Louisiana: The State We're In; 473

Obviously he's alreadyizbrdr 15, 16, 16. Production funding for Louisiana the state we're in is made possible in part by grants from Kaiser aluminum and southern research company incorporated. You know if you need to 5th 3 vote you need 5th 3 vote we got 38 of thought of whatever we got on they call themselves the rural caucus 37 members of the Louisiana House who are trying to build a political coalition to look after the needs of rural Louisiana This was to be the major showdown between business and labor during the 1981 legislative session the issue workers compensation reform

It's an empty dream They've thrown up a pie in the scrap Good evening, I'm Beth George. I'm on board welcome to this edition of Louisiana the state we're in This was a week at the state capital where money capital projects and power were under discussion money and projects in the form of a

1.2 billion dollar capital outlay bill amended by the governor and approved by the House and Power in the form of the battle over who will control the state's workers compensation program We'll have a report tonight on why the workers compensation reform bill isn't going anywhere the session And we'll have two stories that will affect Louisiana's budget in the coming years We're report on hard times for the cities and a look at political coalition being formed to get it share of the spending pie But first I report on workers compensation. This was a year that Louisiana's business lobby and the governor attempted an extensive overhaul of the state's disabled and injured workers compensation program It was a complicated reform plan that survived its first testing committee But when the house took up at the proposal Thursday the proponents knew they had a fight on their hands This was to be the major showdown between business and labor during the 1981 legislative session the issue a major overhaul in the state's workers compensation law Both sides agree that a change was in order that benefits were too low and insurance rates too high

But there was complete disagreement on the solution proposed by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and his Representative Joe Blike the author of the bill took the mic the house settled in for some long debates and intensive lobbying From the total disability costs in Louisiana twice those of Arkansas Texas three times our Alabama, Mississippi Four times higher than in the state of Tennessee states that we are competing with for manufacturing For jobs for our people Workers comp cost have tripled in four years in Louisiana We have over 20 parishes in Louisiana with unemployment rates higher than 10% Louisiana's workman's compensation system is the only state in the nation That does not require the reporting of accidents And Louisiana

Is one of only two states that has no reference whatsoever To rehabilitation making well the injured person The principal opposition to the plan during floor debates came from a third-party the trial lawyers That by representative Jimmy Demos a change was suggested that would drastically alter the plan No longer would a state commissioner appointed by the governor here workers claims instead the courts and legal system would retain authority and control My primary concern is saving the taxpayers money This bill Will not reduce rates? I don't think where we got that idea that if we give the employees better benefits More weekly rates better benefits the level It's going to save money to the employers for the life. I mean, I can't understand that either Because if we don't put a cap of some sort if we don't mandate a reduction of insurance cost That will never happen. It's an empty dream

They've thrown up a pie in the sky and said this is going to cure it I don't believe it'll cure it ladies and gentlemen of the house The rates will continue to rise and rise and rise and rise Let's keep it in the courts At least because that's all my man. It does but that defect that fatal defect Taken in the way from district courts Put it before a commissioner who you have heard testimony could be a czar. This commissioner Who will serve at the appointment of a governor is going to have to reflect that governor sentiment? Today it might be in favor of industry Next term. It might be in favor of labor And consequently what's going to happen You're going to have a constant shifting from one to the other You're going to have commissioners being removed because they serve a concurrent term with the commissioner You're not going to have any stability It's hard for me to believe and almost an insult

To our judiciary to think that our 200 judges who have been trained in the law Who have been elected by the people are not capable of administering the workman's compensation matters I say to you Mr. G and mr. Bligh that in fact they have done an excellent job In trying to keep some equity into a system in a state where you have the highest deaths and the second highest rates of industry rates of casualties The combined opposition of labor and trial lawyers was effective The amendment was adopted by a vote of 57 to 47 and after some serious discussion business forces beat a strategic Retreat returning the bill to the calendar for another day or another session Yes, we expected that amendment and and the second amendment to the one business leader Ed Steinmull said while they had enough votes to pass the bill They did not have enough to stave off the combined efforts of labor and trial lawyers to seriously damage the plan

