When is enough, enough?

While our esteem legislators waste precious time passing symbolic legislation resulting in miniscule budgetary savings to plug a $1.6 billion state funding deficit, they continue to allow spending that adds significantly to that debt.

A good example is Jindal’s unrestricted spending in his quest to derail the Common Core Standards.  Our legislators permitted our Rhodes Scholar governor to hire the Faircloth Law Firm, run by Jimmy Faircloth, Jindal’s former executive counsel, to handle the case.  However, since Louisiana already has legal counsels in house, known as the Attorney General’s Office, whose salaries are already being paid with tax payers’ money, I wondered why our legislators did not attempt to stop this.  From Jindal’s point of view, I guess the fact that Faircloth and his law firm donated over $25,000 to his gubernatorial campaigns had nothing to do with his decision to add to the state’s debt.

However, the Common Core legal spending is not the only example of our legislators turning a blind eye to the state’s spending spree with Faircloth.  His law firm has received more than $1.1 million in contract work during the past two years from Jindal appointees and various state agencies.  Several were NO-BID contracts.

In addition to the Common Core case, Jimmy Faircloth is handling other high profile cases that include the defense of the governor's signature education laws creating a statewide voucher program, the rewriting of teacher tenure and pay policies, the LSU Board of Supervisors' closed-door presidential search, and the legal battle over the termination of the Medicaid provider Client Network Services.  It is actually very difficult to assess just how much money the state of Louisiana has paid for Faircloth’s services due to the numerous state entities contracting with him.

In 2010 our legislators even allowed a no-bid contract by the state’s attorney general office to hire the Faircloth Law Firm to handle the state's litigation against BP PLC for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a continuing cash cow for Faircloth.

Legal contracts are only one example of the significant rise in outside contracts entered into by the Jindal administration over the past 7 ½ years. .  In 2012 alone Louisiana government spent $5.28 billion on professional and consulting contracts.  Most recently, the stupidest one was the no-bid $5 million contract to the out-of-state firm Alvarez and Marshal to find ways to save money.  Need I say more.

It is already clear from the early proceedings of this year’s legislative session, that our legislators have no intention of cutting to the chase and dealing with one of the major cost wastes at the Baton Rouge capital, patronage contracts.  While legislators continue to waste time in the legislative session, the dooms day clock for Louisiana’s colleges and universities continues to tick.