Timber theft bill is passed By Tom Aswell • Baton Rouge The 2011 regular legislative session has come and gone and as we might say up here in the north Louisiana hinterlands, the upshot was that Gov. Bobby Jindal got his come-uppance. Taken to the woodshed, got 'is ears pinned back, got took down a notch or two are a few more samplings of local colloquialisms that mean pretty much the same thing. No matter which term you might use, Jindal got-or should have gotten-a good dose of humility. We say should have because there were many occasions he seemed so out of touch that one could not be sure if he was aware of what the great unwashed were thinking. At other times he seemed to have a case of terminal tunnel vision-especially on issues like taxes and privatization. Timber theft bill passes There were moments, temporary though they may have been, when sanity appeared to prevail. HB-184 by Rep. Dorothy Sue Hill (D-Dry Prong), for example, protects co-owners and co-heirs in matters concerning timber theft The bill, which has been sent to the governor for his signature, would require consent from co-owners and co-heirs in order to cut or remove timber on co-owned land. It also would add them as recipients of civil damages in the amount of three times fair market value of trees cut or removed from co-owned land and would also award them reasonable attorney fees and court costs. The House vote on passage of HB-184 was 93-0. Ground Water Management SB-48 by Sen. Gerald Long (R-Winnfield) also passed the Senate with no dissenting votes and was sent to the governor. That bill changes the makeup of the Ground Water Management Advisory Task Force and provides that 15 members shall constitute a quorum. In all, the bill provides for 44 members of the task force which is charged with assisting the commissioner of conservation and the Ground Water Resource Commission in the continued development of a statewide ground water resource management program. Museum Funding bill SB-217 by Sens. Long and Francis Thompson (D-Delhi) would transfer the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame from the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism (CRT) to the Secretary of State. The most obvious effect of that proposed change is that where present law requires CRT to request necessary funding for the museum and further requires the governor to include funding in his executive budget, the new law would only authorize the Secretary of State to request and authorize the governor to include funding for the facility. SB-217 passed both the House and Senate with only one dissenting vote in each chamber but had not been sent to the governor as of June 23, the last day of the session.\par }{\plain In January, we reported on the state's glut of boards and commissions, pointing out that there were more than 500 boards and commissions and more than 6,000 members. Well, Rep. M.J. "Mert" Smiley (R-St. Amant) decided to do something about it. HB-639, approved by 87-0 in the House and 36-0 in the Senate and sent on to the governor, would slash the number of boards and commissions by....eight. Oh, he tried to cut the number by nine, but someone stuck an amendment in his bill that removed the Mississippi River Bridge Authority from the bill, thereby retaining its existence. If Jindal signs off on Smiley's bill, gone are the Emergency/Disaster Medicine Review Panel, the Louisiana Governor's Mansion Commission, the Hurricane Katrina Memorial Commission, the Small Business Entrepreneurship Commission, the Louisiana Innovation Council, the Louisiana Conservation and Hurricane Protection Tourist Center Commission, the Youth Enhanced Services Consortium, and the Offshore Terminal Authority Board of Commissioners (the terminal authority, however, will remain in existence). But for the real guts of the session, Jindal ran in to unanticipated resistance in his efforts to sell state prisons in Allen, Winn, and Avoyelles parishes. The facilities in Allen and Winn are already run by private companies but Jindal wanted to sell all three prisons outright. That effort fell short in committee by a single vote. He ran into even more opposition in his efforts to sell the Office of Group Benefits but that issue is still up in the air. Rumors circulating around the Capitol said Jindal will move forward with the privatization of the health insurer for state employees, retirees and dependents. The governor dug his heels in on his adamant refusal to raise or impose new taxes while pushing for more and more corporate tax exemptions. At the same time, he endorsed an $84 million college tuition increase while gutting university academic programs and laying off instructors and professors. Meanwhile, he vetoed a renewal of a 4-cent cigarette tax slated to go off the books in July of 2012 and then withstood a spirited attempt by the House to override his veto. Rep. Jim Fannin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was one of the 11 who originally voted for the tax renewal but then switched votes on the veto override vote which got only 58 of the 70 votes needed for the required two-thirds to override. He froze state civil service employee salaries for a second consecutive year but attempted to imposed a 3 percent increase in employee contributions to the state retirement system-not to help eradicate the system's unfunded liability but to direct the revenue into the state's general fund to help reduce the state's $1.6 billion deficit, which state employees had no part in creating. Non-government organizations (NGOs) that in the past have been able to rely on a generous legislature to help fund their projects this year found the well was dry as were new construction projects in legislators' home districts. While the governor eventually prevailed in obtaining Senate confirmation of cabinet-level appointees, it was only after acrimonious confirmation hearings on Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, Deputy Commissioner Mark Brady, Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals Bruce Greenstein, and Board of Regents for Higher Education member Al Antie by the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. Jindal was not so successful in his bid to merge the University of New Orleans with Southern University New Orleans. When the dust had settled on that issue, it appeared that UNO would leave the LSU system and become part of the University of Louisiana system while Louisiana Tech in Ruston would replace UNO in the LSU system. As all these controversies and issues were swirling about, Jindal and the legislature wrestled with ways to close a gaping $1.6 billion state budget deficit. The House ended up slashing Jindal's budget by some $200 million but the Senate promptly restored the cuts with annually "found" money. It's a familiar song with Capitol observers: budget crisis, hand wringing, and then suddenly, millions of dollars are inexplicably "found." This year $25 million was FEMA money from hurricanes Gustav and Ike, $25 million in leftover Community Development Block Grant funds, $33 million from the Office of Group Benefits in money appropriated for state agencies' share of an anticipated rate increase that in fact was not implemented, $10 million in higher education money, and $29 million in unused funds from the Interim Emergency Board. It was also a year in which the state's top public education official and the head of the state Recovery School District (RSD) both resigned mid-session. Jindal ran into opposition in his recommendation for the replacement of State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek who resigned only a couple of weeks after RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas. John White of New York was named to replace Vallas and Jindal tried to promote White to Pastorek's job only two weeks after White landed in New Orleans to take over RSD. While all this was going on, the state is still awaiting approval of its congressional reapportionment plan that reduced Louisiana's congressional delegation from seven to six members. Yes, the 2011 legislative session has been quite interesting but as Yogi Berra would be the first to tell us, "It ain't over 'til it's over." |