No speaker on the floor criticize the bail from a standpoint of the benefits to the workers They were up in all category for the workers are the ones that really lost in this battle The ones who fought it down were the trial lawyers. They just love to litigate. They love the courts They love to be on both sides of things and then they ended up here winning the thing They give a lot of money political campaigns. We do too. There's nothing illegitimate about it But they don't demand the one or two things of the legislators You know per session and this was the thing that they demanded of the legislator labor could not have defeated this by themselves No way They had to team up with the trial lawyers and trial lawyers came here in mass and they just sat on The doorstep the legislators and and killed it. This is this is not very sure they don't pay the bill They're not the people that are hurt They simply are the people that are one of the beneficiaries of a system that is as cumbersome as this one is While the prospect of passing a workers comp bill this session looks dim

Businessly to say they will be gathering more ammunition in the form of statistics on what causes high insurance rates for any future battle Well anyone who's observed the legislative process knows that lobbyists play a decisive role in the formation of policy and legislation Everyone seems to be in the act of lobbying these days including local government The Louisiana Municipal Association has sent out a plea for help to the legislature this year asking for more taxing power and more state aid in this week We have a report on what the cities are calling the hard times ahead. We'll tell you that we're Not performing all of the functions that we used to at least not providing as often as we used to the past year Like many mayors across Louisiana Collins Bonacard is talking about the effects of rapidly rising costs on city services Bonacard is mayor of Panchitula city of almost 5500 people in southeast Louisiana Like other cities Panchitula must pay higher prices today than ever before to provide for basic services Like water and sewage treatment garbage collection and police and fire service. I'm not sure that the state realized this

I'm not sure that the federal government realized it but we are we only have control of what we charge for the water Department or for the water and in the garbage collection system and A slight fee that we get in the sewer system other than that We just do not we're not like a business We don't have something that we can raise to take care of inflation or to increase our income There are limits to what you can charge the people for water or garbage collection and we feel like that we are Collecting a reasonable figure now and I just I just couldn't ask that this time. I couldn't ask the people to pay more Mayor Bonacard believes that the cities are headed for some hard financial times an assertion that is backed up by a study released this week by the legislative fiscal office in Baton Rouge That report says that city revenues are falling behind inflation and that it is clear that the growth in total state a Dem municipalities has not kept up with inflation or growth in real personal income

the major conclusion that we made in relationship to the To the perishes and also to the municipalities was that although the distributions in terms of of dollars increased During this particular period of time the six years That when you look at it in relationship to what we call against inflationary pressures and other changes in in real income That in fact both perishes and municipalities on the average are now worse off in terms of the amount of money They receive from the state and then they were say six years ago and of course the reason one of the reasons for that is that simply that The legislature has not built in factors into the formulas to take account of inflation and Without that The national pattern of inflation which translates here to Louisiana is going to have that kind of an impact on these distributions Ron Webber a professor of political science at LSU is director of the study on local government finance

And he says that only a small number of cities in parishes have been able to keep up with the pace of inflation And those that did accomplish that with their 10% cut of oil and gas royalties and severance taxes as for the rest of the local governments The choice is clear what it means of course is that they're they're either going to have to cut services Well, they're going to have to find alternative ways of raising this particular revenue and of course when you talk about alternative ways of raising revenue You're talking about can there raise the sales tax if they have a sales tax Can they do any more out of the property tax? That's a hard question to answer Because of the limitations that are in effect on the property tax at the moment. Can they get more state aid? The data suggests that they've not been very successful in getting more state aid Of course they continue to come to the legislature and ask ask for more or finally We they can raise some of the kind of service charges that they levy for various kinds of services. They provide It's a very tough period. I think

Facing the municipalities in particular, but the choices are can they raise more revenue locally? Or can they get more money from the state But getting more money from the state may be as hard as getting more money from the taxpayers in the cities Already in Louisiana Almost one-third of the state's expenditures are in the form of aid the local government And although the legislature has shown a recent willingness to allow the cities and parishes more taxing powers There is no inclination to turn over any more of the state's tax dollars. The cities are Handcraft with the combination of inflation and A tax base is not as broad as the states about the only areas that the city's can raise dollars Or in the either or maybe property taxes and in the source task which has a restriction on it which we're trying to lift right now Sunny Moutan serves as executive counsel the governor Dave train and he says the administration is committed Giving the cities and parishes more taxing power But at the same time Moutan says they want local governments to become more self-sufficient I think once the mr. Spout is embraced the theory of freedom from Baton Rouge, no less freedom from Baton Rouge

