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Update: Gov. Piyush Jindal absent from civics class on Separation of Powers Day at Baton Rouge Magnet High

June 14, 2012 by tomaswell

Every high school student in Louisiana public schools is required to take a year of civics as part of the Department of Education’s social studies curriculum.

Gov. Piyush Jindal, who attended Baton Rouge High Magnet School (a public school), was apparently absent on Separation of Powers Day.

On Thursday, Rep. Jim Morris (R-Oil City) became the second legislator to be removed from a vice-chairmanship by Jindal through Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles).

In March, Rep. Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa) was demoted from his vice-chairmanship of the House Committee on Insurance after voting against Jindal-backed House Bill 969 that gave tax rebates for those who donate money for scholarships to private and parochial schools. Richie’s vote came while he sat as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Kleckley, like any good puppet, did not have the courage or candor to explain his action, saying instead, “My discussion on the vice chairmanship will remain a personal discussion,” whatever that may mean.

On Thursday, Morris was removed from his vice chairmanship of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee by Kleckley.

Morris was among a group of conservative House Republicans who unsuccessfully fought Jindal in the recent legislative session as the governor chose to use one-time money to fund recurring expenses in the state’s General Budget.

Morris also opposed Jindal in his efforts to secure a statewide voucher program that will use state taxpayer dollars to send children to private schools.

The dispute over the use of one-time money to balance the budget and the subsequent smack-down of Morris smacks of blatant hypocrisy on Jindal’s part. It was Jindal, after all, who in 2008, made a big deal of opposing the use of one-time for recurring expenses. He compared it to using a credit card to pay the mortgage, calling the practice fiscal irresponsibility.

Jindal mouthpiece Kyle Plotkin, naturally denied that the governor’s office had requested Morris’s demotion. Believe that, and we have some lovely beachfront property in North Dakota you may find attractive.

Kleckley, of course, would not say why Morris was demoted, choosing instead to at once flaunt his and Morris’s constituents and to knuckle under to the governor who has taken on all the characteristics of someone who has morphed from a spoiled brat to a pouting tyrant with his despotic heavy-handedness.

In no other state does the governor have the power to dictate who will serve as Senate president, House speaker or who presides over committees. Theoretically, under the separation of powers, those are strictly legislative matters.

Author Robert Caro, in his multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, noted that when Johnson was elected vice president in 1960, he intimated that he intended to continue participating in legislative proceedings as president of the Senate.

In those days the vice president did serve as president of the Senate but could only vote to break a tie. Johnson’s intentions, however, were to be more involved in the day to day activities of the Senate until senators reminded him that he was no longer a part of the legislative branch of government but the executive and thus forbidden to take part in legislative matters.

If a powerful politician such as Lyndon Johnson could not defy the Constitution, it defies logic how this petulant governor can do so.

Former Sen. Butch Gautreaux said when he served as Chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee, Jindal complained about his not supporting the governor’s agenda but Senate President Joel Chaisson “never considered removing me.”

Gautreaux said Jindal even attempted to have him evicted from his Pentagon Barracks apartment but again Chaisson refused.

“This legislature has completely forgotten that there are three branches of government,” Gautreaux said. “I’m embarrassed for them. They are too weak to be embarrassed for themselves.”

Perhaps Kleckley should grow a pair and inform Mr. Transparency and Accountability that we still have three branches of government.

Cowardice, after all, is not pretty to watch.

At least Morris had the courage of his convictions and did not allow Jindal’s $2,500 contribution to his election campaign last fall sway him from voting his conscience.

Perhaps our most ethical governor is of the belief that a bought politician should stay bought.

And just in case Piyush, aka Richard Nixon reincarnate, has forgotten, the three branches of government are Executive, Legislative and Judicial.

