Louisiana: The State We're In; 478

You 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 The clock ran out for the 1981 legislative session this week, but not before the lawmakers handed the governor a final victory in defeat Victory when they gave control of the racing commission to the governor defeat when they refused to let convict labor help remodel state prisons But perhaps this year's session will be remembered most for the record amount of state spending approved 6.4 billion dollars Good evening. I'm Beth George. I'm Ron Blohm. Welcome to this edition of Louisiana the state we're in for the Louisiana

Legislature finally wrapped up their business at the state capital this week a journey at midnight Monday and tonight we'll take a look at the session's highlights And bring you an analysis of how the session played out Specifically we'll look at ten of the top issues from this from a bill requiring equal time for creation science in the classroom to a record setting budget And then we'll be joined by two capital correspondence for review of not only the issues, but of the political players as well The regular session of the 1981 Louisiana legislature began on Monday April 20th Amidst a great deal of speculation that there would be few exciting issues in to consider over the next 85 days To an extent that was true the session was not a bell-ringer by any means, but there were some hot issues that left their mark on the session of 81

I move that we're not joined son of doc without objection This year's legislative session may be remembered more often than not for the record spending levels approved by the lawmakers rather than by any particular legislation passed The operations budget came in at just over 5.1 billion dollars the capital lot lay our construction budget at 1.3 billion dollars For a total spending package of 6.4 billion dollars or more than double the 3.1 billion state budget of just five years ago We're spending it all That might become the cry of taxpayers around the state as they assess the rapid growth of the state budget For as more dollars flow into the state treasury principally because of increased oil and gas revenues, the same dollars are turned around and sent back out as legislative spending plans But that could cause some serious problems for the state in the near future

According to James Richardson and LSU economist the revenues that took a dramatic climb with the decontroll of oil Or do the level off soon while the spending pattern continues to escalate And legislative budget officer Mark Junnan says that means the legislature may have to consider a tax increase in the near future Without a doubt that day will come if the question is only when the fiscal office made a presentation several months ago And which we projected that day will come in around 1984 85 Now that day will be postponed if one thing happens And that is the price of oil continues to go up at a greater rate than we expected to right now We're seeing that the price of oil is leveling off so that 1984 85 day may be realistic Well some officials worried about the state's ability to meet its spending needs in the future State employees this summer were worried about making ends meet each month This year a number of state workers were demanding a 13% pay raise

But what they got was 8% in a plan put forth by the governor Next bill is house bill Some lawmakers wanted to repeal over $100 million in taxes this year Eliminating the sales taxes on mobile homes for instance and repealing the occupational license taxes on small business to name But a couple about a third of those tax cuts were approved by the legislature But the governor has said he will reduce that amount using his veto power Also on the subject of money it's worth noting that the cost of legislative went up again this year Five years ago it cost just over $55,000 to support a lawmaker for a year This year the legislative operations cost averages out to $125,000 per lawmaker or $18 million per year in legislative salaries, expenses and support services If the public understood it and they knew we were doing it they would turn us out of office That's exactly why Mr. Reagan was elected president of this country Money matters time to the private sector were also up for consideration at the legislature this year

Mary Evelyn Parker the state treasurer was upset because private developers like Wendy's McDonald's and discount stores have been using a loophole in the state bond laws to use tax-free bonds to reduce their interest Finance payments by as much as 8% Mrs. Parker in the house agreed that the practice should be restricted But the Senate didn't agree that battle is still not over However, since the bond commission has taken action on its own to stop the private developers use of the public bonds Education was the focus of a good deal of legislative debate this session In fact, it was two old issues that lawmakers had seen before that brought out the hottest debate of the session Namely, Bussing and Evolution Bussing came up when representative Don Kenard of Baton Rouge introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of state money Pay for the Bussing of school children passed their neighborhood schools The measure was clearly aimed at court-ordered school busing in Baton Rouge and other cities My district is overwhelmingly opposed to court-ordered busing

They believe as taxpayers on the local state and federal level that their children should be able to attend the neighborhood schools How around May the 4th? 1981? A US district judge issued a court order Others joined Kenard in arguing that the judges were wrong and that it was the busing that was really discriminatory But the opposition didn't buy that argument for a second You know the issue has nothing to do with bussing Yeah, I think we ought to label the issue for what it really is And that is the issue is where the bus stops Despite such pleas the anti-bussing bill passed overwhelmingly in the house When it crossed the Capitol to the Senate, however, it was a different story School boards across the state including Baton Rouge stood to lose millions of dollars in state aid If the measure were approved and their lobbying against the bill paid off when the Senate Education Committee killed the proposal That it's wrong to teach our school children that they came from monkeys

And that it is evolution science is no better science than creation science Another education bill that had better luck in the legislature this summer was no less controversial Senator Bill Keith and other fundamentalist Christians proposed that whenever the theory of evolution is taught in the public schools The Bible-based theory of scientific creationism should also be taught I have run some polls and some various newspapers have run polls on what the people think about scientific creationism In northwest Louisiana, 78% of the people in the last poll that was taken said they favored the balance treatment Only about 15 or 18% objected to that and most of those were those that were influenced by people in the scientific community People who have been brought up and nurtured on an inbred doctrine of evolution And have never most of them ever taken the time to look at the the bases for scientific creationism Because the intent of this bill is to present information in the science classroom in order to infer the world is a creation

Brought into being by a creator. I believe it in fact proposes the teaching of religion under state sponsorship Since such religious teaching will tend to reflect the religion of the authors of the textbooks The bill allows appears to allow the teaching of a particular form of creation faith Even though there was strong opposition from a number of non-fundamentalist ministers, the bill was heavily lobbied as a kind of referendum on Christianity And Senator Keith won his legislative struggle to give creationism equal time with evolution That bill will become law unless the governor decides to veto the measure and he is in saying what he'll do on the issue One education package that Governor Trine is sure to sign is a group of bills aimed at holding down the costs on a teacher's incentive pay plan Pips pay program was an important part of his legislative package last year This year Trine has had quite a struggle on his hands to keep the costs in line Another political struggle on which Governor Trine claimed a victory this year came on a bill

And it giving the governor the authority to replace the members of the state racing commission The recent allegations of scandal plagued the horse racing industry and the governor demanded and finally received the authority to appoint a new board to try and clean up the industry's tarnished reputation The governor wasn't so successful on another bill that he called an important part of his criminal justice package The plan was to change the state law to allow the use of convict labor to help remodel state prisons But the Senate rebelled under the heavy administration lobbying and said no to the governor Hear the man that third the 12th of the court And died it convicted and found and if people sent him back and now you have been made to remove him The Senate seemed to be the setting for a lot of the legislative action this year, but Trine began in the early days When the Senate faced the untidy chore of throwing one of its own members out of office Senator Gaston Gerald representing a Baton Rouge district was serving time in a federal prison in Texas on attempted extortion charges

On the opening day of this legislative session and it was up to the Senate to finally expel the senator from office after he declined to resign This year in the legislative session there were just over 3,000 bills and resolutions introduced But only 800 of those measures eventually passed For some that was far too many for others too few big business lost its fight to reform the workman's compensation law But won a struggle to tighten the rules for unemployment compensation Legislative efforts to repeal the Sunday closing laws failed again this year But there was victory at last for representative Vijay Bella who finally succeeded in getting the legislature to require motorcycle writers to wear helmets While it may seem boring and it may not seem of overwhelming significance a great deal was accomplished From the leadership standpoint this session was a success Our speaker John Hankle says the biggest accomplishment was the passage of an improved capital construction bill Senate president Michael O'Keefe saw the improvements in the legislature's efficiency is the biggest step forward

While Governor Trine rated the capital outlay budget his number won accomplishment The governor discounted any thoughts that this had been a make or break session for him politically He said he was pleased that no legislation really harmful to the public had emerged this year Although that observation depends ultimately on one's perspective on the session Watching the legislature is never an easy task Sometimes the issues that spark all the sound and fury of debate have less impact on the public Than those obscure laws that generate little attention Trying to keep the issues in political maneuvering in perspective is always a difficult job But that's our undertaking in our second segment on this legislative report card Well Ron is the final gavel went down on the 1981 session capital reporters began their wrap-up stories Of just what was done and not done by lawmakers in this session With us this week for our wrap-up are two veteran members of the press corps Joan Duffy with United Press International and Charles Hargroader of the New Orleans Times Picking State's item

While Charlie and John we met together on the opening day following Governor Trine's address to the legislature He talked principally and that opening address about money Does that about sum up what happened this session did we spend a lot of money? Was that the big issue? It's about the only issue this session Just the construction budget and the operating budget alone was $6.3 billion And then they spent much of the rest of the time talking about another $235 $235 or $250 million in the oil windfall trust fund that'll come up in November Did they spend that money any differently? Charlie we heard a lot about a capital reform Built it was supposed to have business-like techniques to spending money for big projects Was this session really any different in how the money was allotted in terms of Was it? I suspect that they gave a lot more thought as to the projects And what money was to be used for this time that they have before Certainly they had advanced indications as to what kind of money they had to spend And every time we turn around they got more they found some more somewhere

So it I think was a little bit more organized this time One great change too is that for the first time in a long while If a local government wanted something built with state money It had to put up a portion of that money And that was one of the main things that Governor Treen required Before he would allow state money to be used for local projects Governor Treen said in his press release following the close of the session All in all it was a good session Does that does that sum it up for others or was it a good session for the administration? Well it might have been a good session for the administration It might have been a good session for the legislature But as far as the news gathered as concern it was a yawn stifling That's all I can say about it It was an it was extremely boring and it was a good session for Governor Treen He got just about everything he asked for the question was what did he ask for And in the total perspective of things he didn't ask for a whole lot He heard a lot about the criminal justice package We heard that an attack on crime was going to be the big push for this session