The the people they saw it would be better serve because the closer you are to your tax battle the better it's spent It's like an ice keep the millions of passes through be required to do the less ice is left in the end The cylinder to tax battle if it comes to Baton Rouge and goes through her process Fewer dollars of the taxiles getting back to them because we paid that tax on a local level But he pays it his school board on his shirt for his his city council It is better spent and better administered because there is less bureaucracy involved But as a politician yourself, you know The kind of problems you're serving up to the cities. Yes, they're Without Felt in them they would much prefer to have the legislature press attacks and give them the money Then do themselves have to stand before the public and ask for them to vote for attacks because then they become the opponents of Taxation and no public official likes to become a poor enough for taxation If the money doesn't come from Baton Rouge or Washington can the cities and parishes raise it on the local level Traditionally local taxes in Louisiana have been lower than the national average and although that gap is beginning to close

The taxpayers are still enjoying some very generous terms that Louisiana has a very large homestead exemption What do you get in terms of property taxes? The past year we collected? $34,000 and round figures and you know $34,000 when you look at what the budget is this will run the city Government about 10 days the people themselves admit that our property taxes are very low You know, they're they're very happy to live here and they're they're glad that the taxes are low But they admit you know that the property taxes are extremely You know all of us have can people living in some other state or some other area and when they compare what they're paying to what we pay here in Punch to and and all over Louisiana It is extremely low and But if property taxes in other fees are to go up to pay for services some public attitudes must change Since most tax hikes and bond proposals put the voters in recent years across Louisiana have been defeated I do believe though that the people have reached the point now that they realize that to

To maintain these services. They're going to have to pay for them You know, I found out that it and this is something that we had had to live with it We saw a grandfather at the end that that many of the things that were done in the past such as water systems and sewer Systems and so forth were installed But never with any maintenance money and you know, this is a constant problem as they tend to get all you've got a maintenance on we've got A very big problem as far as maintaining water and sewer lines You think there's no money is collected to I feel sure that I feel sure that That the people would allow us to come up with some additional sources revenue as I've stated, you know, I think in talking about the property type But even with more local revenue the cities and parishes are still facing some hard times In Panchitula for instance Mayor Bonacard says federal cutbacks have already cost the city $200,000 in the past 18 months and with more severe cuts around the corner from the Reagan administration The problems will only get worse. Do you think once the state takes care of its problems with the charity hospital system and other

Education grants that there's going to be anything left to help the cities. I would not I would not be that optimistic because The state as you know is Involved in almost all there was a human need to a very great extent most of the most states That news is almost like a little rushing to when it comes to sending dials down to local government and for local needs But at the same time it must maintain the state facilities a statewide charter hospital system a statewide highway program a statewide public work system a Stood wild higher educational system The main date and call up on the fiscal the state The first the first call is from the state needs and I would not I would not believe we would have two million dollars left over after we again That's said what we feel must have solved from federal programs have been abandoned That puts the ball back into the corner of the cities and Mayor Bonacard says the choice is painfully clear If the people want the services to continue everybody wants the city to be clean

They want it to look nice. They enjoy the flowers There's among other things. They want the water service. They want the sewer service There's going to have to be some means of raising additional revenue. We have just about Cut every corner that we can think of And so if no more money is forthcoming city services will be cut back Major repair work deferred and even some of Louisiana small cities may experience a kind of urban decay I think that we've been fortunate In the south here that it's taken a little longer for these problems to to come to our area You know, I think we are we were a little bit later in having the high unemployment figure that they've had in the south for the last few In the north for the last few years, but it's our cities problems developing that my only hope is that that in seeing them Develop and knowing the problems that some of the largest cities are having That maybe we can come up with some type of solution To the problem before it hits us is as hard as it is hit some of the northern cities particularly the larger cities

No doubt about it. We're we're suffering now some of the same pains that they are maybe on a smaller scale But I'm sure that if we don't do something about it. It's going to Progress and we will eventually fall into the same condition and this have the problems will be of the extreme nature that they're all up there now You know, it really makes you feel bad when you read in the paper that having it closed down some school districts The garbage piles up on the streets and so forth The disc would very well happen to us if if we don't come up with some answers and I think what one thing to this is done I think that this has made the municipal elected officials Take a much more determined stand and show a lot more interest in what goes on over in Baton Rouge I think when you walk the halls of in the Capitol now you're going to find more males and more elected officials out there doing a little lobbying than ever in the past and

