Louisiana: The State We're In; 607

Funding for the production of Louisiana, the state we're in, is provided in part by the Ziegler Foundation of Jennings, Gulf state utilities helping Louisiana bridge the gap to our energy future, and the Kaiser aluminum and chemical corporation. Music

Good evening, I'm Beth George, welcome to this edition of Louisiana, the state we're in. This week we have reports on a wide variety of topics from the problems of arson in Louisiana to an examination of a shaky state retirement program, and finally we'll take a trip on an old-fashioned wagon train, but we begin our program with an update on a far different kind of train ride. Late this week's state police arrested three people in connection with the disastrous train derailment in Livingston, Louisiana, that forced thousands to flee from their homes.

Authorities reported that one of those arrested was a female clerk for Illinois Central Gulf, who was allegedly at the controls of the train at the time of the derailment, while investigations continued into the cause of the accident. Residents were given the good news this week that they could go home, but Robin Eckings reports that what should have been a happy event was marred by some serious concerns. With that signal from state police on a wet gray morning, most Livingston residents were allowed to cross the barricades that had kept them from their homes for exactly two weeks. Each driver was handed a special flyer prepared by the health department offering instructions for dealing with food and other materials that could have been exposed to chemicals released after the derailment. Might have been exposed to air, discard all vegetables in their gardens, and to completely vacuum their houses and wash all dishes, pots, pans, and clothing. The biggest worry for those living close to the derailment site was whether or not they had a home to go back to.

Shattered windows and cracks in previously solid foundations were common, but to many that kind of damage was a minor inconvenience compared to what several other homes had suffered. Less than a block from Mrs. Hood's house, several other families were trying unsuccessfully to set their minds at ease. A small area lying next to the still smoking wreckage remained locked off. Officials told worried residents that the air in that area was not safe enough to breathe. That argument didn't set very well with some. Well, they won't say anything about the air being good over here or not. They just say that in my area that the air is bad. That they won't allow me in that area. Is that concerning you? Yes, because I don't understand the point. Across the street, the air is supposedly good enough that the people can go in, out on opposite side of them, and I'm not allowed to go in.

It doesn't make any sense. How can they cut off one area and not the other? While residents continue their inspection, state police, and hazardous materials specialist were continuing to try and burn off chemicals remaining in the damaged tank cars. As a vinyl chloride car erupted in smoke, there was some panic among residents who feared yet another explosion similar to those that had rocked their town in the aftermath of the accident. Satisfied that their houses were still standing, the next concern for residents was their health. Although state officials had promised no one would be allowed back into Livingston until it was safe, many weren't easily convinced. Health and Department of Natural Resources officials attempted to calm fears in a meeting at a local church. You've got six cars that were supposed to be midnight, okay? I heard the news and the news yesterday that he was going to ignite three more. The next time I heard the news at six o'clock, you can go home and that's why everybody is concerned here. What we're telling everybody, it is so low that it is not enough to be concerned with, that there are people who live in major cities that are exposed on a daily basis to 10 times

the quantity that you have here. I'm not a technical expert in that field. I can take the advice of the technical people to say that there's no danger from that product in those cars. Most of the residents present did want to hear more from the technical experts. Officials agreed to come back later on in the week with more specific information on what had been done to protect the town. For over two hours Thursday night, residents of Livingston came to this elementary school gym to ask more questions to stay the officials about possible contamination. Still, after it was all over, the groups seemed to leave as divided as it came. Well, I believe it's just a smoke screen at the governor sent these people out here for a big hassle. I really am truly working in those plants, knowing for that stuff come from, knowing the danger they are. I'm sure they're not satisfied in what the people are talking about in there.

I'm just glad to be here. I'm glad we're home. I'm glad we're here talking instead of identifying bodies, which we could very easily have done. This is over. Let's get on with our lives. There's more than two dozen state and federal officials on hand answered more questions from residents and repeated assurances that everything had been done to protect their health. The contractual consultants to the Office of Health are composed of a team from the U2 Lane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The decision that no environmental hazards existed was based on the recommendations of those consultants and the concurrence of the staff of the Office of Health. And again, I say that I'm very proud of our employees. They are dedicated employees as you are in your respective jobs, and they, in my opinion, did a tremendous job. And I know that we work perfect, and I know that we overlooked some things now and then, but I guarantee you that by as near as perfect as anybody could be under those circumstances.

