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Jindal as a computer program: he’d be 2012 Nixon Upgrade

Posted in Computers, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Retirement on March 24, 2012| 9 Comments »

Short shorts around the State Capitol

Just in case you may have missed it, we found yet another in a long line of examples of Jindal arrogance and hypocrisy from a few days ago:

• Whereas, Louisiana’s retired teachers have devoted their careers to the education and training of literally thousands upon thousands of Louisiana’s youth; and

• Whereas, Louisiana’s retired teachers have provided additional job and social skill training for adults throughout the state; and

• Whereas, Louisiana’s retired teachers have rendered valuable services in diverse leadership roles to their communities and institutions throughout their careers and continue to render such services as retirees; and

• Whereas, Louisiana’s retired teachers represent the profession, which is given the basic responsibility for launching the careers of state and national leaders, and for laying the foundation for the welfare of all members of our society; and

• Whereas, Louisiana’s retired teachers represent a tremendous pool of experience and training which remains dedicated and dependable support to the leaders in our communities, state, and nation; and

• Whereas, Louisiana’s retired teachers represent a loyal, patriotic, and concerned citizenry which provides a dedicated and dependable support to the leaders in our communities, state and nation.

• Now, therefore, I, Bobby Jindal, Governor of the State of Louisiana, do hereby proclaim March 15, 2012 as

Retired Teachers Day in the State of Louisiana.

Other than to question the grammar of the next-to-last whereas (“which remains dedicated and dependable support”—does anyone proofread these things?), we have nothing to add except to observe that even the pickle gets a full week and the rutabaga gets an entire month.

Fear and Loathing on the House Floor

Freshman House member Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville) reportedly visited a constituent recently and confided that he had no choice other than to vote with the governor on the education bills lest the governor cancel the LA. Highway 14 construction project in his district.

Nice to know, observed the constituent that “my job, (my) retirement and all Louisiana children and teachers are less important than a few miles of highway.”

If true, Hensgens apparently is either sufficiently politically astute to throw up the appropriate smokescreen to detract from the real issue at hand or he is far too naïve to try to swim with the sharks in Baton Rouge.

The word we get is the project is already at or near completion. It would be rather difficult for the governor to undo the work that’s already done.

Such is life these days with this governor. In computer parlance, one might be prone to refer to Jindal as 2012 Nixon Upgrade: like Nixon, he is more than a little paranoid, he is certainly as vindictive as Nixon (see: Teague, Teague, Richie, Manuel, Champagne & Daniel) and he has complete and total disdain for existing law (see the U.S. Constitution position on breaking contracts as regards state retirement contributions and benefits).

But, as a longtime north Louisiana political observer says, “Is the public getting it yet? Do they see?”.

Dissent will not be tolerated, she noted. “The events that transpired on the House Floor on HB 976 and HB 974 finally show the true face of Jindal and his lackeys, as well as the absolute spinelessness of the House members.

“Thank goodness for the Black Caucus. Freshman Rep. Katrina Jackson…repeatedly embarrassed Rep. (Stephen) Carter, the author of the bills and the chairman of the House Education Committee who, as was clearly demonstrated, does not know what is in his own bills.

“He (Carter) finally grew tired of looking like a fool and ‘refused’ to take questions on his own amendments. The Speaker was forced to drag other administration lackeys such as Rep. Ligi to the mike to give equally evasive and/or uninformed answers.

“…These bills are bad for Louisiana. Who ever heard of giving school boards the responsibility to hire and pay a local superintendent, but then tell that same school board that they cannot supervise that superintendent? This is madness. Local superintendents are somehow now answerable (the bill is unclear on how this will actually work) to the State Superintendent, an appointed lackey who is not answerable to the voters or, technically, even to the governor!

“This is the ‘small-government-is-best crowd that is consolidating power at the state level?

” What the hell?”

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Members take the money and run on two education bills; LouisianaVoice compares campaign contributions, votes

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Campaign Contributions, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Teague on March 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—The influence of lobbyists and campaign contributions was never more in evidence than in last week’s House votes on two separate education bills being pushed hard by the Jindal administration.

Of the 62 House members who are current or former members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) or attended ALEC conferences, accepted campaign contributions from corporate members of ALEC, from education reform lobbyists or from Gov. Bobby Jindal himself, 46 voted in favor of HB 974 and 43 voted for HB 976.

