[StBernard] Priorities overlap, differ for gubernatorial candidates

[Westley Annis]

Priorities overlap, differ for gubernatorial candidates
Economic health, education, ethics part of agendas
Mike Hasten 
mhasten at gannett.com 

BATON ROUGE - The four major gubernatorial candidates' plans for the state
aren't that different, but their top priorities and how they would
accomplish their goals vary widely.
Public Service Commissioner Foster Camp-bell, a Democrat from Elm Grove who
formerly served in the state Senate, sets passing a 6 percent tax on
imported oil and gas processed at Louisiana refineries as his top priority.
He says it would provide the funding to solve numerous problems plaguing the
state.


None of the other candidates back the idea. 

Campbell said his plan, which would enable elimination of personal and
business income taxes, also would supply funds for his other priorities -
improving roads and bridges, funding coastal erosion projects, restructuring
the health care delivery system and improving the education level of
Louisiana citizens.
Although his tax plan repeatedly failed when he served in the Senate,
Campbell said that as governor, it would not be difficult to get lawmakers
to approve a constitutional amendment authorizing the fee.

"Changing the political culture in our state is job one" if he is elected
governor, says U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal of Metairie, the only Republican among
the top four candidates. "If we fail to do this, we fail. It is that
simple."

Jindal relates many of the state's problems to weak ethics laws, so he
considers imposing stiffer requirements his top priority. Statistics roll
off his tongue: State ethics laws ranked 44th overall according to the
Center for Public Integrity; Louisiana ranks 46th overall in the Better
Government Association's Integrity Index; third most corrupt state in the
country in the 2004 Corporate Crime Reporter study; and "getting F grades on
our disclosure laws."

"What we need in government now is great managers," said independent
candidate John Georges, a New Orleans businessman who has never held elected
office. He maintains that the state would be in much better shape if it had
better people managing the money and the departments that spend it.

Georges' goal is to "put experienced people in charge" of handling what he
considers the state's priorities, including economic development, which is
his top priority, crime, health care, education, ethics and transportation
problems. "If I've got a choice between people with big ideas and
experience, I'll choose experience every day."

State Sen. Walter Boasso, a Democrat from Chalmette, said he doesn't really
have a top concern because "you can't just pick one thing to do at a time.
You've got to multitask to get the state moving. Everything ties in
together."

Here's how the candidates addressed different issues facing the state:


Economic development
Campbell says the state should help small businesses survive and prosper and
"quit trying to rope the biggest Brahma bull in the pasture" - referring to
the state's efforts to secure a German steel mill that went to Alabama. He
says his plan to eliminate all business and individual income taxes would
set off an economic boom.
To Georges, economic development covers a huge area. It includes a variety
of things, from completing the northern and southern sections of Interstate
49 and consolidating ports to incorporating the assistance of the lieutenant
governor in recruiting new businesses and the treasurer in developing a tax
revision plan to help existing businesses.

It also includes improving vocational education, making universities
specialize in their degree offerings to meet job demands, eliminating taxes
on business utilities, equipment used in manufacturing and business debt,
paying "special attention to the Delta parishes in northeast Louisiana" and
offering incentives to locate along the I-49 corridor.

"Economic development needs to be coordinated," Georges said. "We should not
take all of our money and put it in one project, like a steel mill. My
platform for economic development is not a 'Hail Mary' steel mill project."

Boasso said he would immediately call in every economic director in the
state and do a survey of businesses, asking "what can we do to keep you in
the state and what incentives do you need to expand. Long term, I'd go after
the Asian trade."

Since the West Coast trade lanes and ports are clogged with business, Asian
companies are coming through the Panama Canal and going to the East Coast
with goods, he said. Drawing them to Louisiana ports would "light it up like
a Christmas tree."

Jindal said the state should "get rid of the taxes our neighboring states
don't have" and focus more junior high and high school students on learning
a profession so they can fill many of the skilled labor jobs that companies
can't fill.