Posted in Legislature, Legislators, Politics, Teague | 7 Comments »

The vultures are circling the carcass, aka school vouchers, as Gov. Piyush Jindal’s education reform gets off to rocky start

June 14, 2012 by tomaswell

Gov. Piyush Jindal may have appeared to come away from this year’s legislative session with sweeping wins in his public education reform but in reality, things appear to be off to a somewhat rocky start.

It may be too early to say Jindal’s grand scheme for the revamping (read: dismantling) of public education is falling apart but it would certainly be correct to say the waste of precious state voucher dollars has begun in earnest and detractors are only too happy to cite the inexcusable lack of oversight by John White’s Department of Education (DOE).

Another possible indication that all is not well is the recent exodus of a number of DOE personnel, including a key employee responsible for putting a positive spin on department policy for the media.

Friday, June 8, was the last day on the job for DOE Public Affairs Director René Greer.

“Your questions have challenged us to do better, your reports have given our citizens the information they need to hold us accountable and your narratives have inspired individuals and groups to engage in this important work,” she said in an email to reporters.

Greer, who said she has no immediate career plans, also thanked reporters for their “patience, understanding and support on those occasions when the requests coming into Public Affairs exceeded our capacity to respond.”

Greer, who served at the pleasure of the education superintendent, may have fallen on her sword. “She worked very hard and put up with a lot of internal and external flak,” said one former co-worker. “If I had to guess, I suspect the department’s slow response to (a public records) request from The Independent (a Lafayette weekly publication) may have had something to do with her departure,” the co-worker said.

On May 2, The Independent wrote, “State Superintendent of Education John White and DOE spokeswoman René Greer have yet to respond to numerous phone calls and email inquiries from The Independent over the past 24 hours regarding the department’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver application, despite public record statutes requiring them to do so.

“They also have failed to respond to Louisiana Press Association attorney Joshua Zelden, who told both White and Greer in an email that ‘all documents created, and correspondence entered into, by government agencies in the course of their official business must be made available to all requestors immediately, unless a specific exception to the public records law is cited…”

Louisiana is one of 26 states and the District of Columbia which have requested waivers from NCLB provisions. Louisiana’s application is not immune to the federal scrutiny granted to other states. The U.S. Department of Education sent critique letters to the states in mid-April but the contents of Louisiana’s letter which lay out the deficiencies in Louisiana’s alternative plan for achieving higher academic performance are still being withheld from public scrutiny.

Greer has not responded to an email sent to her on Sunday by LouisianaVoice which asked if her departure was related to the dispute with The Independent.

The department’s problems with The Independent notwithstanding, the biggest newsmaker has been the unbelievably sorry job of vetting voucher applicants:

• The New Living Word School in Ruston has received vouchers for 315 students, the most in the state thus far, despite having woefully inadequate facilities for those 315 additional students. The school has only 122 students and no desks, no books, no chairs and no classrooms to accommodate additional students.

• A small private school in DeRidder has been approved for 119 vouchers worth more than $400,000. Besides misspelling scholarships as “sholarships” on a sign advertising the availability of vouchers on a sign outside the school, it has been revealed that BeauVer Christian Academy has experienced past financial problems. In 2009, Maysia Coker, registered agent and an officer of BeauVer, was sentenced in 36th Judicial District Court in Beauregard Parish to a three-year suspended sentence for issuing worthless checks. She was fined $2,000 plus court costs and ordered not to have a checking account in her name or to be a signatory on any business or personal checking accounts or to hold a position of financial authority during her four-year probation. Coker registered BeauVer Christian Academy as a limited liability corporation on May 5, 2010, state records show. BeauVer had 78 students and 12 teachers last year. The school, formerly known as Beauregard Christian Academy, had seven liens and financial judgments filed against it ranging from $2,778 to $14,000 between 2007 and 2009.

• Upper Room Bible School in New Orleans also received 214 vouchers despite a 78 percent failure rate on students’ LEAP tests. Upper Room was third from the bottom in rankings of all Recovery School District and voucher schools combined.

