Service as a “director” in the Division of Administration (DOA) for both years. On the DOA web page, he is identified as an assistant commissioner for policy and communications.

Bruce Unangst, executive director of the Real Estate Commission, also saw his annual salary balloon from $109,000 in 2011 to $125,000 this year, a 14.7 percent increase.

In the governor’s office itself, Executive Counsel Elizabeth Murrill did extremely well for herself. Her 2011 salary of $110,000 grew to $165,000 this year—before her transfer to DOA where presumably, it will remain the same. Her one-year pay hike was a whopping 50 percent, according to Civil Service records.

In the Department of Insurance, 14 employees earning $100,000 or more received 4 percent increases from 2011 to 2012 while four others, including an attorney supervisor, did not. Insurance Commissioner James Donelon this year also hired former state legislator Noble Ellington, who had no experience in insurance, as deputy commissioner at a salary of $149,900.

Five of 14 employees of the Port of New Orleans Port Commission who earn $100,000 or more were awarded pay raises ranging from 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

At the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), several employees received pay increases from 2011 to 2012 despite the pay freeze. They included Executive Director Robert Marier, who went from $196,102 to $205,899 (5 percent); Associate Director Cecilia Mouton, from $185,640 to $194m916 (5.1 percent); Executive Director John Liggio, from $119,044 to $125,068 (5 percent), and Executive Director Lisa Schilling, from $107,702 to $134,638 (25 percent).

None of the four changed job classifications, according to the Civil Service report. One who did change classifications got a 14.8 percent increase, a lower percentage than Schilling. Courtney Phillips was promoted from a Medicaid Program Manager 4 at $102,814 per year to Chief of Staff at $118,019.

One other executive director, six DHH attorneys, a deputy director, a deputy secretary, a budget administrator, an economist and a program director received no salary increases from 2011 to 2012.

Debra Schum, listed as an executive officer in the Department of Education (DOE), got a 20 percent pay raise, from $110,000 in 2011 to $132,000 this year while Kerry Lester, also an executive officer with DOE, got a $5,000 increase, from $150,000 to $155,000 during the same time frame.

But what is particularly interesting about the DOE payroll is the seemingly inordinate number of new hires of people at six-figure salaries, especially in the Recovery School District.

State Superintendent of Education John White has brought in no fewer than 10 new employees at salaries in excess of $100,000 this year alone—and that’s not even counting Deirdre Finn, a part time contract employee who will be paid $144,000 a year to work as communications manager for the department—from her home in Florida.

The idea of hiring a commuting employee, apparently borrowed from DHH and Carol Steckel, who is being paid $148,500 a year as a “confidential assistant” to DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein to commute back and forth from her home in Alabama, seems to be catching on.

David “Lefty” Lefkowith is being paid $146,000 to commute back and forth from Los Angeles to work at DOE as a “director,” according to Civil Service records. He describes himself in a DOE video, however, as a “deputy superintendent.”

Other new, six-figure employees added by DOE this year include:

• Gary Jones, Executive Officer, $145,000;

• Melissa Stilley, Liaison Officer, $135,000;

• Michael Rounds, Deputy Superintendent, $170,000;

• Hannah Dietsch, Assistant Superintendent, $130,000;

• Francis Touchet, Liaison Officer, $130,000;

• Stephen Osborn, Assistant Superintendent, $125,000;

• Sandy Michelet, Executive Director, $120,000;

• Kenneth Bradford, Director, $110,000;

• Heather Cope, Executive Director of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, $125,000.

For the Recovery School District (RSD), both the high turnover and six-figure salaries are significant. That’s because there is substantial turnover despite the high salaries and that turnover has stymied any progress the already troubled RSD might have realized.

No fewer than 20 employees earning six figures have left the RSD since 2009, records show.

For the three years from 2010 to 2012, there was a turnover rate among those earning $100,000 or more ranging from 29 to 44 percent from the previous year Civil Service records indicate.

Of 24 RSD employees earning six figures for the current year, 15, or 62.5 percent, are new hires, records show. These include:

• Stacy Green, School Nurse, $145,000;

• James D. Ford, Administrative Superintendent, $145,000;

• Dana Peterson, Administrative Superintendent, $125,000;

• Adam Hawf, Administrator, $120,000;

• Mark Comanducci, Executive Director, $115,000;

• Helen Molpus, Administrative Chief, Officers, $115,000;

• Kizzy Payton, Administrative, Business Office, $110,000;

• Hua Liang, Administrative Chief, Officers, $110,000;

• Nicole Diamantes, Administrative, Other Special Programs, $105,000;

• Isaac Pollack, Administrative, Principal, $105,000;

• Desmond Moore, Administrative, Principal, $105,000;

• Betty Robertson, Other Business Services, $105,000;

• Robert Webb, Administrator, Other Special Programs, $105,000;

• Sametta Brown, Administrator, Regular Programs, $100,800;

• Ericka Jones, Administrative, Principal, $100,000;

• Eric Richard, Administrative, Principal, $100,000.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Governor's Office, Higher Education, LSU, Notable Quotables, Privatization, Public Records on October 15, 2012| 2 Comments »

“The deliberative process is being invoked by the clients with respect to the various drafts and any communication involving those drafts.”

—LSU attorney Lloyd Lunsford, parroting the Jindal party line in defending the denial of access to public records by invoking deliberative process.

“LSU administrators asserted the deliberative process privilege based upon my recommendation after independent research.”

—LSU attorney Shelby McKenzie, on denying media access to public records based on deliberative process.

“As executive counsel, I have discussions about the law with LSU’s legal counsel and other agencies. At the end of the day, it’s the agency’s decision to determine how they respond.”

—Elizabeth Murrill, Gov. Piyush Jindal’s executive counsel, attempting to claim that the administration does not have a hand in day to day operations of LSU. (Murrill, however, demanded to review LSU documents requested by LouisianaVoice before their release.)

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