In all, more than $523,000 was doled out in campaign contributions to 50 House members—an average of more than $10,000 each—by lobbyists or corporate entities affiliated with ALEC who supported the bills or from Jindal’s own campaign funds.

Even more telling, of those 50 campaign contribution recipients, only five voted against both bills and two others split their votes. Reps. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles), Jim Morris (R-Oil City), Andy Anders (D-Vidalia), Joe Harrison (R-Gray) and Dorothy Hill (D-Dry Creek) each voted no on both bills.

Rep. Gregory Miller (R-Norco) voted in favor of HB 974 but against HB 976 while Rep. Patrick Williams (D-Shreveport) voted for HB 976 but was opposed to HB 974. Rep. Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge) did not vote on HB 974 but voted for HB 976.

Both bills have been criticized by newspapers throughout the state, as well as teachers as being too hurried and not well conceived by the administration.

One of the criticisms by proponents and opponents alike is the problem of classroom space for students wishing to transfer from so-called failing schools to charter schools, with tuition being paid by state-funded vouchers.

Another question, raised in the House Education Committee by Rep. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) was the state’s power to redirect local tax money for purposes other than the uses approved by local voters.

HB 974, by Rep. Stephen Carter (R-Baton Rouge), addressed teacher tenure, pay-for-performance and teacher evaluations. It passed by a vote of 64-40 with Greene not voting.

HB 976, also by Carter, provides vouchers, or to use Gov. Jindal’s terminology, scholarships, for education excellence, allows parents to transfer their children to charter schools and provides for charter school authorizers and course providers. It passed by a 62-43 vote.

Another mostly unspoken criticism of the bills, besides Jindal’s move to fast track them through the legislative process, is that of financial influence, or pressure, from special interests, particularly that of the American Federation of Children (AFC) and its Louisiana affiliate, the Louisiana Federation of Children (LFT).

The LFC recently did an extensive mail-out in House District 72, represented by Edwards in which it accused Edwards of attempting to stymie the education of children in grades K-12.

Additionally, Baton Rouge attorney Bryan Jeansonne, a law partner of Jason Dore, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, has submitted a public records request for all email correspondence between Edwards and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) or any of its employees, a move that could be construed as intimidation, given Jindal’s propensity to fire or otherwise punish those who disagree with him.

Jeansonne also made a request to the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for a list of all the system’s teachers and home addresses. Edwards said his wife is a teacher and a member of the LFT.

AFC was formerly an organization called All Children Matter and both organizations were and are run by Dick and Betsy DeVos of Michigan. Dick DeVos owns Amway and Betsy DeVos is the former chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. Her brother, Erik D. Prince, is the founder of Blackwater USA, the private security firm that made international headlines in 2007 when its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and then attempted to bribe Iraqi officials to quell criticism of their actions.

In 2006, All Children Matter was fined $5.2 million for funneling campaign money into Ohio through the organization’s various state networks. All Children Matter also was fined for illegal political activity in Wisconsin. A “527” organization, its legal problems prompted a change in name to the American Federation for Children.

Betsy DeVos, writing in an op-ed piece for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, said, “I know a little something about soft money as my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect some things in return.”

All Children Matter contributed $71,000 to 32 House members between 2007 and 2011, records from the Louisiana Board of Ethics show.

House members who voted for both bills and the amount of contributions received from all sources includes:

• John Berthelot (R-Gonzales), $8,000;

• Christopher Broadwater (R-Hammond), $47,000;

• Timothy Burns (R-Mandeville, $29,500;

• Stephen Carter (Chairman of the House Education Committee and author of House Bills 974 and 976), $24,675;

• Simone Champagne (R-Erath), $45,000;

• Patrick Connick (R-Marrero), $7,500;

• Gregory Cromer (R-Slidell), $13,250;

• Raymond Garofalo (R-Chalmette), $15,000;

• Kenneth Havard (R-Jackson), $35,000;

• Lowell Hazel (R-Pineville, $11,000;

• Frank Hoffman (R-West Monroe), $40,500;

• Paul Hollis (R-Covington), $10,000;

• Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles, Speaker of the House), $15,000;

• Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette), $7,000;

• Christopher Leopold (R-Belle Chasse), $7,500;

• Gregory Miller, $17,500;

• Erich Ponti (R-Baton Rouge), $7,000;

• Stephen Pugh (R-Ponchatoula), $6,000;

• Clifton Richardson (R-Baton Rouge), $17,000;

• Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette), $13,600;

• Clay Schexnayder (R-Sorrento), $27,500;

• Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport), $25,750;

• Thomas Carmody (R-Shreveport), $1,500;

• Cameron Henry (R-Metairie), $2,500;

• John Schroder (R-Covington), $4,500;

• Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell), $2,500;

• Nick Lorusso (R-New Orleans), $6,500;

• Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie), $26,700;

• Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley), $6,000;

• Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge), $6,000;

• Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), $4,000;

• Neil Abramson (D-New Orleans), $3,500;

• Steve Pylant (R-Winnsboro), $2,500;

• Walt Leger (D-New Orleans), $3,500;

• Karen St. Germain (D-Plaquemine), $2,500;

• Dorothy Hill (D-Dry Creek), $2,500;

• Andy Anders, $2,000;

• Charles Chaney (R-Rayville), $1,000;

• Ledricka Thierry (D-Opelousas), $500;

• Robert Billiot (D-Westwego), $1,000;

• Frank Howard (R-Many), $1,000;

• Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie), $1,000;

• Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge), $1,000;

• Patrick Jefferson (D-Homer), $1,000.

Greene, who did not vote on HB 974, received $13,000 in contributions from supporters of both bills.

Thibaut, who voted for HB 974 and against 976, received $4,500;

Those receiving contributions from supporters of the bills but who voted no on each included Joseph Harrison (R-Gray), $1,000; Geymann, $6,000, and Morris, $13,750.

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House ready to rubber-stamp Jindal’s education reform package, but read about campaign contributions anyway

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, BESE, Campaign Contributions, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist on March 22, 2012| 14 Comments »

The Louisiana Legislature, beginning with the House today, is about to take one of the most hurried, most ill-conceived actions in its long and notorious history when it passes House Bills 974 (teacher tenure/due process) and 976 (school vouchers, charter schools).

The votes are in, both bills will pass with comfortable majorities—some say perhaps by as much as two-thirds.

There also will be a surprise for House members who don’t read the bill closely enough: there have been a few last minute surprise amendments that will pull the rug out from under the bills’ opponents if they’re caught off guard.

If you still think there’s a snowball’s chance of the bills being defeated, consider this: at least eight political action committees that have poured more than $800,000 into the campaign funds of at least 103 of the 144 members of the Legislature—including 32 of the 39 Senate members.

Each one of these PACs has a vested interest in the passage of Gov. Jindal’s education package. Besides the Louisiana Federation For Children (an affiliate of the American Federation of Children) and its predecessor, the scandal-tainted All Children Matter, there are four separate PACs run by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI). You do remember, don’t you, that Jindal unveiled his education reform package at the LABI’s annual convention? Finally, there is FuturePAC and LAMP, the latter being the lobbying arm of the Louisiana Manufacturers’ Association.

FuturePAC, LAMP and the four LABI PACS, EASTPAC, WESTPAC, SOUTHPAC AND NORTHPAC are all affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has been tutoring and coaching legislators, including a double handful of Louisiana lawmakers, for a number of years now on how to pass legislation on privatization, state retirement reform, Medicaid reform and yes, education reform.

The votes are in. They have been for some time and it was evident at last week’s Senate and House Education committee meetings. With the exception of a few like Reps. Patricia Smith (D-Baton Rouge) and John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) and Sen. Eric LaFleur (D-Ville Platte), members were simply going through the motions of rubber-stamping Jindal’s rashly conceived idea of education reform.

There are those who defend Jindal’s reform package because, they say, the system is broken and needs fixing. We are willing to concede that point, but the way this plan is drawn up is, to use a very old adage, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are so many wrong-headed ideas being bandied about by the administration that it is impossible to pick a place to start.

But back to the here and now.

In House District 72, represented by Edwards and which encompasses all or parts of Tangipahoa, St. Helena and East Feliciana, the Louisiana Federation for Children has sent a slick mailer out to every household.