• Eternity Christian Academy in Calcasieu Parish, which currently has 14 students, has been approved for 135 vouchers which will generate about $1 million in taxpayer funds for the school.

As if all that were not bad enough, now it seems the media, including the Washington Post, New Orleans’ Gambit and Gannett’s Louisiana newspapers are beginning to wake up and ask hard questions, albeit a little late:

• The Baton Rouge Advocate, which has largely been silent on the issue of education reform, had an editorial on Tuesday in which it questioned the legality of Jindal’s intent to raid Minimum Foundation Program funding for public schools to fund vouchers for private schools. “It is a question that the judiciary can and should weigh in on, because on its face, the MFP money is dedicated in the Louisiana Constitution to public schools,” the Baton Rouge paper said. “…the governor and his allies are whipping up the rhetoric on the unions—despite the obvious relevance of the constitutional question,” it added.

• The Washington Post, on May 31, quoted White as saying federal waivers would allow districts and schools to exercise flexibility from federal regulations in exchange for instituting rigorous accountability systems. Citing the vouchers granted to the aforementioned schools, the Post said, “All of this makes you wonder what Louisiana and the U.S. Education Department define as ‘rigorous accountability systems.’”

• Gambit, in its analysis of the voucher program, said “‘Reform’ always means ‘change’ but it does not always mean ‘improvement.’”

Finally, if proof is needed that Jindal’s voucher and charter school crusade is not profit driven, there is the Louisiana Federation for Children and its accomplice, the Alliance for School Choice.

The Alliance for School Choice is clamoring for students like a flock of vultures circling a dying carcass.

In a mail-out received by a north Louisiana family (with no children in school, it should be added), the alliance proclaims, “There is still time to apply to enroll your child in a better school for free.”

For free? Is the Alliance for School Choice for real? Just where does it think the voucher money for tuition comes from, the tooth fairy?

This is tax money paid by Louisiana citizens that will go to line the pockets of profiteers and political opportunists.

For free indeed.

The flip side of the mail-out says, “Time is running out to give your child a better education. Apply for a scholarship before June 29.”

It goes on to say, “Recently, Louisiana lawmakers expanded the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence program statewide, which allows children trapped in low-performing schools to receive a scholarship to attend a participating private or public school in the 2012-2013 school year for free.”

There’s that word free again.

The state version of the American Federation for Children/Alliance for School Choice, the Louisiana Federation for Children, contributed more than $100,000 to Louisiana legislative and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education candidates in 2010 and 2011, state records show.

Many of those candidates also received contributions last year from Gov. Jindal’s campaign, further evidence of the philosophical and financial bonds that exist between the alliance, Jindal and the voucher program—all at the expense of Louisiana taxpayers.

Posted in Education, Vouchers | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments »

131-1 vote for transparency and accountability on EZ incentives: but that one vote–Piyush’s veto–prevails

June 13, 2012 by tomaswell

Ninety-five of her fellow House members agreed with Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe).

Her HB 1104 that would have required state agencies which administer tax credits, exemptions and rebates to report certain information needed by the Legislative Auditor’s Office in determining whether each tax credit, exemption or rebate was “effectuating the purpose they were enacted to achieve” passed 96-0 in the House and by a 35-0 vote in the Senate.

In the end, it appears that Gov. Piyush Jindal had the only vote that counted and he voted no in vetoing the bill, proclaiming that safeguards against abuses were already in place.

Never mind that over the past four years, Louisiana has given away $18 billion in corporate tax exemptions, plus about $300 million per year lost by the repeal of the Stelly Plan.

Almost lost in all of this is an April 25 Legislative Auditor’s report which says in effect that those safeguards Jindal alluded to don’t really work.

The Louisiana Department of Economic Development’s Enterprise Zone program “does not meet the statutory purpose of the program, which is to stimulate business and industrial growth in enterprise zones,” the 17-page audit report says.

