Calcasieu Parish Tax Proposal Preview

By Brett Downer
The Times Contributing Writer



You’ll have four decisions to make on Saturday, Nov. 14, on law enforcement and justice operations in Calcasieu Parish. Top officials are making their pitch to civic groups, the news media and online to advocate their proposals, but taxpayers will have the final say when they go to the polls.

THE BOTTOM LINE
There are four items on the ballot:
-- Continuation of a property tax that supports the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office — with a rollback if it passes.
-- A new tax to increase pay at the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office.
-- A bond issue to fund capital improvements for law enforcement and justice facilities.
-- A new, higher millage for courthouse and jail maintenance.
If you’re a registered voter and live in Calcasieu Parish, you’re able to vote.

As the election approaches, Sheriff Tony Mancuso is among those who are out front and are talking up the proposals — whether he is making a speech in a restaurant meeting room, speaking at a League of Women Voters forum or fielding questions from the news media.
He hopes that Calcasieu voters won’t transfer whatever frustrations they might have about tax-and-spend issues in Washington when they step into the voting machine. (Mancuso has mentioned his own post-Rita frustrations in that regard.)

“I know people are up in arms with the federal government,” Mancuso told the Times. “But on a local level, the officials are right there — and the people can see what their money is being spent on.”

CAPITAL PROJECTS
By law, it’s up to the Police Jury to see that parish agencies are properly housed. A proposal on the Nov. 14 ballot would provide more or better space or facilities for the Sheriff’s Office, 14th Judicial District Court, the DA’s Office, the Clerk of Court’s Office and Coroner’s Office. The parish points out that there haven’t been capital-improvement projects for these offices in two decades.

On the ballot are two items tied to this new effort.

One proposition is a 20-year, $55 million bond issue for capital Improvements, paid for with a property tax likely below 1.5 mills (and offset with gambling revenue).

The other proposition is a 10-year renewal of the 3.27-mill maintenance tax for the courthouse and jail — plus a 2.48-mill increase. Additionally, passage of the bond issue would trigger a 0.5-mill increase in this maintenance renewal -- in order to cover the additional maintenance needs.

If the bond issue is approved, here’s what would be built, expanded or improved:
- A new pod of single cells to separate certain people at the ever-crowded Sheriff’s Prison and the Calcasieu Correctional Center. “A single-bed bed pod will enable us to free up about 250 beds in our facility,” Mancuso told the Times. “By law, we have to classify prisoners. We have inmates who are very violent, who are mentally ill, who have contagious diseases.

We’re wasting (multi-bed) cells by having only one person in them.” He offered another example of what people are separated from others: “If we arrest some 18-year-old on, say, a drug charge at Walmart, and you put them in with a violent criminal — if something were to happen, we’d be liable civilly.” With the pod could come an expansion of the intake area with a secure walkway. Pricetag: $14.4 million.

- A new, 48,000-square-foot Family and Juvenile Court south of the Charleston in downtown Lake Charles. Pricetag: $11.5 million.
- A four-level, 469-slot parking garage at the corner of Kirby and Pithon streets with secured areas for judges and inmates. “The garage will also provide parking capacity for downtown events on evenings and weekends,” the parish touts on its Web site. Pricetag: $11.5 million.
- A new, consolidated forensic facility and crime lab. Pricetag: $8.5 million.
- Conversion of two second-floor courtrooms into one large one at the parish courthouse — and adding holding-cell capacity. Pricetag: $2.5 million.
-Relocation of the DA’s Office to the former US Unwired headquarters on Lakeshore Drive. Pricetag: $1 million.
-New use of freed-up space by the vacating Family & Juvenile Court as a storage and preservation area for the Clerk of Court’s Office. The clerk currently pays for private, off-site storage. Pricetag: $1 million.
- Other costs, such as furniture and fees, for about $4.5 million.

The bond issue for these projects would cost homeowners the following annual amount: $3.75 if their home is assessed at $100,000; $11.25 if $150,000; $18.75 if $200,000; and $26.25 if $250,000. For the homes assessed below $75,000, there’s no tax.
Here’s the formula for the maintenance proposition: $7.45 if $100,000; $22.35 if $150,000; $37.25 if $200,000; and $52.15 if $250,000.

If the bond-issue proposition passes but the maintenance proposition fails, the Police Jury will not sell bonds or put the tax into effect.

AT THE DA’S OFFICE
District Attorney John DeRosier seeks a parishwide 10-year, 0.75-mill tax. He wants to implement a performance-based plan to make pay increases possible for his employees — DeRosier himself wouldn’t get a raise out of it — and to retain talented staff.
For example, the starting salary for a secretary, now about $16,000 annually, would increase to $18,000.

DeRosier would tie an employee’s satisfactory annual evaluation to a 3 percent cost-of-living increase.

The tax would go into effect Jan. 1 if approved. It would raise an estimated $988,000 annually. For the owner of a home assessed at $150,000, the annual tax would be $5.36.

SHERIFF’S TAX
Mancuso seeks renewal of a 10-year, 7.58-mill property tax in the parish — with an automatic rollback to 4.39 mills. The tax expires in 2010; the renewal would go into effect in 2011.

The renewal-with-a-rollback is a maneuver to avoid placing the item on the ballot as a “new” tax. Mancuso is careful to point out that a reduction goes hand-in-hand with passage. In short, the Sheriff’s Office still needs part of the current millage, but not all of it, so the idea of a renewal with a rollback was considered better than a new tax proposition.

The figure of 7.58 mills is original figure when the millage was approved two decades ago.
For the owner of a home assessed at $150,000, the current tax is $58.57. If the renewal passes, the millage rollback will reduce that by $26.65 — and Mancuso plans to roll back another millage, for an additional $25.58 in savings for a property owner.

Mancuso is circulating campaign material that calculates that the passage of all four ballots, coupled with his rollbacks, will mean “you will actually see a decrease of $12.17 in your property taxes” if you own a $150,000 home.