Probably they get a little tired of seeing us come over there But the problem is is gene run and it's going to be here and all we're asking for is a little help whether it be through Money's are giving us the powers to raise the money's back home Without those extra revenues the cities will be facing hard times for sure and the services on which the citizens depend could be dramatically affected If the cities are experiencing a financial crunch It doesn't mean that people are moving away in fact. We're becoming more and more in urban state But if the joys of country living are being expounded in songs and movies the reality is sometimes far different Rule people have problems too that need to be addressed by state government in our next report We look at a group of lawmakers who have banded together as a rural caucus The Louisiana's countryside is changing like much of the nation the population is shifting to the cities Only 33.2% of Louisiana's population is considered rural and today less than 6% of her people make their living in agriculture alone

These facts have not only economic but political implications at the state capital where once most governors came from small towns There is now a governor from Mettery a speaker of the house and a president of the Senate from New Orleans But the shift in power is not complete. There is emerging a new coalition a group of lawmakers who come from towns with names like Benton Pineville and Delhi The group is called the rural caucus. It is only two years old, but it boasts a membership of some 37 to 40 state Representatives they gather at least once a week for a breakfast meeting But they organize and discuss issues of common interests It has merit enough for us to be interested in and then they should put the word out to us the six of them Bill Atkins Jewish flunk Dennis A bear Luke Swallow Tom McVeigh for our road and birth and to pop

And just because you've got six people that's going to do the walking and name checking Everybody else is going to have to talk to their neighboring people Yeah, it's not working the road We've got a minute. We've got what are we going to do about working all the people other than people men to caucus You know if you need the fifth three vote you need fifth three vote. We've got 38 of all the whatever we've got on the thing You've got to work a few other people too What is the common bond? Is it merely an accident of locality or is it a philosophical kinship a basic difference between a city? Slicker and a down-home country politician Francis Thompson was one of the group's founders What we're trying to do is get a group of people that think alike Who like and enjoy working together for a common interest and that being highways drainage Supporting of the rural community farming community of this state now. That's not a

Good concise definition, but it will tell you a little bit about what our interest are of course We're interested in many other projects that are concerned to the whole state But we feel like that if we could support agricultural legislation, then we'll be supporting our interest Paul Gunner makes no bones about the fact that he's proud to be a country boy and sees his concerns as being very different from some of the other Long-mucklies well one of the reasons I think it's very important because rural people face problems that city folks Just don't have like in my war did I live in the 76 miles of gravel roads and and people in the cities We've got black top pays streets just can't realize what it is to live against the gravel road and the dust coming in there during the summer Time and mud and slick during the winter time What problems they face like in some parts of rural parishes though like in red rural parish Those people's whales are all rain dry City folks got city water. They don't understand us. We've got to try to manipulate some type of city water for rural areas like that St. Tammany parish a water table down there dropping you hold us and I think it's very important that we

Stick especially so that the new members of the legislature will have a little bit of input try to get something to bring back to their districts The principal tie that binds this group is no different from many of the other coalitions It is that desire to bring something back to their people a project or a road for their district This year's president Jesse Dean and vice president Bill Strain think that as a group They have more clout as individuals. We didn't feel like we had the input are the importance to Get the legislature generally to consider some of the things it was important to us individually in rural areas What are your key issues? What are the things that are the most important to you on roads bridges drainage and et cetera You know living in rural areas. You have a lot of problems with drainage and bridges and you know in a lot of the Low-line areas like in the slot L area that representative scoggin represents He has a lot of problem with drainage. Of course during the last flood. You might have

saw MTV where all the people were underwater for several days down there that well, that's a common interest of the rural caucus And we're going to try to do something about your public works Let me add that that's our that's some of our common desires, but our interest is also That ever remember in our caucus gets something out of state government. We all represent in the house some 35,000, 40,000 people and with the money we spend now Every member in our caucus should get something to go back home and tell these people and man is under demand mainly capital Whether it is in capital outlay drainage bridge or an important highway, but something in his district that he needs The rural caucus has chosen its issues and key votes carefully They steer away from divisive bills such as workers compensation But they have joined together to help elect the Speaker of the House last session and in this session to secure more money for Agriculture extension centers and the passage of a meat labeling bill

But most importantly, they feel their members are being treated well in states capital construction program It is clear that even if you're from the country You're still expected to bring home the bacon for the voters back home And that's just what the rural caucus is doing Well that wraps up our program for this week next week We'll be back with more legislative coverages We look at the battle surrounding a bill to an anti-busting bill in the legislature. I'm on bloom. I'm Beth George. Good night You Production funding for Louisiana the state we're in is made possible in part by grants from Kaiser aluminum

And southern research company incorporated