The mailer bears the headline, “John Bel Edwards is holding back our kids,” and it goes on to say the legislature “is proposing a scholarship (read: vouchers) program for children in grades k-12. This bill provides students in low-performing schools with scholarships to attend the school of their parents’ choice, including private and parochial schools.”

The flyer fails to address the results at a dozen Baton Rouge schools taken over as charter schools and promptly saw their test scores and grades plummet ever further than when they were run as public schools.

Not that details of that nature have ever stood in the way of this administration’s pressing forward with its agenda.

It wanted the Office of Risk Management privatized and it was. Today, it is being run by the third private company in just over a year and has yet to post its annual report on line—an annual report that normally comes out in September. Could it be that the privatization has not realized the savings it trumpeted to the legislature and the administration does not want anyone to know that?

But let’s get back to that Louisiana Federation for the Children. On the front of the flyer, in small print is the statement that “LFC is a special project of the American Federation for Children” and above that: “Paid for by American Federation of Children.”

But who is the American Federation of Children? To borrow a phrase from Gov. Jindal: short answer, it’s a re-creation of All Children Matter after All Children was fined $5.2 million for funneling campaign money into Ohio in 2006 through the organization’s various state networks. All Children Matter was also fined for political hanky panky in Wisconsin. A federal “527” organization, it changed its name to the American Federation for Children after its legal problems.

Who is American Federal for Children and who was All Children Matter?

Both organizations were and are run by Dick and Betsy DeVos. They started the organization in 2003 to recruit, train, and fund candidates who would promote vouchers across the country. Dick DeVos owns Amway.

Betsy DeVos is the former chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. Her little brother, Erik D. Prince, is the founder of Blackwater USA, the private security firm that made international headlines in 2007 when its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and then tried to bribe Iraqi officials to quell criticism of their actions.

In 1997 she wrote an op-ed for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call: “I know a little something about soft money as my family is the largest single contributor of soft monty to the national Republican Party. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect some things in return.”

These are the people who want to tell the citizens of Louisiana how to run education and our governor is eating out of their hands. He, in turn, is spoon-feeding pablum to legislators.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Let’s now take a look at some of the big money winners among the House and Senate members who will be deciding the fate of teachers and public education in a completely “impartial, pragmatic, and unbiased manner” in the days to come:

• Sen. Conrad Appel (R-Metairie and the author of SB 597 and SB 603 which are virtually identical to HB 974 and HB 976)—$22,000 in combined contributions;

• Sen. Gerald Long (R-Natchitoches)—$$25,000;

• Sen. Daniel Martiny (R-Metairie)—$10,500;

• Sen. A.G. Crowe (R-Pearl River)—$9150;

• Sen. Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan)—$$14,500;

• Sen. Bodi White (R-Central)—$4500;

• Sen. Ronnie Johns (R-Lake Charles)—$6500;

• Rep. John Berthelot (R-Gonzales)—$8000;

• Rep. Christopher Broadwater (R-Hammond)-$37,500;

• Rep. Timothy Burns (R-Mandeville)—$7500;

• Rep. Stephen Carter (R-Baton Rouge, Chairman of the House Education Committee and author of HB 974 and HB976)—$22,175;

• Rep. Simone Champagne (R-Erath)—$21,500;

• Rep. Patrick Connick (R-Marrero)—$7500;

• Rep. Gregory Cromer (R-Slidell)—$10,250;

• Rep. Raymond Garofalo (R-Chalmette)—$15,000;

• Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles)—$6000;

• Rep. Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge)—$12,000;

• Rep. Kenneth Havard (R-Jackson)—$32,500;

• Rep. Lowell Hazel (R-Pineville)—10,000;

• Rep. Frank Hoffman (R-West Monroe)—$8400;

• Rep. Paul Hollis (R-Covington)—10,000;

• Rep. Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles, House Speaker)—$13,000;

• Rep. Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette)—$4500;

• Rep. Christopher Leopold (R-Belle Chasse)—$7500;

• Rep. Gregory Miller (R-Norco)—$15,000;

• Rep. James Morris (R-Oil City)—$13,250;

• Rep. Erich Ponti (R-Baton Rouge)—$6000;

• Rep. Stephen Pugh (R-Ponchatoula)—$6000;

• Rep. Clifton Richardson (R-Baton Rouge)—$17,000);

• Rep. Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette)—$$11,100;

• Rep. Clay Schexnayder (R-Sorrento)—$25,000;

• Rep. Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport)—$7000;

It must be more than a little frustrating to know PAC money roars like a lion in the House and Senate chambers while a $25 donation from a constituent who opposes the bills goes unheard and unappreciated.