Did that really develop? There was some legislation passed All there was some legislation I can't say that it was all that monumental I am intrigued by the position in which the governor put himself politically On the inmate labor bill That seemed as though he went completely out of his way to antagonize Both labor and industry in order to try to push a bill through that never had a chance to begin with The governor himself said there was no keystone to his to his crime package And there wasn't much of anything at all in the crime package that could grab the attention of people That could stir up a whole lot of local support for what he was or wasn't doing There were things like changes in court procedure and increasing the number of people to type transcripts from trials So there wouldn't be a delay on appeals And most of it was very internal, very legalistic changes And the question that a lot of legislators were saying is how is this going to keep How is this going to reduce crime in New Orleans?

Or was he then laying the groundwork for a continuation of this commission And perhaps major things to come in the future? That was another thing too. His crime commission didn't have a whole lot of time to take their testimony And prepare their recommendations for what the state needed to fight crime And so I think we'll probably be seeing more next session So the governor did get most of what he asked for But I guess the question in some people's minds is did he ask for enough? All right Two other large groups are usually involved in sessions And we see them lobbying issues are business and labor Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the F&BEL CIO What kind of session was this for those two groups? It was a great session for labor. It wasn't so hot for LABI The major labor bills this year were the reform of the workman's compensation system Or the change of the system And another attempt to soften the state's prevailing wage law And organize labor won those handily And it was a lot to the credit AFL CIO has some great lobbyists and the legislature And they did their homework and they did their job

Plus on the workers compensation change they teamed up with the trial lawyers And the business interest just didn't have a prayer after those two got together There was also that little bit that I found intriguing where labor was able to keep lobby occupied Pretty well on the PIPs program Where they were trying to side with a federation of teachers and new audience Which of course they would to get the retirement income based on the PIPs salary Starting in the very first year Perhaps we should remember what PIPs is that the professional improvement practices Program program We always does an acronym's a bonus pay plan for teachers Take additional courses That is something that attracted a lot of attention, a lot of criticism in the session of the legislature But the compromise was worked out at the end There was a problem about whether these teacher bonuses for improving themselves professionally Should be considered part of their salary If they were part of their salary then the teachers should pay a percentage of that money towards their retirement system And therefore get more money when they retired

But there was a great deal of worry that a teacher would say three or four years left towards retirement Could join the teacher incentive program Increase his salary by two thousand dollars a year and retire at a much higher pension Without having put in all that money for all those years And there was a great deal of worry that this could financially hurt the systems So the compromise was you have to be in the program for five years Before you can retire and gain the extra pension based on that that money Of course that leads us into the real issue of the session A little pet retirement bill there that died finally in the last night of the session And was provoked that really famous and very fine filibuster by Bill McLeod That was the longest filibuster you've been covering the legislature for a while He was opposed to this retirement plan of bringing in veterans into the state retirement system What happened, Beth was this, some years ago The retirement systems recognized the drain that this was putting on them And so they set a moratorium and they gave veterans about two or three years as I recall

And said, look if you want to take advantage of it You people who are here now come on in we'll let you buy so many years of your back credits in military service And then they put a cut off date and said after that no more Well that's what they were trying to do this time was reopen this And let more people come forward more people who have since joined the state service Who wanted their back credits? Of course the argument on the other side it was that others were bought brought in for a less amount And it should be fair as fair across the board There was also the argument advance that this was the so-called George Fisher bill However I'm told that he, Fisher did offer the legislature a letter Saying that if this bill were enacted that he would not take advantage of it That hadn't been brought out until today that I know of Well it's all moot now because after the Senate finally got through with its filibuster and got the bill passed In the very last seconds of the legislature they were jumping up and down on the floor

The house trying to get the bill recognized and the session ended before the bill could even come up As you said the session ended with a came to a screaming hall Screaming and yelling hall, as if they didn't get a hero of this whole thing it had to be my cloud I think in his very quiet, manually way He got the point across and they listened They did listen and they listened for a long time They began a filibuster at what? Ten o'clock, it was the 955 to be exact And it was 140 a.m. when he quit He's a one of those little known facts that mean covering legislation You're interesting, I suppose Speaking of the legislators themselves We've heard a lot of parts criticize the governor for not exercising enough leadership The governor on the other hand says, well legislators you're supposed to be taking some kind of initiative This seemed to be a session in which there was a lot of sort of floundering The legislators seemed to be fragmenting