TO LEARN MORE
For a sample ballot, connect to www.calclerkofcourt.com and, in the right column, click “Sample Ballots.” To read the full wording of the propositions as they appear on the ballot, click the “Propositions” links.

Also the Calcasieu Parish government Web site, www.cppj.net, has information, charts and video about the proposals.

For voter information, call the Registrar of Voters’ Office, 721-4000.

The polls will be open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day. Have a photo ID with you when you show up.

The Tale of Two Airports: Chennault and Lake Charles Regional

By Nancy Correro
The Times of SWLA

Randy Robb, Chennault Director

It might be surprising to discover that the two local airports in Lake Charles are not only noncompetitive, but indeed have a friendly working relationship. Chennault International Airport Authority’s Randy Robb and Lake Charles Regional Airport’s Heath Allen say they are not only helping each other in business, but in turn, that helps the economy of Lake Charles.

“Heath and I coordinate a lot of our activities with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and when our fire trucks burned up we were able to borrow a fire truck from the Regional Airport so it’s a real good relationship between our two airports. I’ve been to his board meeting and he’s been to my board meeting and there is a working relationship between the two airports,” said Randy Robb, Executive Director of Chennault International Airport Authority.

Heath Allen, LC Regional Director

Recently, one of Chennault’s tenants, Northrop Grumman, received a substantial contract. The U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a nine-year contract to provide Contractor Logistics Support for its fleet of KC-10 Extender refueling tanker aircraft.

“If something good happens at Chennault, for example, the Northrop Grumman contract, with additional jobs, I’m ecstatic. I’m not worried it didn’t happen at Regional, if it happens at Chennault, it helps us out. It helps the economy and it’s helping our core business which is moving people.

Lake Charles Regional Airport Terminal

Air service hinges on the economy. If the economy is strong, then you’ve got business happening and people are on the move and going places and that is the key for us. So, we are Chennault’s biggest fans,” says Heath Allen, Executive Director of Lake Charles Regional Airport.
Because of the damage from Hurricane Rita, LC Regional just recently finished construction on their $28 million new facility.

“We are in a brand new ground-up passenger terminal—$28 million and all the bells and whistles you would find at a terminal in Houston say just on a smaller scale, of course,” said Allen.

There was Hurricane Rita damage to Chennault Airport as well. In recent news, U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr. announced on October 20, 2009 that a grant for $1.05 million from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA will be used to reimburse the airport authority for costs it incurred from repairs to Hanger D, which houses Aeroframe Services, LLC.

At one time, the civil and military airports were together at Chennault Airport. The Air Force wanted to get rid of the civil side. After they made the requirements for the civil side to move away from the Air Force side, they closed it. It lay fallow for a number of years until 1986.

Chennault International Airpark Main Bldg.

“The properties were given up to the Parish, the city, and the school board. They got some parties together and decided it was more than a drag strip and then they got Boeing to come in here and the state gave about $50 million dollars to build the infrastructure that we now call Chennault.

We sit on a 99 year lease with the Parish, school board, and the city,” said Robb.
Since then, Chennault has bought property around the property. The golf course is still the cities and the school board is still there for the bus facility.

“Chennault is a commercial airport. We are a commercial airport because we bring in maintenance, repair and overhaul airplanes for both the military for Northrop Grumman, and the civilian side with Aeroframe,” said Robb.

They also have Million Air and it is an FBO, Fixed Base Operator. It is high-end and it caters to military and corporate airplanes. They provide all of the fueling services for Northrop Grumman, Aeroframe, and other Chennault transients.

“We are about the fourth busiest airport in Louisiana. We get that kind of volume through there. We do have charters, for instance; we fly the McNeese Football team when they go places just because we have bigger aircrafts,” said Robb.

On June 11, American Eagle started flying back into Lake Charles after a 10 year hiatus.
Continental has been in Lake Charles for quite a long time. In that time, Northwest Airlines was scheduled to come into Lake Charles, but after 9/11 they decided to pull the plug on the project before it ever got started.

“Our primary purpose is to move people. Probably one of the biggest things that affects air travel in Lake Charles is our proximity to Houston. That’s like the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It siphons off probably 25% of our market, easily. With a second air carrier coming in it just opens up more flexibility in terms of destinations,” said Allen.

Competition is good for the consumer. Since Continental was the only carrier in Lake Charles, they charged what they wanted to charge and now they have to pay attention to American.

“It was very big to get that second carrier. You don’t see a whole lot of air service expansion right now domestically. International is what most of the big carriers are focused on right now, but we were fortunate enough to be one of the few cities that got additional service,” Allen said.

Part of the reason Allen said that Lake Charles got the service was the economy here. If you look across the country, there are a lot of places doing a lot worse than Southwest Louisiana.

“The South in general seems to being doing a little bit better than the rest of the country. In fact, where they added most of the service is strictly in the South,” said Allen.

There are a lot of projects that Aeroframe is bidding on, but Robb said he was not at liberty to say which ones, however, it looks like they are going to get a major airline in here. They do airbus series airplanes and nearly every airline has airbus equipment. Fed-Ex is Aeroframe’s major customer.

“Usually, over the holiday period Fed-Ex drops off a little of the MRO, which is maintenance, repair and overhaul activities so they can fly those airplanes to deliver goods over the holiday season. They have other airplanes [they do maintenance on]. They do painting—stripping of aircraft and painting—they’re just a complete airbus MRO,” said Robb.

Million Air is a fixed base operator. They handle the transient airplanes when they come in and out of Chennault.

“What we’ve done is we’ve built them a 15,000 sq. ft corporate hangar so they can park the bigger airplanes there and they have a smaller hangar and the t-hangars. They are expanding pretty rapidly,” said Robb.

Louisiana Mill Works builds doors and door frames and they sell them predominately to builders and lumber yards as opposed to Home Depot.

“As far as the future of Chennault, it’s pretty strong we think. We are getting a lot of interest from outside because of I-10, the railroad, and the port interfaces that are right there. Our whole mission is to create jobs and to set conditions for job creation and that is what we try to do. And, of course, number one we want to help our current tenants and help attract new.

