forgotston.com

A good ol’ boy

Yesterday the “Roads Scholar” announced that he had appointed a couple of former leges, Rickey Hardy and Mert Smiley, to the State Board of Pardons.

Membership on the Board is, by law, a full-time job with full-time salary. Additionally, the members cannot hold any other appointive or elective position. See law here.

The rest of the story

Not mentioned in Team Jindal’s press release was that, apparently, Smiley’s appointment is a temporary one. I say “apparently” because otherwise the appointment will be illegal. Last fall Smiley was elected as Assessor of Ascension Parish. He will not take office until January of 2013.

Hardy, who was defeated for reelection to the lege, will be rewarded with not only a job, but a nice boost in his retirement benefits. Hardy, a former local elected official, was one of a handful of leges who were “grandfathered” into the state retirement system.

Additionally, Hardy’s new gig will exacerbate the Unfunded Accrued Liability (”UAL”) of the State Employees’ Retirement system. If Jindal is serious about his just-announced, pension reform plans, he needs to stop making the problem worse.

Despite Jindal claims to be not like his predecessors; these appointments are examples of same-old-same-old.

C.B.

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Our tax dollars

Below is a statement sent out last week by Aaron Baer, Deputy Communications Director for the governor’s office. In other words, your tax dollars paid for this commentary about a Louisiana citizen.

Regardless of how one feels about the “Road Scholar’s” education reform package or how one feels about the comments made, should the taxpayers of Louisiana should be paying for such commentaries?

Given the problems facing our state, one would think that public servants would have more important things to do. Especially, since the media has already covered the issue.

Mr. Baer, if you want to take a shot at me, please do so. However, do it on your own time with your own computer and email server.

C.B.
NOTE: As some of you may have seen, Michael Walker Jones, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of educators, recently made some incredibly offensive remarks about low-income parents saying they have “no clue” when it comes to choosing the best education for their children

For those that may have missed it (The Advocate), Mr. Jones FULL quote read like this “If I’m a parent in poverty I have no clue because I’m trying to struggle and live day to day.”

Without question, this type of rhetoric is insulting and inexcusable. As Governor Jindal put it yesterday, those comments are the type of top-down, elitist mentality that has hurt our public education system. In fact, it’s the exact reason why we need reform. Every parent and child – regardless of income – should have a choice in the school system. Mr. Jones apparently disagrees and thinks his union or the government knows best.

Given the opportunity to revisit his comments, after Governor Jindal and parents spoke out about his insulting remark, Mr. Jones was only able to muster the excuse that’s not what he meant. He then proceeded to defend his initial position.

What’s clear is that there are many questions left unanswered…

· Does Mr. Jones stand by these offensive comments?

· Has Mr. Jones spoken with parents directly to tell them he thinks they have “no clue” how to educate their child?

· Does Mr. Jones think only wealthy parents should have the choice of what school their children attend?

· Does LAE President Joyce Haynes or LFT President State Monaghan agree with Mr. Jones?

· Is it the position of Louisiana’s unions that they, not parents, know what’s in a child best interest?

Aaron Baer
Deputy Communications Director
Office of the Governor

1 CB 7:00 am

“Watchcat” (a complimentary term) Jeremy Alford has written an excellent report on the fiscal “ticking time bomb” known as the Unfunded Accrued Liability (”UAL”) in our state retirement systems. See Report here.

While others have mentioned the UAL problem Jeremy explains how this massive debt will directly affect you and me. It will mean reduced government services while we pay the same or higher taxes.

Our state constitution mandates that payment of retirement benefits are the first priority on all available state revenues. In other words, all government services would have to cease if it became necessary to use all of our tax dollars to pay retirement benefits.

The UAL has grown from $5.8 BILLION, 25 years ago, to $18.5 BILLION today and this number is estimated to continue to grow exponentially.

The growth of this debt is proof that our elected officials have failed to address or to address adequately the problem.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. Ask your leges what their specific plans are to address this problem.

C.B.

1 CB 7:00 am