Legislators have not earned gushing thanks

The groveling behavior of our state’s college and university presidents and chancellors, thanking our legislators for not cutting their funding in next year’s state budget, was indeed quite pitiful.  With the exception of the chancellor of LSU, all resembled a homeless person who was suddenly given some loose change to buy a meal by the very individual responsible for his present condition.

These legislators, that our illustrious educational leaders saw fit to shower with gleeful thank yous, voted repeatedly over the past 7 years to cut higher education funding over $800 million to a level not seen in this state since the 1950’s.  In fact, under the guidance of these same legislators, Louisiana has reduced per-student funding, on an inflation adjusted basis, more than any other state in the nation since 2008.

Yet, the leaders of our state educational institutions saw fit to provide local media outlets with public thanks to our legislators.

A more realistic response would have been NO response at all, or perhaps the simple one liner, ”It’s heartening to see that our legislators finally understand that education institutions in our state can no longer endure more financial funding  reductions.”

The really sad part about this entire undeserved outpouring of thanks is that, in the end, all these leaders will most likely see additional cuts to higher ed and look even more foolish.  The reason being that the present proposed budget doesn’t fully fund Jindal’s privatization of the hospital system in our state.

The major corporations operating these hospitals have clearly stated that, unless they receive their funding requests, they will simply invoke the “opt out” option which was afforded them in their contracts, and cease operation of the regional hospitals.   These hospitals would then resort back to being state run and the national embarrassment for Jindal would be disastrous.

 Jindal is considered by many of the Republican power lords as a “health care wizard”, and this plan is the center piece of Jindal’s legacy.  Its failure would doom any hope of not only a presidential nod, but also any possible vice president, or more realistically, cabinet positon consideration.

It’s all about the politics, for it’s reelection time for most of our state legislators.  Something you’d assume the educational leaders in this state would understand.

My message to all the university and college leaders is, “Keep your mouths shut and start planning for additional funding cuts.”  

It’s Show Time At the Capital

Don’t be fooled by our legislators’ budgetary rhetoric in the House of Representatives.   The House has proposed 11 tax measures totaling approximately $615 million in additional funds to help plug the $1.6 billion deficit.   Our esteemed legislators have promised to dedicate all the new tax revenues to the state’s colleges and universities and claim that this money will protect higher ed from a 20% cut in funding next fiscal year.  Even with these measures, the budget is still $1 billion short.

However, the public needs to focus its attention on two aspects of these latest rescue funding bills.  One, they were collectively passed using political trickery, and two, with the exception of a measure dealing with taxing business inventory,  none will likely be approved by Jindal.  And ALL of our legislators are fully away of these facts.

The state constitution clearly states that all tax type revenue bills must be passed by a 2/3 vote of the legislators in the House.   This was not the case.  Most were passed by a simple majority and will be subject to legal challenge. 

Not one of the bills passed included an informal polling of the legislators to see if they would support a veto override session if Jindal doesn’t go along with them.  In fact, in all the dribble that has be pouring out of the state capital these last three weeks, there is NO mention that such action will most likely have to occur.  One would expect that, if the legislators were sincerely concerned about getting their bills approved by the governor, they would indicate to him, up front, that they have enough votes to override any veto threat. That might certainly alter Jindal’s behavior, since he is so concerned about his national image. 

Now it’s show time for the Senate, for this week they will have to decide if they will approve the House bills and send them to Jindal for his signature.

 

Although I do not purport to be a psychic along the lines of Dionne Warwick, I’ll go out on a limb and predict that our legislators in the House are all about putting on a grand show with full knowledge of how this will all end at the final curtain.  Most of these revenue bills will never make it out of the governor’s office or will end up in legal challenges resulting in another 20% reduction in college funding and even more cuts to health care.  And all our legislators will respond with, “Well we tried.  The governor just wouldn’t go along with us,” in an attempt to absolve them of all responsibility.

Let the show begin!

Senator John Alario Shares the Shovel

Senator John Alario has been hanging around the state capital almost as long as the dinosaurs inhabited our earth.  Well maybe not quite that long, but since 1972.  He was twice speaker of the House before becoming Senate president.  A longtime Democrat who served in a leadership position under former Gov. Edwin Edwards, Alario became a Republican in recent years and joined the legislative leadership under Gov. Bobby Jindal.  Alario has faced no opponent since 2007.

Tuesday, Mr. Alario made the announcement that the present $1.6 billion budget shortfall can’t be fixed this legislative session because it is simply too big.  He admitted that, “We don’t have time now to come up with a long term solution.”  “The hard work will come next year.”  Consequently the cuts will be forth coming to health care and to a lesser extent education.  Mr. Alario’s statements make it appear as though he has no responsibility for this present mess, when in fact he and the rest of Jindal’s minions had 7 years to prevent this budget catastrophe, but instead chose to support Jindal’s “kick the can down the road” solution.  Something Alario is perpetuating yet again.

John Alario, as Senate president, was the point man for ALL of Bobby Jindal’s budgets including this year’s.  During those years he stood side by side with Jindal as he continued to dig the budgetary grave that has finally come to fruition this year.

Not once during the seven years of smoke and mirrors budgets did this man, considered by many as one of the most powerful lawmakers in the legislature, even remotely challenge Jindal.  In fact, he even blocked attempts to call special sessions to override Jindal’s vetoes of bills offered by some legislators to prevent the present budget collapse.  Alario has been a loyal puppet to Jindal and has been rewarded many perks for this loyalty.

However, he need not insult the intelligence of the Louisiana voter by acting as though he is trying to solve a budgetary situation that was simply handed to him by an incompetent governor.  John Alario shares equal responsibility with Jindal for the bankruptcy of Louisiana.

In six months the residents of Louisiana will get a chance to elect a new governor along with 144 legislators.  It's time to throw all these legislators out of office and start anew.

Let's get Serious About Finding Money for the State

From initial reports it appears that the 2015 Jazz and Heritage Festival will once again post record attendance figures despite the high ticket prices.  However, since the state years ago granted tax-exempt status to the operators of the festival, the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, an opportunity to score some significant cash for the state has been missed yet again.

When questions arise about the wisdom of this tax-exemption status the foundation always responds with the pat answer that they attempt to keep the ticket prices as low as possible and that sales tax would raise those prices for customers.   Obviously that is just B.S. because they continue to deal with the Ticket Master Corporation for the sale of online tickets which adds a sizable surcharge to each ticket purchase.  In fact, that fee is higher than my proposed 4% state sales tax additional cost.  Apparently, the Foundation has no problem with the Ticket Master increase.

Besides I am not suggesting that they pass the sales tax on to the customer, just pay it out of their profits.  Last year over 435,000 attended.   If sales tax had been assessed on these ticket purchases alone, over $1.2 million would have flowed into the state coffer.   Not bad for a seven day event.

The same can be applied to the Mercedes Benz Superdome and the Audubon Nature Institute, both of which also enjoy a tax-free status.  The dome charges $8.00 to $9.00 for a beer and yet NO sales tax is assessed on that purchase or on any food purchased along with it.  Again pay the sales tax out of the $8.00.

Just think of all the revenue the Zoo, the Aquarium, the Jazz Festival, the Saint’s games, and concerts could generate to plug the $1.6 billion deficit.  Bet our legislators won’t touch these sacred cows, but they have no problems cutting health care and education.

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.