We have over $40 million dollars of direct impact to Lake Charles and about $110 million indirect impact,” said Robb.

LC Regional Airport’s number one outbound market is to Dallas. A lot of people here in Lake Charles have business in Dallas and vice versa.

“Convenience is what Lake Charles Regional is all about. We don’t have the destinations that Houston has and certainly don’t have the number of airlines—I mean you are talking 30 plus airlines in that market. A lot of times they may beat us on fairs because they have Southwest, Frontier, JetBlue, and all the low cost carriers. But, the one place we will always beat them is in convenience—and that is what we hang our hat on,” said Allen.

As the economy improves, LC Regional may see another airline coming in, but right now they’re focusing on getting American Eagle going.

“They’re doing well and they’re making money. We don’t want everything to shift over to American and leave out Continental; we have to support them both,” said Allen.

The next focus will be on Delta. They will try and get something to East Memphis or an Atlanta connection. For a community this size, they have to fly to a large hub airport. The type of aircraft that can serve a regional airport would be Houston, Dallas, Memphis, and Atlanta.

“Northwest was bought by Delta so Delta is the only option going East for us,” said Allen.

Both Airlines are looking to Lake Charles’s future and they think it looks extremely bright. With the port, I-10, and two airports, Robb and Allen think Lake Charles is sitting in a prime location for commerce and growth.

“The port has a real nice piece of property just to the Northeast of us and we want to work with them to develop that property and whoever comes into that property if they want, they have access to the runway. There is a railway running right through that property so it is an optimum piece of property,” said Robb.

“Lake Charles is extremely fortunate to have the access that it has with the port. Most communities would die to have what we have. Look at Mobile, AL, it’s a very similar situation. They have a port, a big industrial airport, Northrop Grumman, airbuses, and then they have got their regional airport.

They play it up and Mobile does quite well because of it. I like what I see with the Chamber and what George Swift is doing. All of the elected officials seem to be on board. The sky is the limit, literally,” said Allen.

Sugarcane Bay Casino a ‘Recipe for Success’

By Nancy Correro
The Times of SWLA



Pinnacle Entertainment’s Sugarcane Bay Casino and Resort is set to begin piling work on October 19 as a result of the credit markets loosening up. The initial project estimate was $350 million and it is now $407 million.

The new casino and resort will be connected to L’Auberge Casino by a covered walkway making it convenient for the guests to walk from one to the other.

“We’ve been doing site work for some time now and have actually already completed the entrance road for the new resort so now we start our pile work and that will be utilizing local companies to produce the piles and drive them.

I don’t have the final numbers on those contracts, but one of them alone is $6 million. It will be an 18 to 24 month process,” said Kerry Andersen, Director of Community and Public Relations.

The contracts for pile production and pile driving will be local and total in the millions of dollars. Once Sugarcane Bay is built, Pinnacle Entertainment will be the second largest employer in Calcasieu Parish and will have close to a billion dollars invested in the market.

“We are in the process of succession planning right now to identify current employees who are looking to move up into management and giving them the training that they need to do that. From an employment standpoint it’s huge for the region.

We will have over $800 million invested in the market when both of these properties are finished. It’s a significant investment and we believe that that is the strongest show of faith that we can make that Southwest Louisiana is a destination of choice for not just gaming travelers, but travelers in general,” Andersen said.

Three boathouse suites which are similar to the hotel villas at L’Auberge du Lac will be built on the Calcasieu River for use by high roller guests.

“On the high end we have our boat houses. Like at L’Auberge we have the villas, those are for the high end guests and they’ll be overlooking the water. The luxury boat's houses and the butlers—those are very exciting.

We will have a very large Mojito bar that if you first go on to the property it will be a central gathering place. It has a stage inside, another entertainment venue there, which is very exciting,” said Andersen.

Pinnacle has added a 3,000 seat performance arena to the mix of indulgences at the resort.
“With a 3,000 seat arena it allows us to merge the performance budget of the two resorts and attract larger acts to the city.

It will allow us to bring in bigger names and seat 3,000 people at one time instead of a 1500 and a 1500 we would have one big night with a big act,” Andersen said.

The positive economic impact will be substantial for Lake Charles. With the contractors being local and the jobs required to operate such a large facility, Pinnacles footprint will be evident.
“We will be the second largest employer in Calcasieu Parish upon opening. There are 2,200 new jobs with Sugarcane Bay and about 400 of those are management positions,” she said.

Along with the Mojito Bar and performance arena, there will be a swimming pool, large luxury spa, 30,000 square feet of gaming including: Asian gaming area, dedicated poker room, restaurants, and retail stores.

“The spa is 24,000 square feet which is three times the size of our current spa. It has a nautical theme. It is simply stunning and state-of-the-art. It will obviously be the largest spa in the region,” said Andersen.

It seems the “upscale tropical” themed Sugarcane Bay Casino, as Kerry Andersen coined it, is an exciting project for Pinnacle Entertainment and a boon for Lake Charles’ economy.

“We think that people who come here will stay here longer now because they have more options. We will be able to attract new people to the market that have not found a reason to sample it so far. So when you combine the gaming, entertainment, and what we offer and what Lake Charles offers in the way of hunting, fishing, festivals and hospitality, we really think that that is the recipe for success.”

John Kennedy Talks State Government Reform

By Chaney Ferguson
Editor, The Times of SWLA

State Treasurer John Kennedy stopped by The Times offices to answer questions and explain exactly what the Streamlining Commission is all about:

What is the Streamlining Commission?

Governor Jindal requested the legislature create the 10 member streamlining commission to recommend ways to cut state government expenses. The governor and the legislature collaborated over the membership, a fairly representative group in the sense that there are some elected officials, some public appointed officials and some members of the private sector. Then we’ve broken it down into five subcommittees, and I chair one of them.

How do you and your committee brainstorm ways to cut spending? That has to be difficult.

We came out of the chute very quickly because, frankly, my colleagues and I have a lot of experience between us. I’ve been in and out of government for almost 20 years, and we each know what needs to be done.

John Kennedy, La. Treasurer

What needs to be done?