As Secretary Simman now indicated, if you want more information, specifics about our testing program, we'd be happy to meet with you and show you the actual reports that we have received on that data. Only the state veterinarian had some bad news to share. Dr. William Fairchild told the group that some high levels of lead had been found in the milk of cows from the area, but he emphasized that the testing is not complete and added there may not be a problem. Some environmental experts in the state are worried about all the good news. Ross Vincent says the state has had a history of ignoring long-term effects of pollution. And some of the examples that I think a lot of people are familiar with are some of the problems that are experienced by people who live in the immediate vicinity of hazardous waste facilities, people who drink the water from the Mississippi River, and some of the other areas where the very best you can say about the position taken by the state, which has basically been there's no problem.

The best you can say about that is that it's contested by a large number of highly respected people in the scientific community. As a practical matter, it's very difficult for bureaucracies to recognize that problems exist when the public expects them to solve those problems and are not sure how to do it. And the natural tendency for bureaucracies that aren't sure how to deal with those kinds of problems is to downplay them or ignore them. One of the pros we have in convincing the people that there's no residual harm to come is that the state took a great abundance of caution because we will convince we're not going to let one individual be injured or killed as a result of the action. So we evacuated people way beyond any required limits, but it was much better to be saved than to be solved. Still, the state has no plans to continue regular testing in Livingston after the cleanup is complete, although it will remove any contaminated soil and water. It finds near the accident site in the aftermath of what's being called an unprecedented rail disaster involving hazardous materials.

Many state officials involved in the cleanup say they've learned a lot from this first-time situation and apparently, as far as health concerns go, even though they've never handled such an incident, they feel they've learned just about all they'll need to know. As the residents of Livingston begin putting their lives back in order, there's a certain irony in our next story. As about people who bring disaster upon themselves, arson is a major problem in our state. We have the dubious distinction of ranking seventh in the country, Louisiana officials are stepping up their efforts to stamp out arson profiteers, and they have received the assistance of some insurance companies who are growing tired of paying fraudulent claims. David Young prepared this report. arson is a crime, but apparently people in Louisiana don't think so, or they simply don't care. According to the State Fire Marshal's office, more and more people here are burning their own homes, cars, boats, etc., just to make ends meet. The person that gets in a bind, they cannot meet their bills. They have to have food, they're not going to go out and steal.

They think that the chances of getting caught stealing are probably much greater than it would be if they burnt their house. If they burnt their house or their car or their boat or whatever it is, they get rid of their monthly note and is paid off. Statistics show that as the economic condition worsens, arson cases go up. With tight money policies taking their toll on the economy and leaving a record number of citizens without a job to pay the bills, more Louisianaans are taking the torch to their own property or also ranging to have someone else do it. Most people do it for the money. We've had documented cases where people will go out, hire a moving company to come into their house, move the furniture out of the house, put it in storage, go to a garage sale, buy other furniture or appliances that don't work, put them in their place, then burn their house down, claim it on their insurance policy. Then when they get their new house, they've already got their other furniture which is

in fine shape still in storage. A lot of times what is being done is that the person who owns the property can go out for a couple hundred bucks and get somebody to torch their house for them. That way the property owner has a good alibi, he's away at the time of the fire and he has plenty of people that can say that he was at another place during the fire. Arson is, of course, taken seriously by the fire marshal's office. Although people are devising more ways to commit the crime, state officials say they're working just as hard to develop new ways to gain awesome evidence. Most people think that Arson is easy to get away with. They think that once you commit an Arson, all of the evidence is burned up. And historically with the exception of the last three or four years, a lot of investigators thought the same too. It's not true, all of the evidence is not burned up. Most of the evidence is still there, you just have to go find it, you have to be sharp enough

to find it. The Arsonist and the state here are getting wiser but also bear in mind that the fire departments, the police departments, the fire marshal's office and the insurance companies are getting wiser too. Even though they're coming up with newer and better ways to commit the crime of Arson, we're coming up with newer and better ways to detect it. The job of the state fire marshal's office to detect Arson and try to prove it. But whether the crime hits home the most is with insurance companies who must shell out the money for whatever is burned, unless of course Arson can be proved. They don't like the growing Arson for profit epidemic and they are determined to do something about it. For years it seems that people felt like Arson was a victimless crime and that the only person that really was hurt was the insurance companies. With the economic factors that are around the day people are fast beginning to realize that their insurance dollars are directly affected by Arson. Some recent statistics show that $3 out of every $3 that is spent is directly related