By funneling students who don't want to go to college into job training
programs at community and technical colleges, Louisiana could offer a "Day 1
Guarantee" that graduates are ready to go to work, Jindal said. If they
don't measure up, "we would re-train them for free."


Health care
To improve health care, Campbell said the state needs to build a new
teaching hospital in New Orleans and new public hospitals where facilities
are decrepit. He said they should be patterned after the LSU Health Sciences
Center in Shreveport and have excellent staffs that will attract paying
patients, as well as the indigent.
He also supports the state plan to have "medical homes" that will provide
community care so people won't go to hospital emergency rooms for minor
problems.

Boasso said he would push a "hybrid program" that would offer a chance for
insurance for the working poor but keep a charity clinic and hospital system
operating for the indigent.

"We've got to get people out of emergency rooms and get them in the posture
so they can get primary care," he said. New public hospitals would be
constructed with "Shreveport absolutely the model."

Georges supports the move to provide more localized care through public and
private clinics to reduce the number of people using hospital emergency
rooms. He favors building new public hospitals in New Orleans and Baton
Rouge, "using the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport as a model."

Jindal said health care problems could be addressed by offering insurance
coverage to families who can't afford it. The state could secure federal
Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability waivers to pay for it and
"if an employer is willing to help, the state could pay some of the cost" of
providing insurance to lower-paid employees.


Education
Campbell wants to use some of the processing tax money to bring teacher
salaries to the national average, put more money into classrooms and to get
more use out of schools. He says schools should be open during the summers
and at night offering education and job training to adults and drop-outs
seeking to better themselves.
"Don't tell me it can't be done," he said. "Instead of pet projects, we'll
put money into big projects."

Georges' priorities include improving education as part of economic
development. His plan includes improving vocational education and making
universities specialize in their degree offerings to meet the demands of the
job market.

He wants to make pre-kindergarten available to all 4-year-olds, create a
special needs program for students with disabilities, maintain teacher pay
at the Southern average with incentives for doing a better job, speed up
high school redesign and offer laptop computers to all students at reduced
rates.

Jindal said he would push legislation spelling out what teachers could do to
discipline students and require administrators to support them. Also, "we
need to be more aggressive with using alternative learning centers," he
said.

Boasso is the only candidate who says he wants to do something with the
state's accountability program, a system that is ranked one of the best in
the country. He said many people have misinterpreted him.

Boasso said he would prefer to administer a test based on the curriculum at
the beginning of the year to see where students are, then administer the
same test in the middle of the year. That would show teachers where they are
succeeding and where they need to work more. Then the same test would be
administered at the end of the year to determine how much the students
learned during the year.

Critics have charged that Boasso's plan eliminates the pass-fail power of
the LEAP exam in fourth and eighth grades and would go back to social
promotion.

"I'm not going to promote a child just for the sake of promotion," he said.
"I just want to put everything on the table to see what can be done to
improve education. I want to focus on students and not statistics."


Ethics
Implementing tougher ethics laws is Bobby Jindal's main priority but other
candidates say that's not the most important thing that needs to be done.
Jindal says he wants to impose "real penalties so you not just lose your
job, you go to jail. We're making it clear that we expect leaders to serve
the state, not themselves." He wants a "full-time independent ethics
administrator with power to enforce the laws."

He said he wants to outlaw legislators working for lobbying firms (which
already is against the law), require full disclosure of legislators'
finances, prohibit lawmakers doing business with the state (which is
currently allowed if lawmakers file a disclosure form), strengthen lobbyist
disclosure laws and impose laws that require offenders to lose their
positions and be subject to jail time.

Asked about ethics, Campbell said all the emphasis Jindal is placing on the
issue is "baloney. I know how to change ethics: Get the lobbyists off the
floors of the House and Senate and limit the number of bills that can be
introduced."

Lobbyists are allowed to sit in seats set aside for the public, pass notes
to lawmakers and talk to them during debates. Campbell wants them removed
from both houses of the Legislature so they can't influence votes.