There were many more who took lesser amounts from the PACs. But you can bet the donors and Jindal will be watching to see how each of the recipients of their money votes. And if past is prologue those who dare go against the governor will incur his wrath. Cherished committee seats will be lost and construction projects back home run the risk of the governor’s veto.

That’s the sordid, seamy side of politics and until something is done to rein in PACs, it’s never going to get better.

If this is accountability and transparency and the standard of good ethics, then Uncle Earl was correct when he said, “One of these days we gonna get good guvment and the people ain’t gonna like it.”

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More of the same: Jindal, ALEC contributions invested in selected House, Senate Retirement Committee members

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Campaign Contributions, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Retirement, Teague on March 20, 2012| 23 Comments »

State employees hoping to avoid Gov. Bobby Jindal’s state retirement reform, aka reverse gang rape, would be wise to contact the Louisiana State Employee Retirement System (LASERS) Member Services Office as quickly as possible.

Jindal, working in lock step with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), is attempting to ram through the ALEC-sponsored retirement reform that could potentially leave many state employees in dire financial straits.

ALEC is a national organization underwritten by dozens of major U.S. corporations, including Koch Industries, which drafts legislation favoring business and industry and passes the proposed legislation along to state lawmakers to take back to their respective legislatures and state assemblies for passage.

One 38-year-old state employee earning $100,000 per year has worked for the state for 15 years and planned on working 15 more years before retiring at approximately $75,000 per year.

Under Jindal’s plan, that employee would only qualify for an annual pension of $17,000 after 30 years, a loss of $58,000 per year, or 77 percent.

Another state employee, 41 years of age with 20 years is presently making $52,000 per year. That employee planned on working another 10 years and retiring at 75 percent of that salary, or $39,000.

That worker is now facing an annual pension of $6,000 after 30 years under Jindal’s plan, a loss of $33,000 per year, or almost 85 percent.

Jindal is seeking an additional 3 percent contribution from state employees but the money would not be used to close the gap on LASER’S unfunded accrued liability (UAL). Nor would it go to increased retirement benefits. Instead, the 3 percent will go directly into the state general fund to help fill holes in Jindal’s budget.

Jindal’s plan also would require state employees to work until age 67 to qualify for full benefits.

Finally, he is seeking to convert from a defined benefits retirement plan to one of defined contributions.

Any one of the three that is subsequently approved by the legislature and signed into law is all but certain to face litigation on the theory—by LASERS officials and courts in Arizona and New Hampshire—that the U.S. Constitution forbids lawmakers from diminishing or impairing a contract.

LASERS contends, and the courts in those two states have agreed, that promises made to employees upon their hire constitute binding contracts and cannot be broken arbitrarily.

State employee morale is at an all-time low, largely due to the policies implemented by Jindal’s minions.

Over at the Department of Health and Hospitals, Carol Steckel, former Commissioner of the Alabama Medicaid Agency, was hired by Jindal to head up health care reform efforts in Louisiana. Her efforts to fire 69 information technology workers and contract their jobs out to the University of New Orleans was thwarted by the Civil Service Commission because commission members did not buy into the rosy numbers she gave them.

Only last week, UNO President Peter Fos said in a letter to DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein that he was disinclined to sign the proposed contract until his concerns “are addressed and resolved to my satisfaction.”

Fos, who is new to the job, obviously does not know how things work in the Jindal administration. Underlings do not question the master; it’s surprising that he has not been Teagued already.

Steckel, who while in Alabama, left out of her budget appropriations for the purchase of artificial limbs for low-income Alabama amputees, saying the funds were optional, not mandatory. She has lost no time in pursuing reprisals against her employees who had the temerity to resist being fired.

The first thing she did was to discontinue flex time, whereby employees had the option of working four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days.