The state’s EZ, program is a jobs incentive program that provides Louisiana income and franchise tax credits to businesses hiring at least 35 percent of net, new jobs from one of four targeted groups:

• Residency;

• New employees who heretofore were receiving some form of public assistance;

• New employees below the ninth grade proficiency in reading, writing or math;

• New employees who are unemployable by traditional standards.

Enterprise zones are areas with high unemployment, low income or a high percentage of residents receiving some form of public assistance. A business must create permanent net, new jobs at the EZ site.

Such jobs must be created upon the start date of the project or of construction and either increase current workforce by 10 percent within the first 12 months or create a minimum of five net, new jobs within the first 24 months.

When the state’s Enterprise Zone, or EZ, program was created in 1981, it was designated to stimulate growth in enterprise zones by providing tax incentives to businesses that locate to and operate in those areas. Act 977 of 1999, however, eliminated the requirement that businesses must locate to or operate in an enterprise zone to qualify for EZ incentives, the report noted.

Benefits to the employer include the following:
• A one-time $2,500 credit per new job;

• Rebates of 4 percent of sales taxes on materials, machinery, furniture or equipment;

• The earning of a 1.5 percent refundable investment tax credit.

Businesses may receive EZ incentives for creating part-time jobs, jobs that provide a smaller economic impact and which provide no employee benefits such as health care or retirement plans. This means a business creating a single 20-hour part-time minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) job with an economic impact of $7,450 receives the same EZ incentive as a business creating a single 35-hour full-time minimum wage job with an economic impact of $13,195, plus benefits, the report said.

Moreover, a business is not even required to be located in an EZ and does not have to invest money—only create additional jobs—to qualify.

Louisiana also approves retail businesses, where jobs easily transfer or shift from one business to another with no real gain in the number of jobs, to receive EZ program incentives.

Finally, Louisiana law prohibits the disclosure of the amount of incentives received by businesses and in so doing, denies the public of its right to know how its tax money is spent.

The audit says that during calendar years 2008 (Jindal’s first year in office) through 2010:

• 632 of 930 businesses (68 percent) receiving EZ program incentives were located outside a designated enterprise zone;

• Those 632 businesses received approximately 123.9 million (61 percent) of the $203.1 million in total EZ program incentives granted;

• Approximately $3.9 billion (60 percent) of the $6.5 billion in capital investment by the 930 businesses receiving incentives was located outside a designated EZ;

• Approximately 12,570 (75 percent) of the 16,760 net new jobs created by the 930 businesses were located outside an EZ.

The number and dollar amounts of EZ incentives have increased dramatically since Jindal took office in January of 2008. In 2007, the year before he took office, there were $25.4 million in EZ program incentives approved. In his first two years in office, 2008 and 2009, the amount was about $60 million for each year and in 2010, the amount jumped to $109.6 million, according to information provided by the Louisiana Department of Revenue.

The Department of Revenue could only provide date by fiscal year whereas all other data were from calendar years, thus the difference between the $229.8 million reported by Revenue for the three years of 2008-2010 as opposed to the $203.1 million reported by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development.

Using Revenue’s numbers, the $229.8 million approved during Jindal’s first three years in office eclipsed the previous seven fiscal years’ combined total of $202 million.

“We also determined how Louisiana’s EZ program differs from those in other competing neighboring states—Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas,” the audit report said.

Some of the differences included:

• Alabama and Mississippi require businesses to be located in an enterprise zone in order to receive EZ program incentives;

• All four neighboring states exclude retail industries from EZ incentive program qualification;

• None of the four allows businesses to include part-time employees;

• Alabama, Arkansas and Texas require companies to prove the creation of net new jobs before receiving any EZ program incentives. In Louisiana, businesses have up to two years to create the required minimum number of net new jobs;

• Texas requires that the names of businesses that participate in its EZ program and the amounts of incentives each business receives be made public. Louisiana law prohibits the disclosure of the amount of incentives received by each business.