The problem is pretty straight forward. The budget today is 29 billion dollars. We will not have that money to spend next year or the year after. We’re going to have somewhere in the neighborhood—over the next couple of years—of 26 or 27 billion. That’s the bad news. The good news is that that’s up from 19 billion in 2005, only four years ago. So, given the shortfall, and given the fact that our constitution requires a balanced budget, we can do one of two things: we can raise taxes or we can reorganize and downsize. I contend we do the latter.

How do you suggest we reorganize and downsize?

We’re number one in the south and number 9 in the country in the number of state employees per 10,000 people. My plan is to charge state government—every department in it—with the elimination of 5,000 jobs a year for three years. No one will be fired. No one will be laid off. We have a big turn-over in state government. We have about 22% turn over. We just won’t fill the vacancies. You restructure. You reduce your layers of management; you extend your spans of control. In other words, we have one manager per three employees. The minimum would be one manager for 10 employees. Restructuring regional headquarters would save labor costs quickly—800 to 900 million dollars. You take 10-20% of those savings and use that to increase the salaries of those people on the front lines who are asked to take on additional responsibilities.

What do you see as the biggest challenge here?

Getting the legislature to agree. They’re split pretty evenly. Half of them think the answer is to raise taxes. The other half believe as I do. Some think that revenues are the answer but my response to that is the state with the largest personal income tax in America is California. The state with the highest sales tax in America is California. The state with the largest budget deficit is California. You can not solve this on the revenue side; you’ve got to solve it on the spending side.

Explain your plan for our universities.

I do not believe—and some of my colleagues disagree—that we have too many universities. I believe that we have too many universities that all want to do the same thing. It’s the way we’ve structured the university system. We’re one state. We have three systems. We have a Southern University System—all the schools there are in that system are governed by a Board of Supervisors. Then we have the LSU System and they have their Board of Supervisors, and then there’s the University of Louisiana System—McNeese is part of it— and they have their own Board of Supervisors. The statutes creating these Boards of Supervisors tell them to fight over turf, and then we have a Board of Regents which is suppose to coordinate everything. That’s a board governing a board. I have believed for many years that we should eliminate these three systems and their Board of Supervisors. We should put all the universities—and the universities are equal—on the same footing regulated by a single board.

LSU is the flagship. We can only afford one but all our other universities are important and should have their own area of expertise, their own role, their own scope and their own mission. But that doesn’t mean every university can have a nursing school or an architectural school or an engineering school or a law or medical school. We can’t afford that and we don’t need it.

Do you think the legislature will go for this?

I don’t know. It’ll be controversial. I do know this—you cannot have a 21st century higher education system without coordination, without your base being community colleges. And then you have four year schools with their role, their scope and their mission, and then you have your flagship. That’s the way Florida does it. North Carolina is another example. Your core is your community college. It’s cheaper to educate a kid in a community college. Before we had a community college system—and ours is new—kids were going to a four year school and spending their first year in remediation. Now they can go to a community college, get up to speed and move on. It will be the best thing to ever happen to our schools but I do understand that it will be controversial and there will be a lot of fear because all these schools want to be protected; they have their protectors and their mission is to grow; everybody wants more programs. We’re only 4.3 million people; we can’t afford to give every school a school for architecture and we don’t need it.

What will happen to McNeese’s school of nursing?

This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose it, but in North Louisiana for example, we have schools of nursing within 25 or 30 miles of each other. If we consolidate those through economy and scale, we’ll save money and serve the students better. But I’m not an education expert. A single board may decide that we need more nursing schools. The decision ought to be based on sound education policy not politics, and right now it’s based on the programs or allocated according to the most muscle and that’s not a rational way to allocate scarce resources. We can continue doing what we’re doing if people are willing to pay more personal income tax and more sales tax, but I don’t think they are and I don’t think they should.

Share some of your other recommendations to the committee:

We have a Charity Hospital system. We hired a firm called Alvarez & Marsal to go in and do a performance audit at the largest Charity in New Orleans. They did—and after three months came back with their report showing how to save 72 million there. One example is there was one nurse acting as a manager to three nurses so we had three nurses actually being nurses and one who was not providing nursing services but shuffling paper. I’ve also suggested that Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi join together in areas that will save us money. We buy a lot of gravel and asphalt. We buy a lot of food for prisoners. If we bought them together we’d lower our unit costs. We all share borders. We have hundreds of bulldozers, airplanes, heavy equipment. If we share we don’t need as much or as many. It’s pooling our resources on common products or services. Wisconsin and Minnesota do it and it works.

What’s the next step?

The next step is convincing the whole commission into considering these things. We’ll start doing that in October. We have to have a report by December. I anticipate that we’ll spend a good portion of October and November discussing and there will probably be some healthy debate. Once we finish our work and everything is on the table, we’ll make a report to the governor and the legislature.

Are there any drawbacks to this plan?

Oh, sure, sure—there’s no perfect solution here. In a perfect world every penny people pay in taxes would be spent effectively. In a perfect world your legislature would say they’ve got X number of dollars to spend and have rational discussions of what their priorities ought to be. If education is a priority then that’s where they spend the money. If roads are the second priority then that’s where they spend the money. But life doesn’t work like that and neither does state government.

Economic Snapshot

By Brett Downer
The Times of SWLA


We’re more likely to have a job than the typical American, thank heavens. We’re more likely to own a home. We have more doctors to choose from — and more hospital beds to climb into — when we’re sick. We have big-dollar economic expansion under way and other prospects peeking in with interest.

We earn thousands of dollars less than the typical American worker, however. We have a tougher time staying in school — whether it’s getting a high school diploma or sticking it out through college. We’re less likely to carry insurance, and when we do, we’re paying more for it.
We’re Southwest Louisiana, and how we stack up with the nation and surrounding regions is outlined in a “Competitive Snapshot” commissioned by the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance.

The “snapshot” freezes this statistical moment in time for the sake of coordinated economic planning for the future. It was prepared by Market Street Services, an Atlanta-based consulting group which does this work for cities all over the country.

