Gov. Jindal can claim victory in the just completed legislative session but - thank goodness - the facts prove otherwise.
[Editor's Note: The following letter to the editor was submitted by Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite.]
Gov. Jindal can claim victory in the just completed legislative session but - thank goodness - the facts prove otherwise.
As the session started, Democrats in the House of Representatives pronounced the governor's retirement package dead on arrival. For the most part, we were right.
Of the six parts of his package, five failed. Drastically delaying the retirement age, dead. Increasing employees' contributions, dead. Reducing the benefits of future retirees, dead. All but eliminating cost-of-living increases for retirees, dead. Trying to merge two retirement systems at no savings to the taxpayer, dead. They were all unwise, unfair and - for the most part - unconstitutional.
More importantly, most of those bills did nothing to reduce the state's retirement debt by even a penny.
The governor's scheme to create a "cash balance" benefit for new employees - a plan that would deny most employees dignity and security in retirement - did squeak though, but only because of a tortured twisting of House rules.
That's how the governor won every "victory" he claims. He and his allies resorted to breaking rules, ignoring the constitution and other excesses like springing 47-page amendments onto 3-page bills without giving committee members time to even read the massive changes.
They hold up that conduct as fair and transparent. I would call it unworthy of our people.
The governor was a bit more successful with his education package but only after more flouting of the rules and rushing through massive and complicated legislation. On the last day of the session, the House approved the $3.4 billion plan that funds local school systems with 51 votes when - by a rule that the speaker of the House ignored - that legislation needed 53 votes to pass.
As many predicted, serious flaws in the governor's education package are already being exposed. The education department has already approved for taxpayer-funded vouchers schools that don't have the teachers, classrooms, books or equipment to teach hundreds of new students. More worrisome, many of these schools do not have any history of delivering educational excellence.
This is not about right or left; it's about right and wrong. Just look at how Democrats and Republicans joined to oppose the flawed MFP legislation.
I and many of my colleagues work in Baton Rouge on behalf of Louisiana workers, Louisiana families and Louisiana students. This session, we saw the needs of our people lose out to the governor's personal political ambitions.
Rep. John Bel Edwards
Chairman, Louisiana House Democratic Caucus
Amite, LA