The report suggested that these shortcomings be remedied by corrective legislation.

That, in essence, is what Rep. Jackson attempted to do with her HB 1004 that was approved unanimously in both chambers.

But Gov. Piyush Jindal would have none of it.

Posted in Auditor, Business, Economy, Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators | 1 Comment »

Phil Collins or Cyndi Lauper? Take your pick but we can see Jindal’s ‘True Colors’ with vivid clarity in four vetoed bills

June 10, 2012 by tomaswell

But I see your true colors
Shining through;
I see your true colors…
—True Colors (Lyrics by Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly)

Whether you prefer the Cyndi Lauper or Phil Collins version, nothing more aptly—or more shamelessly—describes the sinister motives of Gov. Piyush Jindal in vetoing four legislative bills than the first three lines of this song.

It seems rather curious that Jindal, such an avowed advocate of openness, would veto SB 629 by Sen. Ronnie Johns (R-Lake Charles) that would have required increased accountability from the state’s Bayou Health and Behavioral Health Partnership programs.

Of course, it might be more easily understood when we learn that Bayou Health contributed $10,000 to Jindal’s gubernatorial campaigns – $5,000 in 2003 and another $5,000 in 2009.

It would also appear rather disingenuous for the governor to veto a bill calling for the convening of a task force to study wage disparities between men and women in the public sector.

But it is simply unconscionable for a governor who purports to support transparency and accountability to veto HB 1104 that would have done just that.

It likewise is two-faced, duplicitous and smacks of a blatant double standard for Jindal to veto HB 1106. The bill, after all, provided for tax rebates, something we thought equated to an economic Holy Grail in the eyes of this governor.

But I see your true colors
Shining through;
I see your true colors…

Both HB 1104 and HB 1106 were authored by State Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe).

Both bills, by themselves, did far more for transparency, accountability and even-handedness than everything Jindal has done in his entire four-plus years in office.

Both bills were passed unanimously by the House, both by votes of 96-0 with nine absences.

Not voting on HB 1104 were Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), Jerry Gisclair (D-Larose), Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge), Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville), Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), Joseph Lopinto, III (R-Metairie), Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa), Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette) and Patricia Smith (D-Baton Rouge).

Those absent for the vote on HB 1106 were Jared Brossett (D-New Orleans), Gordon Dove (R-Houma), Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles), Gisclair, James Morris (R-Oil City), Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell), John Schroder (R-Covington), Scott Simon (R-Abita Springs) and Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge).

HB 1104 also passed unanimously in the Senate (35-0 with four absentees) and only four senators voted against HB 1106. Absent on the HB 1104 vote were Sens. Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville), Jean-Paul Morrell (D-New Orleans), Ben Nevers (D-Bogalusa) and Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe).

Voting against HB 1106 in the Senate were Robert Adley (R-Benton), Conrad Appel (R-Metairie), Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge) and Donahue. Absent were Jody Amedee (R-Gonzales) and Barrow Peacock (R-Bossier City).

All four were good bills.

All four were vetoed by Piyush “I have the job I want” Jindal.

But I see your true colors
Shining through;
I see your true colors…

HB 1104 would have required that state agencies which administer tax credits, exemptions and rebates to report certain information needed by the Legislative Auditor’s Office in determining whether each tax credit, exemption or rebate was “effectuating the purpose they were enacted to achieve.”

“More than half of Louisiana’s (annual) revenue is expended to pay for these credits, rebates and exemption,” Jackson said after being informed of the vetoes. “It is important that we review them to determine whether the state is truly benefitting.”

Louisiana has granted more than $18 billion in corporate tax exemptions over the past four years, according to information obtained from state records. Jackson said she is attempting to ensure that the state is getting its money’s worth in jobs and economic development.

Jindal disagreed.