The snapshot tracked data going back four to seven years, sometimes longer, to track Southwest Louisiana trends. In addition, it compared us to three roughly comparable markets — Beaumont, Texas; the Mississippi Gulf Coast; and Mobile, Ala.— and the nation as a whole.

Market Street categorizes the issues by “People, Prosperity, Place.” Its snapshot suggests that Southwest Louisiana grow the workforce, raise wages and educational attainment, diversify the economy, “become an economic garden” for new business, leverage its existing business, expand healthcare access, “improve the environment” and increase civic capacity (more nonprofit groups), among other ideas.

Mac Holladay, the founder and CEO of Market Street, said the snapshot will help the Alliance’s “Southwest Louisiana on the Move!” economic plan.

Jobs
In baseline terms of jobs, the snapshot found that the employment picture here is just about the best anywhere.

Among the three comparison regions and the nation, Southwest Louisiana had the highest level of employment growth from 2001 to 2008. Also, between the fourth quarters of 2004 and 2008, employment growth here was 5.9 percent — far better than the state (1.2 percent) and nation (2.5 percent).

In fact, from 2000-2008, the unemployment rate actually fell here (4.3 percent to 3.9 percent.) While unemployment has gone up in 2009 — to more than 7 percent — the jobless rate is still lower than that of the state, the comparison regions and the nation.

The area’s working population grew 1 percent. That was far below the growth rate nationally (up 8 percent), but still better than the state as whole, which saw a decline.

If the snapshot’s job stats are relatively encouraging, the pay stats present a challenge.

Real per capita income in 2007 was $31,366. That was far below the nation ($38,615), Mississippi Gulf Coast ($36,133) and state ($35,100). Per capita income “is one of the best measurements of a community’s progress in economic development, because it is a key indicator of economic stability and potential buying power.”

Wages in finance, insurance and information services “lag significantly behind national wages,” the snapshot notes.

Quality of Life
The stats on heathcare and insurance represent a mixed doctor’s bag.
Lake Charles has more doctors per person than the state or nation.
Healthcare costs “as a whole” in the region are higher than the state and nation. However, it’s cheaper here to visit the doctor ($75) and dentist ($55) than the national average ($77 and $70, respectively).

The number of hospital beds per capita (619) is far higher than the rates along the Mississippi Gulf Coast (406) and nationally (420). “Since Lake Charles has significantly more hospital beds per capita than the comparison regions, this presents an opportunity to expand capacity in medical research and training,” the snapshot notes.

Also, insurance costs more ($1,536) than the national average ($1,432). The percentage of people without insurance is 22 percent, higher that the state (21 percent) and nation (17 percent).
Education
Education lags.

Too many don’t finish high school. Too many don’t seek college or technical training. Still others enroll in a four-year college, but drop out. Some lose their jobs and need to learn a new skill set.
That’s where community and technical colleges with two-year degrees can some into play.

“I see Sowela and the other technical colleges in the region playing a key role for training -- and re-training — people for the workforce,” said George Swift, the Alliance’s president and CEO. “There are trades and crafts. Petrochemical, with the process technology program. Heath care. Gaming and tourism. Aviation.”

Entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur might find unexplored fields here.

The snapshot counted just 14,500 self-employed people, though “Beaumont had nearly 22,400, the (Mississippi) Gulf Coast had nearly 26,000 and Mobile had just over 27,800.”
Also, small-business loans, patents and research trail all other areas.
Swift sees opportunities.
Plant employees might realize helpful processes or products — then go get patents or form their own businesses. The “cultural economy” has potential for the musicians, artists, cooks and others who season the only-in-Louisiana gumbo of food, arts and entertainment. Also, “more companies are outsourcing things,” Swift said. “They need support services, consulting and technical services.”

Toward this end, the Southwest Louisiana Entrepreneurial and Economic Development Center is being formed. The Alliance is joining with the city, parish and state to build and operate a business incubator near the McNeese campus. The SEED Center, as McNeese President Bob Hebert named it, will house the Alliance offices, the university’s Small Business Development Center and the tools and resources needed to cultivate new business ventures.

Best Face Forward
The area has its challenges, economic and otherwise, when you’re showcasing the area to suitors.
Swift skipped the statistics when asked to name the first ones that came to mind. Instead, he pointed out the window.

“Litter, and the appearance of the I-10 corridor,” he said. He turned his chair toward his third-floor office window, which affords a view of the half-century-old Calcasieu River Bridge. “You have an I-10 bridge that is not attractive, wide, or safe-looking.”

“It’s not aesthetically pleasing,” he said. “There are no travel plazas that they can easily see...I-210 looks good, but most people take I-10.”

Nevertheless, he said, there’s a good face being put forward when people arrive by other means.
“The new airport is a major improvement for people’s first impression,” he said. The $28 million Lake Charles Regional Airport terminal is a rare welcome legacy of Hurricane Rita. Also, over at Chennault, “Million Air is a great-looking facility for people who arrive that way.” He also cited area casinos and golf courses as powerful imagemakers for the area.

What’s most attractive to outside prospects, Swift said, is an emerging fresh image of the state.
“There’s a new overall attitude and acceptance of the region by new companies and new people,” he said.

The Alliance helps that idea along through advertising and marketing that touts the petrochemical industry, gaming, health care and school achievement. “We can tell a good story,” Swift said. “We get past the perception of Louisiana. Ethics laws and marketing ... move away from the perception of political corruption and the things we don’t do anymore.”

Prospects
To get potential new businesses interested, “we have a database of available buildings and sites and demographics on the area. We contact developers and site consultants. We field RFPs (requests for proposals) usually through the state,” Swift said.

“Say someone wants a hundred acres, with rail (service), and along the interstate. We can be the link between government — on a local, parish or state level — and whatever a potential client might want. We’re kind of the liaison between these entities.”

“We’re also marketing the area in publications and online,” he said.

“We’re behind the scenes, working. We try to identify opportunities.”

And even with the wait-and-see national economic prospects, “people are looking here,” Swift insisted.