Georges said his plan calls for imposing stronger financial disclosure
requirements, known as "glass pockets," prohibiting candidates for governor
from accepting contributions from anyone who does business with the state,
closing the loophole that allows legislators to receive free tickets to
events and adopting stronger lobbyist reporting laws.

Boasso said he would push the Legislature to approve the same "glass
pockets" bill he supported in this year's session, requiring legislators to
show all their income sources.


Transportation
All of the major candidates for governor support completing the construction
of I-49.
Louisiana needs to spend at least $1 billion a year improving its roads and
bridges and building new ones if the state is to even make a dent in the
current $14 billion backlog, Campbell said.

Georges says completing I-49 all the way from the Arkansas border to New
Orleans would be a major boost for the state's economy. He wants to
implement incentives for businesses locating along the corridor.

Besides I-49, "We need a loop in Lafayette," he said. "It's a thriving
economy. We don't need to wait until it's like Baton Rouge before we do
something."

To better fund road construction, Jindal said he favors the proposal to
transfer all transportation-related charges - like fees on car and truck
registration, driver's licenses and sales tax on vehicle purchases - to the
Transportation Trust Fund.

"Voters expected those taxes to go to the highway construction fund when
they approved them," he said, and the anticipated continued revenue growth
would more than cover that reduction in the state general fund.

Boasso also said he would shift transportation-related taxes and fees to
highway and bridge construction and use the $600 million to finance about $7
billion in bonds to make a major cut into the $14 billion construction
backlog.

CAN CUT HERE


Crime
Some of the candidates list crime among their top five priorities.
Georges proposes to redirect state police so it puts more troopers on the
road and fewer in office jobs, especially in the gaming division, where 153
of the 1,022 officers are employed.

That proposal has drawn criticism because although Georges sold his interest
in his video game distribution business to his partner the day he qualified
for governor, he is allowing his partner to pay it out over time. Critics
said that makes him still involved in the business.

Georges said he also wants to put more emphasis on rehabilitating and
training first-time offenders and to stop mixing them with longtime
criminals in jails.

Jindal said the state must do something to address the rising crime rates in
cities, even though "crime will continue to be a local problem. We're the
second most dangerous state in the nation."

Increased funding to crime labs would help speed up getting cases to court,
he said, and a statewide criminal database is needed so criminals can't move
around undetected.

Louisiana has had a statewide criminal database tied into the FBI National
Crime Information System and linked to every sheriff's department and police
force in the state for more than 20 years, said State Police Sgt. Marcus
Smith.

Boasso has a plan to "end the revolving door" of inmates by treating their
drug, alcohol or psychological problems, educating them and training them
for guaranteed jobs when they are released. He said inmates who pass a
battery of testing to make sure they are suited for such a program would go
through intense sessions in a compound separated from other prisoners.

"Just locking people up is not going to solve the problem," he said.


Insurance
Boasso said he wants to give homeowners a break on their high insurance
premiums by granting a tax break he tried in this year's session. A credit
would be granted for the difference between premiums paid before and after
Hurricane Katrina hit the state.
"I'm trying to make it affordable for people to live here," he said.

He also would push his "cherry-picking" legislation requiring insurers in
Louisiana to offer all kinds of insurance and not just auto and boat
policies that they know will make money for them and pass a law against
companies underpaying claims and dragging out settlements.


Coastal restoration
"It's time to do something about it," Boasso said about restoring
Louisiana's coastline.
He is proposing that the state purchase its own dredges and equipment to do
coastal restoration projects "and not wait for the federal government to do
it." Since the state must pay for a portion of the work, it would use the
money for equipment, train inmate labor to operate it and "move dirt 24-7."

Boasso said he would work with oil companies to supply the fuel for the
equipment.

Georges said he would sell the remainder of the tobacco settlement and use
the cash to back bonds to pay for coastal restoration projects.