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Archive for the ‘Legislature, Legislators’ Category

Jindal veto rescues charter schools that opt out of TRSL

Posted in Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators on July 4, 2011| 1 Comment »

It’s been a quarter-century and still lawmakers continue to tinker with the Support Education in Louisiana First (SELF) Fund, originally established ostensibly to bolster salary expenses for K-12 and higher education but realistically was only a political shell game.

The most recent attempt was by Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans) whose HB-516 would have diverted the first $1.8 million from the SELF Fund to a new Casino Support Services Fund.

Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed the bill, which was approved in its final form by the House on June 21 by a 78-3 margin with 24 absences. It passed the Senate by a margin of 25-11, with three absences.

Jindal also vetoed SB-6 by Sen. D.A. “Butch” Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) and in doing so, may have tipped his hand on his intentions to continue his push for more charter schools and continued contracting and outsourcing of jobs presently being performed by state employees.

SELF had its origins in September of 1986 with a proposed amendment that would dedicate about $540 million from oil and gas leasing production in the outer continental shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico.

Known as the 8(g) fund, it has pumped more than $500 million into the state’s general fund since 1986. The money was supposed to have been used to augment state education revenue. Instead, before money from 8(g), the State Lottery, or EduJobs , is added to the $3.1 billion Minimum Foundation Program (MFP), a formula used to determine the appropriation for education, it is first subtracted from the MFP, resulting in a zero net gain for education.

Leger’s bill would have taken an additional $1.8 million from SELF in order to fund the City of New Orleans’ casino support services contract, Jindal said in his veto message. The casino support services appropriation, Jindal said, “has already been achieved through HB-1,” the state’s general appropriation bill.

SB-6 by Gautreaux would have provided that any employing agency that terminates its participating in the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) be required to remit to the retirement system its share of any unfunded accrued liability (UAL) of the retirement system existing on the June 30 immediately prior to the date of the agency’s termination.

Gautreaux’s bill was apparently targeting charter schools that opt out of the teachers’ retirement system. “If a charter school participates for three years and opts out, I felt they should repay the three years for which they received funding for the retirement system,” he said. “With the veto, they get to participate for three years, pull out, and not have to pay anything back into the system.”

In his veto message, Jindal revealed that his agenda to create even more charter schools and to further privatize the state’s educational system remains unchanged.

He said Gautreaux’s bill “unnecessarily ties the payment of state retirement debt to much-needed reforms such as greater autonomy for public schools through charter conversions and better fiscal management through contracting and outsourcing. In doing so, this bill creates a significant deterrent to educational reform efforts.”

“Jindal wants to expand the charter school system to the benefit of those children who are going to perform well to the detriment of low-income children,” Gautreaux said. “I have no problem with good charter schools, but if a school decides to terminate its participation in the state teachers’ retirement system they should be required to repay the money they received from the state.”

The bill passed the House by a 57-28 margin with 20 members being absent. It passed in the Senate by a 38-0 vote.

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Jindal less than consistent in couple of curious vetoes

Posted in Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Transparency, Veto on July 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Among the 16 bills vetoed by Gov. Bobby Jindal thus far was one that must have raised a few eyebrows, especially with four members of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

HB-533 by Rep. Richard Gallot (D-Ruston) would have made various, mostly cosmetic changes to the election code, including one that Jindal said he found “problematic.”

“House Bill No. 533, provides that a candidate who is neither a Republican nor a Democrat and who does not belong to any other unrecognized party shall be listed as ‘Independent’ on an election ballot,” Jindal wrote in his veto message.

Gallot said some Republicans are fearful of right-wing conservatives campaigning as being “more conservative than they are” and that many unaffiliated voters and candidates believe it unfair that they can only be called “No Party.”

“Nonaffiliated voters are the fastest-growing segment of registered voters,” Gallot said. To ignore the fact that some people are fed up with all the parties is doing them a disservice,” he said.

Three members of the House are listed on the state legislative web page as Independents: Jerome Richard of Thibodaux, Joel C. Robideaux of Lafayette, and Ernest Wooten of Belle Chasse. Additionally, Rep. Michael Jackson of Baton Rouge now may have to change his plans to change his registration from Democrat to Independent.

Jindal said in his veto message that state law stipulates that candidates who do not belong to any unrecognized party shall be listed as “No Party.”

He said that state statute says, in part, “No political party shall be recognized in this state which declares its name solely to be ‘Independent’ or ‘The Independent Party.’”

Therefore, the governor said, that provision in Gallot’s bill was “in conflict with current law.”

That may leave some voters wondering what the law says about a candidate choosing his first name from a network television sitcom and running for governor under that nom de plume.

Piyush Jindal selected his Americanized first name of Bobby from the television show The Brady Bunch and has run for office under that alias–twice for Congress and twice for governor, winning all but his first run for governor.