“Yes, people are still looking, and that’s a good sign. But they want to see that there’s an upswing in the national economy. There are about eight good prospects right now” — he declined to name them — “so we feel really good about the region.”

He added: “I don’t want to make light of a single person who has lost their job. But I talk to civic clubs all the time, and I tell them I can’t think of another place where I would rather be than Southwest Louisiana.”

FACTBOX:
It's All Part of a Plan
The “competitive snapshot” done by Atlanta consulting group Market Street Services is part of a four-part effort this year by the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance.

The first step was an analysis of the Beauregard Regional Airport and industrial park effort. The acreage at the site has some rail service, but needs water and sewer lines.

“It has tremendous potential long-term,” Alliance CEO George Swift said of efforts to get the facility designated as a Louisiana Megasite. “And maybe short-term.”

The second step was the competitive snapshot. It was funded by the Alliance, L’auberge du Lac Casino Resort and Louisiana Economic Development.

Next will be a Target Business Review to find targets and opportunities for economic diversification. For example, existing businesses in the petrochemical or agriculture sectors might spark related prospects for new businesses. That review will take place in mid-October.

The final phase will be an Implementation Action Plan with a timeline and benchmarks. “They will look at our five-year plan, Southwest Louisiana on the Move, to see what needs to be re-prioritized,” Swift said.

The Alliance’s plan began a year and a half ago — before the 2008 hurricane season and the national downtown — so changes are expected. Workforce development and new business recruiting, for example, have been high priorities, and will remain so. However, an emerging factor is business retention — developing opportunities from the businesses already here.
The Alliance will have a game plan “by the end of the year,” Swift said.

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.

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.

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.”

The Citizen: A Fireman’s Backup

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




The past seven months has been a long and stressful process for the firemen of Lake Charles. Negotiations between the local union and the city have not reached an agreement on the issue of higher pay.

“What the membership wants is to have equal pay with the Sulphur fire department,” said Wil Veuleman, president of the firemen’s union.

Currently a rookie fireman with the Lake Charles Fire Department starts out at $23, 849 while working 2,912 hours a year. A rookie fireman in Sulphur starts out with $29, 186 while working the same amount of hours.

“When we initially started we wanted parity with our counterparts here in town, the police department. We backed off of it because we felt it was too big a push,” said Veuleman.
A rookie police officer in Lake Charles starts out making $32, 432 while working 2,184 hours a year.

“What we are asking for is not reaching for the stars. It is just asking to be equal with everyone else around here,” said Veuleman.

The city’s main issue during negotiations has to do with overtime.

“Overtime is abundant, but it’s that way because we are minimally staffed,” said Veuleman.
There is a nationally recognized staffing standard of four men per truck, but the city has always just carried three.

“When you carry the minimum it doesn’t take long or it is very easy to get in the trap of running low when someone quits or has to leave,” said Veuleman.

When someone leaves it creates an empty spot that must be filled with overtime pay until someone can be hired. The civil service process of hiring a new fireman takes approximately six months.

“So for those six months,” said Veuleman, “we are “x” amount of positions short, and those positions are being paid time and a half everyday.”

Veuleman and Justin Governale, vice-president of the firemen’s union maintain that the overtime issue is not the concern of the firefighters.

“It is the city’s problem to address—and that is to hire more people. To hire more people you have to be offering competitive pay at the very beginning and they are not, and that is sort of where we have stagnated,” said Veuleman.

The issue of higher pay also affects how long men stay with the department.

“Chief Manuel stated that since he became chief in 2003 there have been 123 people hired throughout the classes, and 60 aren’t with us anymore,” said Veuleman.

“So half the people we’ve hired in six years are gone. That is a significant turnover rate for this size department.”

Training for a fire department takes generally around $25,000. When firemen leave for another station or leave to take another job, that training money is gone.

“You might as well have set it in a pile and lit it on fire because you have wasted it,” said Veuleman.

Recently in the news, there was a chart showing the difference in salaries for firemen around the state in cities such as Houma, Alexandria, and Lafayette.

“You can pick out cities to do a survey on and make us look like we are not that far behind, but I can pick out cities that show you we are behind significantly,” said Veuleman.

“All of those cities that we are being compared to offer incentives to their departments while we have no incentives whatsoever,” said Veuleman.

“But we aren’t losing men to Houma or Alexandria. I’m losing men to Sulphur so that is who we have to compete with, and with that in mind that is the pay we need to be striving to pay men right here. That is our stance,” said Veuleman.

Currently there are around 178 members of the Lake Charles Fire Department. The union represents 165 of those members.

“That is what we call the fire suppression division. The fire stations, dispatchers, investigators, training officers, mechanics, and some of our other support personnel that we also represent, but the majority of us are all firefighters,” said Governale. Firemen respond to more than just fires.

Governale provided a list of other possible calls to which they respond: any type of fire, downed power lines, car wrecks, pots on the stove, fire alarms, hazardous material (in the whole parish), or an incident on the interstate with an 18 wheeler.

“We will go wherever we are needed,” said Governale.

There are times when all stations are attending to fires. These times reveal the major difference between the police and firemen.

“If the police are short, they run short because they can double up on their areas. If they have too much to handle they have the Marshalls and the Sheriff’s Department to help them,” said Veuleman.

The fire department does not have backup. Governale says they are their own backup.
“We can’t run short, not only for our own safety, but for the safety of the citizens,” said Veuleman.

There are days with down time when the firemen sit in the station wondering if anyone is even in the city.

“Down time lets us know someone isn’t losing anything, whether it is property or life, and that is always a good thing,” said Veuleman.

On July 28, the firemen’s negotiation team will meet with the city’s negotiation team in order to come to an agreement.

The firemen urge the citizens to get involved in this and call their city council and the mayor, and voice their opinion.

Jindal Talks-Up Legislation at the Chamber’s Summer Speaker Series

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




Governor Jindal reiterated his stance on state ethics and job creation at the Chamber Summer Speaker Series luncheon on Friday July 10.

“We can’t spend our way back to prosperity. We don’t have this D.C. philosophy here in Louisiana,” said Jindal.