But I see your true colors
Shining through;
I see your true colors…

HB 1106 would have allowed taxpayers who donate to public schools to receive tax rebates.

“This bill supports public schools and has a $10 million statewide cap,” Jackson said of her bill.

After being amended in committee, the bill would have offered the following tax rebates for those who donated to public schools for the purpose of tutorial, curriculum, books, technology, Saturday school, etc.:

• 25 percent tax rebate for donations to a “C” school;

• 50 percent tax rebate for donations to a “D” school;

• 75 percent tax rebate for donations to an “F” school.

“The only bill that sits on the governor’s desk which truly helps our public schools to receive much-needed resources will not see the light of day,” Jackson said. “This is truly a blow to public education.”

The veto obviously discourages donations to public schools in favor of their non-public counterparts and comes on top of requirements that local school superintendents now must answer directly to Baton Rouge instead of their local school boards that hired them. It also is the equivalent to piling on in that local school funds under the state’s Minimum Foundation Program, a formula used to provide state funding to local school systems, can be diverted to benefit students transferring to charter schools—even if the charter schools are in another parish.

So, not only does Jindal’s American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-inspired educational reform legislation dilute local financial support of public schools, any attempt by individuals or corporations to assist struggling public schools is now officially discouraged by this administration.

One reader wrote of HB 1106: “If anyone ever questioned that Gov. Jindal is placing non-public schools over public schools, and treating them inequitably, his punitive legislation during the session, followed by this veto, is the final straw.

“According to Jindal, rebates to non-public schools are o.k. as passed by the legislature but rebates to public schools are vetoed ‘because there’s no provision in state budget for rebates.’”

Apparently, however, when it comes to non-public schools, there is a provision in the state budget for rebates.

“Shame on our governor for such a petty, discriminatory, embarrassing action,” the reader wrote.

It remains to be seen if the legislature has the courage to override the vetoes of Jackson’s bills.

If history is any indication, it won’t happen. One need look no further back than 2011 when the legislature approved a renewal of the cigarette tax only to have Jindal veto it because he was opposed to “new” taxes. While it is still a mystery how he could consider a tax renewal as a “new” tax, the legislature cratered, folded like a cheap suit, in its attempt to override Piyush’s veto.

But I see your true colors
Shining through;
I see your true colors…

Senate Bill 577 by Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) would have established the Louisiana Equal Pay Task Force to study and make recommendations relating to equal pay for women in the public sector in Louisiana.

It, too, passed unanimously in the Senate with only six absences—Appel, Norby Chabert (R-Houma), Peacock, Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan), Greg Tarver (D-Shreveport) and Walsworth.

SB 577 passed in the House by a 71-17 vote.

The 17 voting against the measure in the House, all Republicans, included Reps. Stuart Bishop (R-Lafayette), Richard Burford (R-Stonewall), Raymond Garofalo, Jr. (R-Chalmette), Geymann, Greene, Kenneth Havard (R-Jackson), Lowell Hazel (R-Pineville), Cameron Henry (R-Metairie), Hensgens, Anthony Ligi, Jr. (R-Metairie), Lopinto, Nick Lorusso (R-New Orleans), John Morris (R-Monroe), James Morris, Steve Pylant (R-Winnsboro), Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport), and Talbot.

Which begs the question of why any female voter could, in good conscience, ever support Piyush Jindal or any of the Misogynistic Seventeen for even the most menial public office.

But I see your true colors
Shining through;
I see your true colors…

Posted in Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Politics, Veto | Tagged , , | 10 Comments »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

June 6, 2012 by tomaswell

“Over the last four and a half years, we have outperformed the national and southern economies, and in order to continue to attract business investment, we need to stay competitive with the rest of the country and the world.”

–Gov. Piyush Jindal, on signing into law two bills to “increase economic competitiveness” by creating a corporate headquarters relocation program.

Posted in Business, Economy, Governor's Office, Notable Quotables, Revenue, Taxes | 5 Comments »

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