to Arson and it's also been proven that out of $100, $20 of that is related to Arson. Therefore if you could remove Arson you could get your insurance $20 cheaper. That's being your fire insurance. On a local level we have tied in with the Louisiana Independent Insurance Agents for an Arson awareness campaign to make the people of Louisiana aware that there is something that can be done about Arson. Locally we have approximately 25 billboards going up with a 1-800 number to notify the people that there is a number that you can call in and turn in an Arson. In the event they are convicted of the crime then a reward is available. So far the Arson hotline seems to be working. Along with it, fire marshal officials are taking advantage of a law pushed two years ago by insurance men which mandates a two year sentence for anyone convicted of Arson. A further problem is a lack of Arson investigators and that Arson cases are not being prosecuted

are taken seriously by the courts because Dane says the quickest way to stem the Arson tide is to put people behind bars. With the recent arrest of two people in Iberia Parish for Arson, state officials are out to prove that putting people in jail who are convicted of Arson is exactly what they intend to do. They say if you think Arson is an easy way to make some money, you better think twice before burning something for profit. This week there were further indications that all is not well in the state's economic condition, on Friday Governor Trine issued an executive order calling for a 4.4% cut in all state budgets that comes on the heels of falling state revenues. But there were some exceptions to that order. One of those was the state retirement system but as Robin Eckings reports it already is in some serious trouble. If I were to be concerned in this regard it would not be so much as an administrator for next year or the year after that my greater concern would be probably be as a member

of the system myself. I am looking to this retirement system to pay retirement benefits to me in my retirement years and if I'm blessed with a long lifespan this may be 30 to 40 years of benefit checks. The state of Louisiana has promised to put away 7% of every paycheck Vernon Strickland gets for his retirement. Along with thousands of other state workers he joined one of Louisiana's five public retirement systems as a condition of employment. As it stands now the money Vernon Strickland is counting on for his golden years may very well need to be spent to cover benefits for those who have retired ahead of him. Over the past several decades the state has allowed the debt of its two large systems for state employees and for teachers to grow to a whopping three billion dollars. We have a basically two bankrupt systems.

We're not in any sort of crisis situation, the person's drawing benefit checks needn't worry about whether next month's check or next year's check is going to come to them we're very healthy in that sense. While the crisis is not here today many state officials are worried that it could happen within the next 10 to 15 years throwing the system into financial distress similar to what the Federal Social Security System is suffering. For at least the last 20 years Louisiana has used a generous retirement system to attract and hold employees. Some say the approach has been a politically and financially convenient option for state officials. And it's very easy to pass something that you don't have to appropriate money for this year. I increase the benefit, somebody down the line may have to pay for it or it just goes into this big pool of a billion dollar investment fund and you forget about it. Louisiana's Public Affairs Research Council says early retirement provisions and a series

of cost of living increases for retirees in the mid and late seventies have hurt the system's most. In 1970 teachers were given the chance to retire at any age after 20 years of service. No other state system allows such an option without some sort of penalty. Although the average age teachers are retiring is about 57, there have been many cases of those who have retired in their 40s, taken other jobs and then supplemented that salary with their state retirement benefits. All state employees can retire at 55 with 25 years of service. A recent study found those retiring with that option could get more than 60 percent of their last year's salary for their yearly benefits. It's higher than the average in most states and it's expensive. Since the average lifespan is extending into the seventies, most workers get back all they've paid into the system in the first few years of retirement, but the state must keep on paying a monthly benefit check until the retiree's death. Inflation has also made its mark on the system, with benefitschets lagging behind a rapidly

rising cost of living, the legislature granted a series of requests for cost of living adjustments in the late seventies. In 1974 to 1978, for example, $245 million worth of bills to increase benefits for retired teachers were passed, yet no money was appropriated to cover the payments. A race to keep pace with inflation through cost of living increases helped drive the nation's social security system deep into debt. State Representative Kevin Riley sees some dangerous parallels with the state system. When the social security system was started in 1934, I believe in 1935, whenever it was, there were five or six active working people supporting each retired person, and it was viewed as a supplemental retirement benefit. Today there's something like three active people supporting one retired person. In 1990, it's going to be two, and there you go. To what extent can we burden the active people, and we're doing this the same thing in our

