More than you want to know about Louisiana retirement “reform” and higher education troubles

What’s going on in Louisiana? It seems like the patients are now running the insane asylum. 

Rather than giving you yet another analysis of the current insanity, I will provide a series of articles and websites for you to discover the facts for yourself. If I am missing something important, please contact me.

Louisiana is under attack by two groups, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) (http://www.alec.org/) and Blueprint Louisiana (http://www.blueprintlouisiana.org/). Blueprint Louisiana is our very own ALEC, Jr. They are behind the destruction of pensions in Louisiana. ALEC, Blueprint, and Gov. Bobby Jindal's limitless ambition to become President.

ALEC

ALEC is the major group behind most Louisiana bills:

See my "Talk About the South" column in the Hammond, La. Sunday Star, April 22, 2012: "Devil has had the money long enough" - http://www.hammondstar.com/articles/2012/04/23/opinion/columnists/8294.txt

Articles of note on ALEC:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/13/150528572/as-pressure-mounts-companies-flee-coalition

http://louisianavoice.com/2012/04/11/3488/

http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed

http://alecexposed.org

How do bills get written in Louisiana? You don't actually believe the average legislator could write a bill, do you? Many of them can hardly read the bills they file. http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2605733-123/our-views-fannins-candor-speaks

Louisiana ALEC chair quit the organization recently. The group has become toxic:

http://www.gregcromer.net/2012/04/17/411/

https://www.facebook.com/RepresentativeCromer

http://louisianavoice.com/2012/04/18/first-it-was-corporations-bailing-out-now-the-parade-of-louisiana-legislators-exiting-alec-membership-begins/

Get to know why Louisiana is so broke. Tax breaks for select companies, a Legislative Auditor's report. Bet a dollar to a doughnut ALEC had some model legislation for this: http://app1.lla.state.la.us/PublicReports.nsf/E9F217C786FEEE56862579B30065B41C/$FILE/0002737B.pdf

PENSION “REFORM”

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor issued a 38-page legal analysis that says the pension plans are illegal (Strasburger-Price report): http://app1.lla.state.la.us/PublicReports.nsf/8CD9E352857E67EC862579D1007FAF12/$FILE/00028CB2.pdf

Louisiana “pensionomics" article, return on pension dollars:

http://lasersonline.org/uploads/Factsheet_LA_Pensionomics_2012.pdf

Pension Loses--April 20, 2012--Baton Rouge Advocate piece--the brain drain to come:

http://theadvocate.com/home/2618180-125/pension-loss-cited

The bill as it is written exempts school teachers, but not college professors:

http://www.lasersonline.org/ uploads/ SummaryofSubstituteSB51.pdf

A number of proposals cleared the Senate Retirement Committee on April 16, 2012, unanimous votes. Here’s an article on what happened:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/04/gov_jindals_pension_chages_mov.html

Why the rush? Read the Times Picayune: “Retirement bills are moving through the Louisiana Legislature too fast, critics say”: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/04/critics_say_retirement_bills_m.html

Why now? Gov. Bobby Jindal’s national ambitions. Hear Gov. Jindal’s education “scorecard” for his RNC speech in Tampa this August, a short audio with a Republican Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member (Pensions are a part of the scorecard.), April 9, 2012:
http://forgotston.com/2012/04/10/bese-member-reveals-jindals-motives/

The Louisiana pensions are solvent and are doing far better after the upturn in the stock market. We are not California or Illinois. They are models of solvency, good management, and return on investment. The only major problems we’ve ever had were legislative mismanagement until the mid-1980s and the recent Great Recession.

Latest actuarial report on all pensions (UAL numbers are even better now than when the report was written.): http://app1.lla.state.la.us/PublicReports.nsf/0/5ADE068FB8AE2EFF8625798200554BEF/$FILE/000257B7.pdf

All Louisiana actuarial reports: http://www.lla.state.la.us/reports_data/actuaryreports/

Gov. Jindal’s news conference on pensions, January 26, 2012:

http://theadvocate.com/home/1897976-125/jindal-releases-pension-changes.html

STATE EMPLOYEES OF LOUISIANA DO NOT PAY INTO SOCIAL SECURITY. 

READ WHY THIS IS A PROBLEM

There are two provisions of federal law that destroy the possibility of receiving Social Security for almost all state workers in Louisiana:

Windfall Elimination Provision

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10045.html

Government Pension Offset

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10007.html

HIGHER EDUCATION TROUBLES

See the February 9, 2012, press release: “Gov. Jindal: Budget Protects Higher Ed, Transforms K-12 Schools, Reforms Pension System, Expands Health Care Services, Does Not Raise Taxes": http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=3261

Coverage of the issues in one of our major newspapers:

“Colleges Take Another Hit” – Baton Rouge Advocate op-ed - February 19, 2012:
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2067754-123/our-views-colleges-take-another.html

"Editorial on Colleges Insightful" – Advocate letter written by Dayne Sherman - February 27, 2012:
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2135081-123/letter-editorial-on-colleges-insightful.html

“Please, Mister, Hit Me Again” – Advocate op-ed - February 27, 2012:

http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2035282-123/our-views-please-mister-hit.html

“LSU Students Counter ‘Gag Order’ on Budget” - Advocate article – March 9, 2012: 
http://theadvocate.com/home/2270799-125/students-counter-gag-order-on.html

“A Slow Leak for Colleges" – Advocate op-ed - March 20, 2012:
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2310047-123/our-views-a-slow-leak

American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Report on Higher Education in Louisiana:
http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/87B69D3C-788E-437A-A613-9B7D5A694DFE/0/ULSystemReportApril2012.pdf

Another view of the AAUP report on Higher Education in Louisiana:
http://ulsystem.edu/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=451

HOW TO KEEP INFORMED

Three Facebook groups are dedicated to state retirement issues:

Fight Back Louisiana: https://www.facebook.com/groups/109118642507269/

Pension Fight Club: facebook.com/groups/pension2012/

LA Pension 2012: https://www.facebook.com/pension2012

Louisiana Pension Bulletin Board: http://www.pension2012.org/

Louisiana Voice: http://louisianavoice.com/

CB Forgotston, “The Mullet Scribe”: http://forgotston.com/

Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana: http://www.trsl.org/main/

LASERS: http://www.lasersonline.org/site.php

My social media outlets:

Facebook - facebook.com/daynesherman

Twitter - Tweet the South - twitter.com/TweettheSouth

Talk About the South Blog - daynesherman.blogspot.com/

Website - daynesherman.com

 

HOW TO CONTACT THE LEGISLATORS

Contact information for Louisiana Senators: http://senate.la.gov/senators/Offices.asp

Contact information for Louisiana State Representatives (House):
http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/H_Reps_FullInfo.asp

The most important people are your two state legislators and the members of the House and Senate Retirement Committees.

Senate Retirement Committee: http://senate.la.gov/Retirement/Assignments.asp

House Retirement Committee: http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Cmtes/H_Cmte_RE.asp

“Who are your state Senators and Representatives?”

http://www.legis.la.gov/ - Go to the bottom of the webpage. Click on the question and type in your address.

Contact information for the Louisiana Governor:

Gov. Bobby Jindal

PO Box 94004

Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004

Phone: 225-342-7015 / 1 866-366-1121 (Toll Free)

Fax: 225-342-7099

E-mail form: http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor