Saturday, August 22

Legis-Gator Luncheon '09


By Chaney Ferguson
Editor, The Times of SWLA




On August 13, the Chamber of Southwest Louisiana held its annual Legis-Gator Luncheon.
Politicians, business owners and many others entered the L’Auberge du Lac Casino and Resort for a beautifully displayed lunch and to hear what is going on in the state of Louisiana.

Updates were given by Congressman Charles Boustany and Congressman Charlie Melancon. The topic on everyone’s mind was healthcare, but the speakers covered many items from the legislative agenda as well as currently relevant topics.

Senator Mary Landrieu and Senator David Vitter were unable to attend the luncheon. However, they prepared a tape to be shared with the luncheon attendees. Landrieu and Vitter spoke to the crowd providing encouragement for the future, information on the present and regrets for not being present to speak to the group in person.

Senator Willie Mount provided information to the group, always giving a personal touch since many in the audience remember her as a hands-on mayor.

Representative Jonathan Perry added comic relief with his stories of Washington and how he has represented Southwest Louisiana.

When the Washington updates concluded there was a time for state information to be provided.
Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Mike Strain, Insurance Commissioner James Donelon, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and Public Service Commissioner Clyde Holloway, all gave brief updates on the current state of things with the economy and their area.

Each update included statistics of past performance and stated goals for future achievement.
Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu was the keynote speaker. He spoke on ethics in state government, higher education and where the state needs to be heading.

Overall the luncheon should have left those who attended with a more well-rounded knowledge of where our state stands on many critical issues.

Thursday, August 20

The Arts and Humanities Council of SWLA Welcomes New Director

As of August 19th, Mr. Matt Young has assumed the position of Executive Director of the Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana. Working with the Council’s Board of Directors, staff and volunteers, Matt foresees great potential for strengthening the support provided to the region’s presenters, performers and artists. “I am thrilled to have this opportunity to continue the growth of Cultural Tourism and share our heritage and culture with both residents and visitors alike.” stated Young.

Over the past four years, the Council has enhanced the level of support for non-profit and performing agencies throughout Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jefferson Davis Parishes. Just this year, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury instituted the new Project Assistance Grant for project funding. The City of Lake Charles and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as the Louisiana Division of the Arts all utilize the Council’s expertise in managing on-going grant programs to bolster local and regional programming.

According to the Beauregard Daily News, Young was born and raised in DeRidder. A DeRidder High School graduate, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana Tech. After college, he worked in public relations in California, but he was drawn back to his hometown. Young has assisted the City of DeRidder, the Beauregard Parish Court House, June Jenkins Women’s Shelter, and Beauregard Parish Police Jury in securing funding from dozens of grant sources. In 2009, he has played a direct role in the creation and implementation of RealArt, the new DeRidder gallery; the Main Street Program; Beauregard Education Link; DeRidder’s Fourth of July celebration and many other programs and events.

Outgoing Executive Director Irene Vandever summed up the new Director’s abilities by stating, “I cannot imagine anyone better suited to take up the reins of the Council’s operations than Matt Young. He brings unique insight, wonderful experience in all the right areas and has energy and personality to boot!”

For more information about this, or other grant opportunities, please contact the Council at (337) 439-2787 or email director@artsandhumanitiesswla.org.

Saturday, August 1

Another Look at the Constitution


By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




Dramatic cuts in higher education and healthcare have caught the attention of many around the state.

Budget cuts mounting to 119 million in higher education and 240 million in healthcare have some people looking for other solutions.

One possibility requires taking another look at the constitution to determine what areas need to have dedicated funding.

Representative Mike Danahay is part of a group calling for a resolution to create a commission to review the possibility for another constitutional convention.

“The resolution called for the setup of a commission to actually look and see if it is feasible. There was an outline including who was going to be appointed to the commission and their duties in determining if there should be a convention or not,” said Danahay.

A group of freshmen representatives in the House of Representatives sat down and looked at some aspects of how politicians do business in Louisiana.

This included how the budgetary process takes place and how funds are acquired in the process.
“What prompted that was when we started looking at dedicated funding. We have dedicated about 60% of our general revenue funding in the state of Louisiana. It leaves us very little leeway when it comes to allocations of money or lack of deficit monies that we have to deal with sometimes,” said Danahay.

The group faced the year knowing the state was going to have a 1.3 billion dollar deficit. Unfortunately, the two areas that are not dedicated are higher education and healthcare.

Several years ago there was a bill that was passed that allowed the governor in the development of his executive budget to be able to cut up to 5% in other areas with the exception of the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) which was only 1%. The Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) formula adopted by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and approved by the Legislature determines the cost of a minimum foundation program of education in public elementary and secondary schools and helps to allocate the funds equitably to parish and city school systems.

“That helped somewhat whenever [the governor] goes to create his budget he can make some cuts in other areas, but it is still the biggest cuts that come from higher education and healthcare which, in my opinion, are places that we should not be cutting,” said Danahay.

The current constitution is from 1974. It has been amended many times since then.

“That is the way we normally approach things is piecemeal. When we want to change something or add something to the constitution we will run a constitutional ballot with an amendment which people vote on,” said Danahay.

Those who oppose the idea of a constitutional convention suggest making changes by constitutional ballot.

“The way the dedications were spread out through the constitution you would have to have an individual ballot for each and every change so it would be multiple amendments on the ballot. It would not be global. It would be piecemeal,” said Danahay.

Proponents believe the only way to achieve the desired solution is through having the convention itself.

“The critics will also say that it opens everything up, everything goes back on the board and there are some things in the constitution that shouldn’t be changed and we agree to that,” said Danahay.

A constitutional convention allows everything to be laid out on the table and reexamined. This option makes some people nervous about what could possibly be changed.

“There are some good things that are in the constitution and that we should never touch. The one I hear all the time is term limits, and I agree term limits should not be touched, but it does go back on the table,” said Danahay.

Another roadblock to a convention involves constituency needs.

“Sometimes when you start talking about dedicated funding those various interests [of the constituents] don’t want that to come up because the whole idea of putting them in the constitutional dedication is so the elected officials could not touch those funds,” said Danahay.

Cuts to the two areas have happened in the past, but it hasn’t been as dramatic as what is taking place now. The cuts always occurred to higher education and healthcare because they were the ones that were undedicated.

“They were able to absorb that in the past, but we had to go back this year and make some severe cuts,” said Danahay

The idea is not to protect higher education and healthcare but to have the ability to look at the funds and rearrange the funds to make it more equitable.

“Healthcare is a little different in the fact that right now we enjoy a 3 to 1 match. For every dollar the state spends the federal government or Medicaid gives 3 dollars on direct healthcare cost,” said Danahay.

When the state spends that dollar and gets much more it is advantageous to the state.

“When the state starts cutting services that are essential to the public you know people are in great physical need, and it is a difficult decision from a lawmaker’s standpoint. The citizens are expecting us to step forward and find solutions,” said Danahay.

“We are not part of the status quo and we aren’t going to be. I think that is the viewpoint from our group anyway.”