Post mortem quotes du jour

"Do you know why the rest of the country thinks of us as fools? Because we give them reason to."

State Rep. Troy Hebert, D-Jeanerette

"I think and I fear that our friends in Washington think things are back
to normal.... We have to convince people in Washington that the crisis isn't over. It's just begun."

State Rep. Ernest Wooten, D-Belle Chasse

Quotes du jour

“Governor, you’re the only person who can save the region of greater New Orleans. Help us take the politics out of flood protection.”

State Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Chalmette, referring to the House effectively killing his bill to combine multiple southeast Louisiana levee districts under one board.

“I apologize to any drunken sailors I might have offended.”

State Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, referring to a statement he made earlier this week comparing FEMA to a drunken sailor.

"State government is going to be reduced whether we like it or not."

State Sen. Jay Dardenne, R-Baton Rouge.

No funeral planned for urban, rural funds

The loss of the urban and rural development funds in the revised budget is either the beginning a historic fight in the capitol or the end of an era – or error, depending on your perspective.

The Office of Urban Development and the Office of Rural Development are two of the most sacred cows in Louisiana state government, and the elimination of their funding by Gov. Kathleen Blanco may be viewed as one of the more “daring and bold” – a favorite phrase of the administration these days – she’s done since taking office.

Although most lawmakers have been generally protective of these funds, saying they are being used for good, most of those same lawmakers will admit the funds have been abused in the past. Most of the time, those admissions are pointed in the direction of the “other” fund.

Labeled by critics as slush funds, the urban and rural funds have been used for pay for food programs and water system repairs, respectively, among other items.

But there’s a hard division between the two. Rural white lawmakers generally get the use of the rural funds, while black lawmakers say grace over the urban funds. When the funds come under attack, the two groups team up for protection in what some lawmakers have dubbed the “Bubbas and the Brothas” caucus.

The elimination of the funds in Blanco’s executive order prior to the session and the elimination of the staff in a Senate committee budget amendment is an admission of recognition of how financially damaged the state is.

But look for those funds to make a come back as soon as the state approaches anything that looks like financial recovery.

Quotes du jour

“This is the first time we’ve had a natural disaster where the federal government has made us pay as we go.”

U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans.

“I know millionaires that got that $2,000.”

State Sen. Chris Ullo, D-Harvey, on the individual assistance money distributed by FEMA after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“I think part of the problem is a number of members of Congress don’t have an appreciation of the situation. I think it would be a good thing if they had a chartered plan of congresspersons to come into New Orleans to see what’s there.”

State Sen. C.D. Jones, D-Monroe.

“I’m trying to catch the signal to be on the governor’s team.”

State Sen. Robert Barham, R-Oak Ridge, who opposed a move Friday to let the state dip deeper into the Rainy Day Fund. The movement was led by a number of Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s floor leaders, but the administration opposes the change.

Date set for constitutional amendments

The Senate approved a bill setting April 29, 2006, as a date for a statewide vote on constitutional amendments.

There were at least 13 proposals filed in the special session for constitutional amendments

Quotes du jour

“I resent politicians criticizing Louisiana when there’s a cloud over Washington bigger than the state of Texas.”

State Sen. Robert Adley, D-Benton

“The concern about Louisiana is waning.”

State Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell

“We have a Republican Congress. We have a Republican Senate. We have a Republican president. We have a Republican congressional delegation… I just wanted you to know that we’re spending more than $3.8 billion every three days in Iraq.”

State Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa

“If I had a $3.8 billion debt I knew I couldn’t pay, I wouldn’t make the first payment.”

State Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell

“The only bad message coming out of Louisiana is coming out of these microphones.”

State Sen. Robert Adley, D-Benton

“The message is Louisiana is a good state. Louisiana didn’t build those levees. The Corps of Engineers built those levees.”

State Sen. Robert Adley, D-Benton

“New York got $20 billion for 16 acres of damage.”

State Sen. Robert Adley, D-Benton

Counseling anyone?

The Joint Committee on the budget approved a handful of new expenditures Thursday, with most of the money coming from federal sources.

One of the more curious deals was some $2.5 million of federal funds through the Office of Workforce Development. The project: hiring "reintegration" counselors – made up of hurricane survivors – to help other hurricane survivors with “career and life counseling.”

At least a bachelor’s degree is required, but not necessarily a degree in counseling.

And the pay for work: $40,000 for six months.

"It seems like we're doing a whole lot of assessing and not much servicing," said state Rep. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport.

If the state doesn't use the money, it has to be returned to Washington, lawmakers were told.

Big bill coming due

Louisiana lawmakers can juggle election dates, set up a statewide minimum building code, try to keep someone from buying a car damaged from the hurricanes and maybe even reinvent a school district.

But the Legislature is pretty convinced it can’t afford much more help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The state expects a bill from FEMA that, quite frankly, it probably can’t pay without inflicting major damage on state services – even with a three-to-five year payment plan.

As a matter of perspective, here’s what the $3.7 billion the state expects to owe FEMA looks like compared to the state budget before the hurricanes of August and September:

-- It’s almost $1 billion more than the Minimum Foundation Program, the state’s funding for public schools.

-- It’s eight times larger that all of the money budgeted for prisons, probation and parole services.

-- It’s almost 85 percent of the state $4.4 billion that the state was projected to receive in a 25-year payout in the 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.

Unemployment grows in committee

The storm scattered Louisiana people across the nation, and the unemployment benefit bills are coming into Louisiana from across the nation, too.