Did you sense that they didn't pick up any mantle? I think that they didn't, but I think a lot of the problem was before the session started Or right after it started, all of the big issues that were expected to come up this year Were either postponed or they died quickly The governor gave his opening address at the start of the session Talking only about how to spend the oil windfall trust fund And gave a lot of suggestions on what to do, asked the legislators for their suggestions And a few weeks later it was decided that we would wait until the special session in November to spend that money Well, that was one big issue that was gone And then the redistricting was supposed to be a great issue this year Redrawing the political boundaries of the state and all the politics that goes along with that That was postponed until November, so they spent their boring hours at their desk Pouring over maps of their districts trying to find out what they would do in November While there was nothing to do here for the regular session And then several of the other big issues that died fairly quickly Or that got through the house and floundered in the senate

Or never made it one way or the other The reform of how the bond commission uses the industrial development bonds Pass the house fairly well and just kind of petered out into the senate There was a controversial bill that did pass the session Teaching of scientific creationism in the schools A very thorny issue that the governor and his press conference Following the session really seemed to want to shy away from Charlie, is this going to be a difficult issue for the governor to handle? It shouldn't be if he ties a veto to such things as education And the fact that as we were talking about Walker That if he says that the legislature should not be telling and dictating to the schools What they should be teaching? That's part of the problem I think is it is If he had too much of this business of you, thou shalt teach such and such That's one way he can approach it He has to be very strong in approaching it in that direction If he is going to veto the bill because as one member of his administration said

How can he not veto it? How can you veto God? And that's the issue that the supporters of the bill are trying to teach to tie it to The fact that what they're trying to do is to if you're going to teach the theory of evolution In a classroom you must also tell the students about the biblical story of creation And the supporters of that theory are tying it to it they call it a scientific theory Where those who don't believe it should be taught in the classroom are saying it's not a theory It's a it's a belief and it should be taught in the church or taught in the home But unless the governor ties it to keeping the legislature out of the classroom He's going to be it's going to be tagged as a anti-bible type of veto Another issue that created some well a horse racist or if there were a lot of bad puns made at the end Was the dealing with the racing commission the state racing commission And that was one of the battles that governor dream did win He run that one. I don't know how much it cost him to win it, but that's about the only thing in the racing field

that he did win as I recall He it may have been all conclusive however in that one bill because by naming the commission He also then under the ethics commissions ruling this commission can then turn around And dictate to the owners of the tracks and the rest of them that can't run their horses on the tracks that they regulate In the last week of the session the governor really came down from the fourth floor Of course that that happened some time in the pace of things, but he came down He testified on the racing commission and there were witnesses saying that there were allegations of drugging and corruption He went public with a press conference pushing the inmate labor He really came to move in that last week Do you think that that was a conscious thing or did he just get around to it at the end? I think those two bills were among the ones he really and truly wanted more than anything else Especially the racing commission bill He'd been trying for a year to get that bill through it was one of I guess hundreds in the 1980 session That where he was routinely changing the terms of offices of boards and commissioners

From six year staggered terms to four year terms where they would serve while the governor was in office So they would serve at the governor's pleasure and the racing commission Changing those terms was the only one that never did get through in 1980 And he pushed it again. He's filed suit to try to get rid of those racing commissioners He's done everything he can and this was finally other than his lawsuit that is pending and probably is now moot This was his last his last stand and it meant a lot to him And he did spend a lot of time down on the floor in the committee rooms as well to try to get that through Was this an issue where governor Edwards had said he was on the opposite side I was going to say something about this. It strikes me that this is one time that tree invested Edwards I know that the former governor made phone calls because I had members of the Senate tell me that they had received phone calls And that others had received them from Edwards but apparently Tree was able to best him in this one The interesting thing was Edwards ever the sort of constant politicians released his people and said

At the end said well you don't have to go go with me once what the battle was won Or lost well that's the case of a cautious withdrawal I'm cautious of all It was interesting for me as I was reviewing various legislative stories And many of those stories ended up on the back pages of the newspaper with bry lab on the front page Well, we kind of in a shadow of that this session Or was it just sort of what happens in the middle of a term? We were in the shadow of bry lab I think but also there really wasn't anything in the legislature That concerned people outside the halls of the Capitol They can't raise tat they couldn't raise taxes in an odd number of years So you know they left that alone And most of the most of the bills other than the big ones that we did see on the front page or near the front page We're local issues Well on that rather unflattering note We have to wrap up this discussion but we'll be back again in November when some of those big issues We were talking about we'll be coming up and we'll be back again with you next week

When our story will focus on how safe is your drinking water? Until then I'm Beth George for Ron blown. Thank you You come out with a emotional day That's in handy Fortune funding for Louisiana the state we're in is made possible in part by grants from Kaiser aluminum. And Southern Research Company incorporate. Where you belong where you're looking swell Dolly I can tell Dolly you