Is Gov. Bobby Jindal now trying to pit university and college presidents/faculty against state workers?
That certainly seemed to be the case on Wednesday when he dangled a $100 million carrot in front of state college system presidents (and certain legislators) in the form of a promise that state colleges would share an extra $100 million on the condition that lawmakers pass his radical state retirement system package during the upcoming legislative session.
The tactic represents a new low for the governor as he attempts to play on the fears of colleges and university presidents that their institutions would take large hits as the result of yet another anticipated budgetary shortfall of $900 million in what is becoming a somewhat tiring annual soap opera.
Jindal Chief of Staff Stephen Waguespack said the governor’s executive budget unveiled to lawmakers on Thursday would keep higher education funding at its present level in the 2012-13 fiscal year beginning July 1.
In a brazen attempt at outright bribery, Waguespack told the higher education officials that if the legislature approves Jindal’s proposal to overhaul the retirement system for thousands of state employees, the $100 million saved through cheaper retirement costs at universities would stay with the campuses and would not be used to stop cuts elsewhere in state government.
To that, we would add these words of caution to the university presidents: be careful, it’s a political promise and political promises have a habit of evaporating like yesterday’s cheap aftershave.
Jindal’s suggestion is calculated to build support for his proposed retirement changes among legislators with colleges in their districts. Those changes would, if approved, increase rank-and-file state employee contributions by 3 percent, shrink benefits and push back the age for collecting retirement payments. New state employees would be shifted from defined benefits to defined contributions similar to cheaper 401(k) type accounts.
Such an obvious ploy should be beneath a governor who purports to eschew politics as usual. And make no mistake, this is politics as usual: pure extortion of targeted legislators through anxious college presidents to garner votes necessary to pass a controversial legislative package.
It’s enough to make one sit back and ask, “What’s next?”
What tactic will the most ethical, most transparent, most accountable governor employ next to get his way in his efforts to push through an agenda aimed at destroying public education, slashing state employee retirement and health care benefits, privatizing state agencies and services and shoving thousands of dedicated state employees onto the unemployment rolls.
There may not be a lot of public sympathy out there for state employees, but these people are our neighbors, our relatives, our children’s teachers, and others who provide services across the civilian spectrum on a daily basis.
You may not care for the plight of state workers but they touch our lives each and every day, whether you know it or not.
Rest assured, Jindal has a much larger agenda than what is best for the State of Louisiana. His every move, every action, is carefully calculated to benefit businessmen and corporations who have a vested interest in privatization, who see profit in school vouchers and charter schools, who stand to gain financially by a relaxation of regulations special tax breaks, and who have invested in this governor’s political career.
It’s no accident that he has steadfastly, in the face of one fiscal crisis after another, year after year, refused to consider any increase in corporate taxes.
Jindal hopes those corporations have bigger plans for him.
And there’s your real carrot.