Louisiana’s driving philosophy has been a strategy completely based around job creation.
“We started last year with our first special session on ethics. LSU and Forbes did studies that said the number one thing we can do to attract jobs is to crack down on corruption,” said Jindal.

“Everybody has their favorite jokes, but the problem is those jokes were stealing opportunities from our state. As long as people think that who you know is more important than what you know people didn’t want to invest in our state,” said Jindal.

A year ago the center for public integrity ranked Louisiana 44th for disclosure. This year we rank number one in the country for disclosure on the CPI index.

“I think it is great to be number one on a national ethics list. It sends a message to this country that it is a new Louisiana,” sad Jindal.

At the luncheon Governor Jindal praised state delegates for serving the lake area and working collectively to accomplish what is beneficial for the lake area.

Governor Jindal shared about some of the bills passed to help Louisiana and Lake Charles.

• Eleven bills were passed that protect our children from sex predators
• 1.5 million dollars to protecting and restoring our coast
• 3 DWI laws passed that will help make our streets safer and protect our children and families
• 3.3 billion dollars spent on roads
• 56 million dollars on road projects right here in Lake Charles
• Laws were passed on discipline in our classroom

Despite the money coming into the lake area, the 2009 Legislative session revolved around budget cuts. Those cuts affected two areas, higher education and health care.

Higher education was originally supposed to have a general fund reduction of $213 million, but the Legislature restored $100 million from the original cut.

After looking at health care cuts, lawmakers identified an additional $45 million to alleviate some of the health care cuts.

During this time of economic uncertainty and the state budget being what it is, Governor Jindal encourages the people of Louisiana to look at the solution in the workforce.

“We don’t need to rely on our natural resources, but we need to have a productive workforce. The states that are going to move forward are the ones with an educated and productive workforce,” said Jindal.

The Governor said the session has only started in revamping Louisiana’s workforce training efforts.

Making Fort Polk Number One

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




Two days before our nation celebrated its 233 birthday, Brigadier General James C. Yarbrough, commander of Fort Polk and its Joint Readiness Training Center, spoke at the Chamber SWLA Summer Speaker Series Luncheon.

Yarbrough took command at Fort Polk on July 22, 2008. Since then he has made it his mission to push Fort Polk to be the best. The focus of his talk was the expansion of Fort Polk, which will double the size of the current facilities.

“You can not throw enough money at a soldier to make him fight for our country. They don’t do it for the money,” said Yarbrough.

Yarbrough presented a PowerPoint presentation of the new living quarters on post. He showed a picture of what the dining room looks like in the homes.

“This is the table the soldier and his wife will sit at and discuss their future. When they find out he is going to be sent back to Afghanistan. This is where they make their decisions,” said Yarbrough.

Yarbrough brought to the forefront of his talk how each soldier deserves good living conditions. He engaged his audience and painted a picture of the military family.

Expansion and renovations of Fort Polk are all done in an effort to create a good environment for soldiers and their families. Improvements also have a positive effect on the local economy.

“What is good for the community is good for Fort Polk,” said Yarbrough.

Fort Polk currently employs over 5000 civilians and generates nearly $560
million in payrolls, supplies, contracts, and other funds which spread throughout Southwest and Central Louisiana

Living conditions in the Fort Polk area are ideal in some respects.

“It’s 40 minutes from my house to launching my boat at Toledo Bend,” said Yarbrough. “However, when it comes to chain restaurants, shopping, and other amenities the area is lacking.”

Expansion will not only benefit the immediate region, it will ripple out benefits to the surrounding regions and the state. By expanding and renovating, Yarbrough is hoping that businesses will see there is a market for business owners.

Northrop Grumman Waits For Contract Announcement, Names Teammates

By Nancy Correro
Editor, The Times of SWLA





Northrop Grumman waits in anticipation to see if they will receive the defense contract to maintain KC 10 aircraft.

"We're especially pleased with the best-in-breed team we've assembled to offer the most innovative, technically superior and low-cost solution to our Air Force customer," said Jim Cameron, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Technical Services.

"Together, our team excels in program integration, leveraging the best of our industry partner core competencies while ensuring proactive management and unity of effort to provide comprehensive, responsive and focused support throughout program execution. Such capabilities only mean one thing for our customer—superior service delivered anytime, anywhere."

Northrop Grumman Technical Services is a logistics support, sustainment and technical services powerhouse for the corporation. The sector's Life Cycle Optimization and Engineering (LCOE) group provides a full spectrum of contractor logistics support including logistics management, depot maintenance, sustaining engineering support and global field management.

They announced their teammates for this project and they include: TIMCO Aviation Services Inc., AAR, Chromalloy Gas Turbine LLC, and MTU Maintenance.

TIMCO has extensive experience in maintaining, repairing and modifying DC-10-type aircraft.
AAR is one of the world's leading aviation support companies and provides the Northrop Grumman KC/KDC-10 program team its supply chain management solution.

Chromalloy and MTU Maintenance will provide the engine maintenance and related value-added management solutions for the Northrop Grumman team.

"This exceptional Northrop Grumman team will bring the requisite proven capabilities and qualifications to execute the full spectrum of world-class support the Air Force requires for the KC/KDC-10 program: logistics management, depot maintenance, sustaining engineering support and global field deployment," said Dave Werkheiser, vice president and general manager of the company's LCOE group.

The Northrop Grumman team will leverage its more than 4,300 active suppliers from all 50 states in support of the KC/KDC-10 Program.

The team submitted its proposal to the Air Force May 8, 2009. The contract award is expected before the end of June with contract phase-in set to begin July 1, 2009.

Our Financial State of Health

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




The Times of Southwest Louisiana sat down with two of our local financial instutions to discuss their take on the local economy and its affects on their operations.


CSE Federal Credit Union

What type of plan do you make with members who come in and they have just lost their job? What is the procedure of that plan?
The credit union motto is "People helping People." Life changing events can happen to anyone, at any time. We take the time to sit with our member, listen to their story and their problems, and then we go over what CSE can do to help- from consolidating debt to lowering monthly payments, or extending the loan to give them time to get back on their
feet. We try to work out problems, as long as our members are willing to help us help them.