If he were to apply the same logic to his own candidacy as he did to Gallot’s bill, then shouldn’t he run as Piyush and not Bobby?

Equally curious and more than a little inconsistent was Jindal’s veto of SB-21 by Sen. Neil Riser (R-Columbia) that would have exempted from state sales taxes water, mineral water, carbonated water and flavored water sold in containers.

Jindal said the exemption would result in state revenue losses of $8.3 million in the upcoming fiscal year and a total state revenue loss of $52.7 million over the next five years.

“I am concerned this could cause our budget for the upcoming year to be out of balance,” he said. “It is important that we protect scarce resources for priorities like healthcare and higher education.”

The veto of a tax break is unusual enough, given Jindal’s propensity to offer tax incentives whenever and wherever possible. Of course, he prefers giving those breaks to political allies of the corporate stripe as opposed to individuals.

Riser was somewhat confused by the governor’s actions. “Most people don’t realize there are zero taxes on soft drinks, but yet we tax water,” he said.

“Water delivered to the home through pipes is already exempt from sales tax,” Jindal said.

But still, as noted earlier, the veto was curious and inconsistent. On June 12, Jindal vetoed a renewal of a 4-cent cigarette tax that would have meant $12 million additional to the state in direct tax revenue, plus another $36 million in federal Medicaid revenue. Annually.

That’s $48 million per year the state stood to lose because of Jindal’s bull-headedness over his promise not to impose “tax increases.” The only problem with that is it wasn’t a “tax increase,” it was a tax renewal. College tuition increases? Now, that’s a tax increase. But apparently he’s okay with making it even more difficult to afford a college education.

And that $48 million per year is almost six times the $8.3 million he was so concerned about losing to the tax exemption on the sale of water. He said the water tax exemption would have cost the state $52.7 million over five years. Try a five-year loss of $240 million over failure to renew the cigarette tax.

And how was the cigarette tax revenue to have been used? Healthcare. And what was his expressed concern over the tax exemption on the sale of water? “It is important that we protect scarce resources for priorities like healthcare and higher education.” His words, not ours.

At least the House, while not possessing the stones to override his cigarette tax veto, did include the tax renewal as an amendment to the TOPS bill that will be put to voters this fall in the form of a Constitutional amendment.

And, as he hits the campaign trail in the weeks leading up to October’s election, he can truthfully and oh-so-sincerely tell voters that it was not he who opted to attach that 4-cent tax to the TOPS bill.

After all, it apparently is all about saving face.

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OGB ordered to report to DOA; is next step privatization? And naming of fiscal analyst is now two weeks overdue

Posted in Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Teague, Transparency on June 29, 2011| 4 Comments »

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office has ordered the Human Resources staff at the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) to report to Paul Rainwater and the Division of Administration (DOA), according to State. Sen. D.A. “Butch” Gautreaux (D-Morgan City).

Gautreaux, who is term-limited and not seeking elective office, called on opponents of privatization of the agency to mobilize to resist the governor’s plan.

He is a member of the OGB board of directors and is Chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee and has been a vocal opponent of both Jindal and administration plans to privatize OGB.

Sources inside the administration indicated the latest move requiring OGB to report to DOA is the first step in the administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency altogether prior to selling its book of business to a private investor.

A Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued earlier and a tentative deadline of June 15 set for the selection of a fiscal analyst to evaluate the assets of OGB preparatory to soliciting bids from the private sector for the takeover of the agency and its $500 million equity balance. No financial advisor has yet been publicly named by the administration even though public information requests have been submitted to Rainwater and Deputy Commissioner of Administration Mark Brady.

If a financial analyst is named and DOA does not respond to the public information requests, Rainwater and Brady will be in open violation of state public records law. Violators are subject to fines, courts costs and attorney fees.

Rainwater has been ambivalent as to the true intent of the administration, first issuing an earlier RFP specifically for the sale of OGB and later testifying before Gautreaux’s committee that nothing other than a third party administrator was being sought for the OGB Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and possibly the HMO.

The agency went through two administrators within a two-month period once the efforts to privatize the agency became public knowledge.

Tommy Teague, who ran the agency as its CEO for five years, taking it from a $60 million deficit to a $500 million surplus, was fired on April 15 and replaced that same day by Scott Kipper, who moved over from the State Department of Insurance.

Six weeks later Kipper resigned over Rainwater’s failure to keep his promise to the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee to make available to committee member Karen Peterson a report by Chaffe & Associates of New Orleans. His resignation became effective last Friday.

Chaffe had been hired in March by Jindal to conduct a preliminary assessment of OGB in order that Jindal could incorporate its findings into his executive budget by March 19. When no mention of the OGB sale was subsequently included in that budget, it was assumed by many that the Chaffe report did not say what the governor wanted to hear.