The numbers of unemployed seems to grow in explicably. In a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Budget Friday, the first number tossed out as the number of unemployed was 330,000. A few moments later, someone else cited 340,000 unemployed after the hurricanes. After a short time, another committee member said the number was 350,000.

At that rate, no one in Louisiana will be working by the time this special session ends.

Quote du jour

“The bad thing is we’ve got to pay back FEMA all that money. The worse thing is we can’t control how they’re spending.”

State Rep. Roy “Hoppy Hopkins, D-Oil City, on the estimated $3.7 billion Louisiana will owe the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster relief.

Bond bill bungled

The maneuvering on the administration’s proposal to borrow a bunch of money by selling bonds was something between a case of negligent suicide – if there is such a thing – and a massive legislative sniper attack.

Here’s the shorthand version of what the bill would do: It started out as a proposal to borrow $1 billion; Tuesday, it was amended to $600 million. It’s supposed to provide money so that local governments in south Louisiana don’t default on loans, money for bridge loans for south Louisiana small businesses to stay open or reopen, and money to help the state rebuild or repair some of its structures damaged in the hurricanes.

But the handling of House Bill 157, for all its good intent, was bungled on a number of levels.

1. TIMING, PART 1: Despite his words to the contrary, it looked like Appropriations Committee Chairman John Alario, D-Westwego, wanted to get the committee to approve the bill during a meeting Saturday. Moving a major piece of legislation on a Saturday – and any way you slice it, $1 billion or $600 million, it’s major – looks bad, even in a short special session. It also gave lawmakers who didn’t like the plan time to work against it among their cohorts.

2. PREPARATION: Blowing this one by the committee without greasing the skids of non-south Louisiana lawmakers was a mistake. Maybe if the administration of Gov. Kathleen Blanco had gone over a cohesive plan with north and central Louisiana lawmakers before the session and explained ahead of time what the logic was, they might have swallowed House Bill 157 as part of the plan. Admittedly, that’s a big maybe.

3. TEAMWORK: You’d think that proposing a big bond package would be something worth reviewing with the state treasurer, who leads the Bond Commission. But Treasurer John Kennedy clearly isn’t on Blanco’s “team.” All the talk about unity hasn’t included a lot of consultation with the state’s money man, and he ravaged the proposal after the House Appropriations Committee meeting Tuesday. Kennedy also said he plans to attend the next committee meeting to talk about the proposal, if it’s revived.

4. TIMING, PART 2: The money borrowing proposal was the next-to-last item on the committee agenda. Instead of going in that order, Alario brought up state Rep. Willie Hunter’s bill, then the borrowing bill. Hunter’s bill was the Legislative Black Caucus’ answer to the administration’s supplemental appropriations bill, and it was summarily killed by the committee. That certainly left no particular incentive for black members of the committee, who may have been on the fence about the borrowing bill, to support House Bill 157.

5. DETAILS: The lack of specificity in how local governments and small businesses would access the money from the state once the bonds were sold left several lawmakers with a cold feeling. Having cities, parishes or business owners apply to an agency of state government left lawmakers – who tend to like a lot more control than they generally get – feeling less than comfortable with the plan.

6. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The fact that the bill has stumbled twice will make it harder to pass, and it’s difficult to imagine how the administration can repair the bill enough to make it suitable for committee passage, much less floor action. One lawmaker estimates that of the 18-member committee, the bill may have had two lawmakers backing it, if it had come to a vote.

Quotes du jour

“The obligation the federal government is imposing on us is almost worse than the storm itself. We’d almost be better off if they didn’t bring us any aid.”

-- State Rep. Eric LeFleur, D-Ville Platte, on the amount the state will owe the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster aid.

“They will in essence leverage this state and leverage its futures for a long time”

-- Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc, on FEMA forcing the state to reimburse the agency for disaster aid.

“The two-ton gorilla is the federal government.”

-- Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc

“I think, at the end of the day, we might all need a little crisis counseling.”

-- State Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot

“We’ve all dealt with the federal government before. You’re dealing with someone who can print the money or they can stop printing the money.”

-- State Rep. Charlie DeWitt, D-Lecompte

“I’m going to put some lipstick on this pig and see if I can’t make it look a little better.”

State Rep. Cedric Glover, D-Shreveport, on a proposed supplemental budget. The bill was killed in committee.

Quotes du jour

“My bill was simply leaving the law as it is.”

-- State Sen. Julie Quinn, R-New Orleans, on the original version of her Senate Bill that was converted into a substitute bill including other proposals.

“There’s a big difference down here between what you can do and what they let you do.”

-- State Rep. Troy Hebert, D-Jeanerette, during a debate on a proposed House rule to force individual votes for each amendment of more than $100,000 to the state budget or the capital outlay bill.

“Some of these people need some larger Fruit of the Looms.”

-- State Rep. Troy Hebert, D-Jeanerette, during the same debate.

“I'm concerned that this whole state needs to be involved with tax incentives. All of the state is participating in the agony placed upon New Orleans.”

-- State Rep. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi.

Half-way there?

Day 9 of the 17-day special session and the biggest beast of the session is starting to move.

The supplemental appropriations bill, basically the replacement for the current state budget and the mechanism to reduce the state spending to offset massive revenue losses, is now out of the House Appropriations Committee.

Next, it goes to the full House for consideration (a.k.a., "argument," or "floor fight").

So far, senators and representatives have filed 267 bills in the special session, not counting resolutions.