state systems? The active people right now are supporting the benefits of retired people, and what happens when our workforce declines? Par says the only way the state can begin to catch up is to raise the retirement age at least to 62, and increase the contributions and employees, and the state are making to the system. Dr. Carlton Page, head of the teacher's retirement system, says his members would rather pay now than later. But there is support among our active members that they're willing to go say from 7% to 8% to have their contributions increased. If the state will increase its contribution, so that over a 30-year period we can reduce this unfunded liability. For estimates that the interest alone of the $3 billion debt is about $60 million a year, as time goes by, that some can only grow, and if the state continues to let it go, there won't be many choices left to find that money.

Here's who ultimately is going to pay to help bring things back into line. The taxpayers will pay, eventually, and whether or not we begin doing it now, or do it later depends just how heavily those later taxpayers are hit with the bill. So pay now or pay later, the longer it takes, the more gold it will take to ensure the state's employees are getting the gold in years they were promised, and the longer it takes, the more gold will all have to pay for those pledges that once came so cheap and so easy. With a hazardous train derailment in Livingston Parish, you might think residents there have nothing to cheer about, despite the accident, one group of pioneers have been able to reroute their wagon train around the Livingston accident, and they've not let the mishap spoil their 150th birthday party, David Young explains. The page right out of the past, they galloped and rolled along.

These settlers weren't trying to spit them out in gaps, or homestead the land, but they packed up their families and their heritage into their covered wagons, and took off on a trip through Livingston Parish's past, present, and future. This wagon train has been on a week-long journey through all the major towns and cities of the parish, helping to celebrate its 150th birthday. We're trying to spotlight our Cessica in Tennial Celebration, Livingston Parish is 150 years old this year, and they tell me during our 100th anniversary it was during the depression nobody had any money to have any kind of public celebration, so the Edward Livingston Historical Association, which is a continuation of our Biocentennial Commission that we had here in Livingston Parish, undertook the project of providing a public celebration for Livingston, and asked me if I would organize and run a wagon train around our parish to help spotlight our Cessica in Tennial Celebration, the purpose being to make the citizens of Livingston Parish aware of their history, and more important to be proud of their parish.

Many of the people involved took off or worked the whole week to be part of the celebration, some like just wagon training, while others simply were proud of the area's past. Well, you know, riding in a wagon is just something as unique, it's just that my family and I love it, we do it, and we have various wagons and homes, and anytime that we can take the opportunity to ride for an extended period of time, we do it. I'm proud to be taking part in it, it's just something that I think that I'm proud of my parish, and this is something that only happens once of a lifetime, and I'm just tickled to be part of it. Did you have to take off work? Yes, sir, I need to take off work for it. Each night when all the wagons were safely in the circle, there was food and entertainment provided by each community, the wagon train passed through. The cow poaks of the 1800s never quite had entertainment like this, before it was time to put out the fires and shut eye until morning, the wagon train had a show of its own.

A group of teenagers from high schools throughout Livingston Parish performed a simple, but clever variety show illustrating what the whole affair was all about, Livingston Parish and 150 years of history. We used some dance, we used Hungarian dance for the Hungarian settlement, and we just used songs that were appropriate to each town in each era in history.

Hundreds, possibly thousands of people turned out each night to hear the show. Strow balls, wind ballistas, everything went well, and they were even able to sidestep the massive derailment. Despite having to detour around Livingston itself and reschedule a finale, they even found humor throughout it all. We'd gone through Albany the other day and the police, she stopped us and said, I know this is a train here, said maybe I should check if any hazardous material. What do you think is the, I guess, psychologically why people enjoy this? Do you think they, they really missed the date that's gone by, they missed the old time or relaxed, couldn't read atmosphere, horses and wagon trips? I'm sure all that to it, but you know, basically we all cowboys at heart. She's like a good John Wayne movie. And he was my hero. So rolling they went, bonnets overall self sufficient by 20 wagon history lesson, a museum

on wheels, spreading the news about Livingston's heritage through its days of Indian occupation, logging, the coming of the railroad, and finally the Tuscaloosa trend. But more than that, it was a time for everyone to sit back and remember the past. To the days when life in Livingston was truly home on the rail. That's a problem for this week, we hope you'll join us again next week on the Louisiana State we're in, I'm Beth George, good night. Thank you. Thank you.