That theory seemed to be confirmed later first when Rainwater went back on his word, given under oath, and again when conflicting dates appeared to indicate the possibility that two versions of the report existed.

Rainwater testified before the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee during his confirmation hearing on May 31 that he received the Chaffe report on May 25 but that it was in the “deliberative” process and its contents could not be divulged.

Four days earlier, Paul Holmes, an attorney with DOA, notified LouisianaVoice by email that the report was received on May 25 but that it was in the “deliberative” process and thus, not public record.

With both men claiming the report was received by DOA on May 25, it raised eyebrows when a copy of the report was “leaked” to the Baton Rouge Advocate. That report was dated June 3 by its authors, nine days after Rainwater and Holmes said they received it.

Moreover, the copy that was supposedly leaked did not contain the stipulation that the only benefit to privatizing OGB would be if the buyer retained the $500 million surplus. Those who had seen the May 25 version said that language was contained in the report.

Gautreaux, in a Tuesday email said the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget needed to be informed of the administration’s latest maneuver. “Tell them to make it personal,” Gautreaux said to the email’s undisclosed recipients, adding that the OGB administrative staff will likely be fired as a next move by the governor.

“Jindal and his staff have no idea how frightening it is to a senior or anyone with chronic illness to not know if their medication will be covered or the procedures will be available under a private carrier yet to be announced, he said.

Even if the administration does understand, he said, “There is not an ounce of compassion in their hearts. You have to have a life experience like most of us have had to understand the fear that many OGB members have at the very threat of losing their coverage.

“I have a 40-year-old son with MS (multiple sclerosis). He has a family and a great job. He worries every day that if his company changes hands and he loses the coverage he has, he would never be able to afford the $3800 in medication he takes every month. There are thousands of stories like this in OGB,” Gautreaux said.

“Mobilize your troops now. We will never replace the valuable plan once it is lost.”

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Sen. Gautreaux takes personal privilege to thank Gov. Jindal

Posted in Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits on June 22, 2011| 15 Comments »

Following is a speech deliverd on the floor of the Louisiana Senate on Wednesday by Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City), who will be leaving office at the end of his current term:

Bobby Jindal has been led our state now for approximately three-and-one-half years and I think it is time to acknowledge some of the most notable achievements of his first term as governor of the Great State of Louisiana.

Governor Jindal, the most traveled governor in Louisiana history, has logged well over a thousand hours in State Police helicopters, spending Sundays campaigning in churches mostly in north Louisiana. Additionally, he has logged hundreds of hours in Army National Guard helicopters traveling to the coast after Hurricane Gustav and Ike and the BP oil spill in an effort to point out that President Obama wasn’t there and that the Federal government was doing nothing.

And, while the State of Louisiana struggles with the national recession and while experiencing unprecedented unemployment, Governor Jindal crisscrosses the United States delivering the curious good news of business growth and job creation under his leadership. Of course all the while Jindal’s pointing out that Washington is out of control and that he is prepared to bring his principles of success in on-hands management to our nation—that is once he is back in Louisiana for a visit.

For the wisdom he delivered, millions of dollars were bestowed upon him by his adoring followers for his re-election campaign.

Who can forget Gov. Jindal’s adamant and very public refusal to accept the millions of stimulus dollars from Washington? And who can forget the very generous six foot by two foot presentation checks delivered to each and every parish of the State from the special checking account of Governor Bobby Jindal along with the same inspiring speech, except for the “insert parish name here” part?

I know how special I felt as we accepted the checks in the five parishes I serve. Some were trying to cast dispersions on those special occasions saying that the money doled out was Federal stimulus money, but we know the governor refused those dollars.

Let’s not forget the encouragement Gov. Jindal has given to our eldest military veterans—pinning their medals on them during his interrupted out-of-state campaign travel.

And of course, let’s not overlook the encouragement given to the young people of Louisiana. Among those is the opportunity to pay more for an education in state universities while losing courses of study and outstanding professors as more and more budget cuts were imposed.

Graduates have much more job opportunities today; out-of-state jobs that is. And special thanks should be given to Gov. Jindal for his attempt to make smoking more affordable.

And for special friends of the governor, great business opportunities have been provided int he form of lucrative tax breaks, adding big dollars to their bottom lines.

Another example that comes to mind is the opportunity afforded to Vantage Health to participate in writing the RFP and then being awarded the contract for an unprecedented awarding of a book of business away from the Office of Group Benefits.

In a meeting in Timmy Teepell’s office attended by the cmmissioner of administration, the governor’s chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, and three executives from Vantage Health, OGB CEO Tommy Teague was given the instructions and language to provide a book of business for Vantage Health. How’s that for transparency?