On the heels of that move, she began refusing to grant annual leave to employees.

It is the option of supervisors to grant or refuse annual leave even though it is earned by employees. Generally, the reason for not granting annual leave is that it is essential that the employee be at work on that day.

These, however, are employees she has been trying to fire—the same employees who were blocked out of their computers minutes after being informed in December that they would not have jobs in January and now she says they are needed at their desks. One of the IT workers at DHH has had enough and announced plans to retire.

In other agencies and other offices, state employees who are retirement-eligible are calling LASERS to schedule appointments with LASERS Member Services to plan their exodus from state government.

State Civil Service employees are eligible for retirement after 30 years of service at any age, after 25 years of service at age 55, and after 10 years of service at age 60.

LASERS data show that there are 3,000 rank-and-file employees under the age of 55 but with 25 or more years of service and another 1,100 who are 55 or older with 25 years or more of service.

Moreover, of the 47,000 rank-and-file Civil Service workers, about 9,900, or 21 percent, are eligible for immediate retirement—and they aren’t waiting around for the proverbial shoe to fall.

While it normally requires only a three- to five-week waiting time for an appointment with Member Services, the wait is now about three months—or until late June at the earliest. And as the retirement nightmare approaches reality with the advancement of Jindal’s bills, that line is inevitably going to grow longer and more crowded.

And lest one believes passage of the retirement bills out of the House and Senate retirement committees is not likely, let’s harken back to Rule One:

Follow the money.

Just as in the case of the House and Senate education committees, Jindal has complete control and he is going to go full throttle with his bills through those committees. And the fuel, once again, is money.

Between Jindal and ALEC, a grand total of $182,450 has been invested in 13 members of the two committees.

It turns out Jindal was not running around all over the country raising unnecessary money for a re-election campaign that he already had in the bag; he was fundraising to grease the skids in the Legislature with his own campaign donations.

Illegal? No. Unethical? Probably not. At odds with his squeaky clean public image he so cherishes and burnishes outside the borders of Louisiana? Absolutely.

With that said, let’s take a look at those contributions to select committee members with names of the legislators listed first, followed by the total campaign contributions and the source—Jindal or ALEC corporate members, or both.

House Retirement Committee members:

• Kevin Pearson, Chairman (R-Slidell)—$2500 from Jindal;

• Nick Lorusso, Vice Chairman (R-New Orleans)—$6500 from ALEC corporate members;

• Frank Hoffman (R-West Monroe)—$2500 from Jindal, $12,800 from ALEC corporations;

• Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie)—$5000 from Jindal, $20,700 from ALEC corporate members;

• Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley)—$6000 from ALEC corporate members;

• Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport)—$2500 from Jindal, $11,750 from ALEC corporate members;

• Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge)—$5000 from Jindal.

The total for the seven House Education Committee members: $17,500 from Jindal, $57,750 from ALEC corporate members.

Senate Retirement Committee members:

• Elbert Guillory, Chairman (D-Opelousas)—$7500 from Jindal, $45,200 from ALEC corporate members;

• Page Cortez, Vice-Chairman (R-Lafayette)—$2500 from Jindal;

• Conrad Appel (R-Metairie)—$2500 from Jindal;

• A.G. Crowe (R-Pearl River)—$2500 from Jindal, $4500 from ALEC corporate members;

• Gerald Long (R-Natchitoches)—$2500 from Jindal, $35,000 from ALEC corporate members;

• Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan)—$5000 from Jindal.

The total for the Senate Education Committee members: $22,500 from Jindal, $84,700 from corporate members of ALEC.

Larusso, Hoffmann, Ligi, Montoucet, Seabaugh, Talbot, Crowe and Long are all members of ALEC and the organization paid for travel, registration fees, hotel accommodations and meals for members Hoffman, Seabaugh, Crowe and Long to attend ALEC conferences.

Rule Two: See Rule One.

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Notable Quotables (In their own words)

Posted in Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables, Transparency on March 19, 2012| 3 Comments »

“Two things.”

“Short answer, yes.”

“Two things.”

“Short answer, yes.”

–Gov. Bobby Jindal and his annoying habit of beginning every answer to questions by Rep. John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) with those two phrases during last week’s House Education hearings on House bills 974 and 976.

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