Next we have CNSI, a company with offices in India and the former employer of our newest Department of Health and Hospitals secretary. CNSI had the RFP re-written so that they could be eligible for the $34 million-per-year award for handling the Medicare billings and administration. This again was done by administrative act, bypassing the legislative oversight. We want to point out that those Louisiana jobs will now headed to points unknown in a continuing Jindal effort on job growth–just not for Louisiana residents.

And now it is my understanding Bobby Jindal will be saving the State of Louisiana $10 million by firing 149 employees at the Office of Group Benefits as soon as I get my butt away from Baton Rouge.

Of course the flip side of this significant savings is that it will cost twice the amount saved in additional costs to the State by placing the PPO plan in the hands of some favored private insurance company as evidenced by the Chaffe Report steadfastly kept under the shield of new transparency by Gov. Jindal.

The real and yet unreleased final report is more critical of this deal than the draft we saw. The cost of that deal within the Governor’s office will be borne by all Louisiana taxpayers.

While resolutions from the Legislature, District Judges Association, The Office of Group Benefits Board of Trustees and numerous state retiree organizations have been sent to Gov. Jindal in opposition to placing OGB in private hands, the Governor has seen fit to ignore all such petitions.

I would be remiss if I did not offer my sincere gratitude to the governor for one thing that has stood out this year; it has been a long time since Republicans and Democrats have courageously stood together and in opposition to Bobby Jindal’s efforts to denigrate and devalue the contributions of State employees and retirees. Nor should we overlook other administration efforts not in the best interest of Louisiana.

Thank you.

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Rainwater to be confirmed by Senate, Brady out; no word on Regents’ Ed Antie or DHH’s Bruce Greenstein confirmations

Posted in Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Transparency on June 21, 2011| 10 Comments »

Paul Rainwater is in, Mark Brady is out.

That’s the word out of Baton Rouge after a series of confirmation hearings on the commissioner of administration and his deputy commissioner, respectively.

The Senate and Governmental Affairs (S&GA) Committee has been holding confirmation hearings for several weeks for appointees by Gov. Bobby Jindal, including Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals Bruce Greenstein and Board of Regents for Higher Education member Ed Antie.

The hearings have not gone well for any of the four men. Sources indicate that senators apparently are peeved at the perceived arrogance of Rainwater and Brady and the lack of candor on the part of Greenstein and Antie.

There has been no word on the fates of Greenstein and Antie, but the word coming out of the legislature Tuesday was that Rainwater would be given a pass and confirmed as commissioner of administration while Brady, who was brought into the Jindal administration from New Hampshire by Jindal, will not.

Brady is perceived by many in the legislature and in DOA as a hatchet man brought in by Jindal for the specific purpose of ramming the governor’s privatization agenda through the legislature.

Jindal’s plans for selling three state prisons fell through under heavy opposition from legislators and prison employees. The sale of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) has encountered similar opposition from retired state employees, retired teachers, legislators, and even state district judges but rumors circulating in Baton Rouge Tuesday said that Jindal will move forward with the sale of that agency as soon as the legislature leaves town after Thursday’s adjournment.

Greenstein refused for more than an hour to reveal the name of the winner of a $300 million, multi-year contract for DHH before finally revealing that the winner was CNSI of Gaithersburg, MD., a company by whom he previously was employed.

Antie, of Carencro, and founder of Central Telephone, denied that he had any contracts with the state or specifically, the Board of Regents. It turns out, as was revealed in the hearings, that one of Central Telephone’s subsidiaries, Sun America, has a $531,000 contract with the Board of Regents for the lease of fiber optics for the Regents’ Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, a state-of-the-art fiber optics network that connects eight major research universities in the state.

No specific reason was given for the prediction that Brady would not be confirmed but he sat through several particularly grueling confirmation sessions with members of the S&GA Committee, mostly over the pending sale of OGB as well as DOA denials of access to a financial report done on that agency by Chaffe & Associates of New Orleans.

The committee elicited a promise from Rainwater to make a copy of the Chaffe report available to committee member Sen. Karen Peterson (D-New Orleans) but Brady later ordered OGB CEO Scott Kipper not to provide the report to anyone, including legislators.

That prompted Kipper, who had been on the job only six weeks, to tender his resignation. His last day on the job is Friday.

When a copy of the report was finally made available, it was done only after senators were required to sign a confidentiality agreement which was promptly broken when a senator leaked the report to the Baton Rouge Advocate.

It now turns out that the leaked report may not have been authentic.

Rainwater and DOA legal counsel each had said on different dates that the report was received by DOA on May 25 but Chaffe officials signed off on the legislators’ copy of the report on June 3. Moreover, that report, published by the Advocate on its web blog, contained no date stamps, a requirement for all incoming documents at DOA, including all mail, brochures, and reports.

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