Has your advice to members changed with the recession? How has it changed?
No, our advice to members has always been in the best interest of the member, whether we are in good times or bad. If we think the member should not borrow money because it might overload them, our advice is to not borrow the money. Credit unions have always promoted thrift, and in times of recession, thrift is the best defense.

Have you noticed people becoming more frugal?
Yes, our members' deposits into their share accounts have increased dramatically over the
last year or so, probably close to 17%. Lending is still brisk, with members financing and refinancing homes, building new homes, and buying new and used cars.

You mentioned saving is the number one principle, but what is the best way to save?
There are many ways for our members to save. We've seen a steadily increase in direct deposits and payroll deductions. It is the out of sight, out of mind philosophy- what you don't see, you don't spend. If a person can put aside $25 each pay period, $625 would be
accumulated in one year, and would earn interest on top of that. You would also be surprised at how many people, especially our younger members, save change and utilize our lobby coin counter machines to help them save.

Do you have tighter lending restrictions for 2009?
CSE experienced phenomenal loan growth in the past year and it hasn't really shown any
signs of slowing. One of the reasons for this is that CSE has not tightened its credit standards. As a matter of fact, right now, in this economy, our members need us more than ever. We have very sound underwriting standards and we have very loyal members.

Do you have less availability of cash for lending?
No, CSE has money to lend. Our member's interest is first when it comes to our lending
practices. CSE is well-capitalized and financially strong. We're owned by our members. We are a not-for-profit financial cooperative and our sole purpose is to serve our members. Our earnings are given back to our member-owners in the form of lower rates on loans, lower fees on services, and higher dividends on deposits.

What is your outlook on the economy of the area?
The economy in Southwest Louisiana is generally better than it is in other parts of the
country. Property value has actually increased instead of decreasing as in other areas. Unemployment is much lower here than it is around the rest of the country. It could be that the hurricanes we've had over the last four years are still having an effect, creating opportunities for growth and for new businesses to come into the area.



Jeff Davis Bank & Trust Company

How has your bank been affected by the economic climate?
a. We have seen growth in our deposits as people withdrew from the market at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. They were seeking safer places to house their monies and conservative community banks, such as ours, are a good place to be.
b. Also, because of the housing crisis, the government will enforce new legislation upon financial institutions which will further complicate our operations.
c. The large number of bank failures across the country have put a strain on the Deposit Insurance Fund. This fund is at a low level and Banks will have to pay additional premiums this year to try to replenish the fund. The general public doesn't realize that their Bank actually pays for the insurance on their own deposits. And, like any other insurance, when there are many claims, rates must go up. Our premiums paid in 2009 will be 7 fold of those paid in 2008.

What is your position on lending in 2009 and how has it changed?
We did not participate in any of the high risk lending that caused the housing crisis, so we did not have the loss experience that those institutions did. Loan demand was down during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 because people were not making as many major purchases or big decisions for their households. We began to see an increase in volume, though, once the Spring season arrived, which is a positive. We have always taken a conservative approach in making loan decisions and will continue to do that in the future.

Do you have less availability of cash for lending?
No, actually we have more. Because our deposit base has grown, we have plenty of cash available to lend.

Are you affected by the softer housing/business climate?
Home construction is slower at the present time than it was one year ago; however, we are still financing new construction. The businesses we serve are very healthy, for the most part. Because we did not have rapid growth and development in our area, we should not feel the pain that other areas of the country that did overbuild are having at this time.

How Two Schools Benefit Our Community: What You May Not Know

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




Lake Charles-Boston Academy of Learning and College Street T&I Center are two schools citizens pass by everyday. Their success often goes unnoticed.

The LCB Academy of Learning is divided into four areas: advanced studies, distance learning, fine arts, career and technical education.

“The whole design of the school is to fill the gaps that are in Calcasieu Parish high schools. We aren’t here to replace anything. We’re here to enhance the curriculum,” said Charles Adkins, Director of the Academy.

Throughout the day students are transported to the Academy for classes.
“We will transport you regardless of where you live,” says Adkins.

Former principal of Barbe High School, Adkins became director of the Academy because of the focused curriculum and the options it offered students.

Career and technical education provides certifications or introductions into possible career paths such as EMT training and television production.

“The advanced studies program offers AP classes and McNeese offers dual enrollment so they get college and high school credit,” said Adkins.

The fine arts program offers movie production, music mastery, and other art classes.
“Music Mastery is a class where students interested in learning more about instrumental music study under different band directors throughout the parish. We had over a hundred kids enrolled,” said Adkins.
Roger Creel and George Albers reviewing plans for the new expansion

Adkins explained that a child under the instruction of one band director might get to study under a different band director and learn a different style. He says it will strengthen high school bands in the area and help students develop their talent.

The distance learning program, an online option with occasional labs held on campus, has the most room for growth.

“Students can get credit by taking online classes.

We also help students take classes through the Louisiana Virtual School, an online school where they can take a variety of coursework,” says Adkins.

According to Adkins, a common misconception is that students must have a 3.5 GPA. There is no grade point requirement except for courses McNeese offers for dual credit.
The Academy also offers a new credit summer school.

Students can take up to two classes during the summer and the classes are every day for three hours and forty-five minutes.

“We have to do the same number of hours as a regular school year,” explains Adkins.
“One course we are really trying to start is a ‘successful strategies in reading’ course. It’s designed for students going into 8-10 grades,” said Adkins. “If you struggle in reading you’re going to struggle in everything else.”

According to Adkins everything the school does is an effort to help students.
Another school in the area focused on the success of the student is the T&I Center on College Street.

The T&I Center offers opportunities to learn skills in auto-tech, auto body repair, carpentry, commercial art, construction, culinary art, outdoor power equipment, and welding.
“Our programs are nationally accredited with NCCER certifications,” said Roger Creel, Director of Career and Technical Education in Calcasieu Parish.

The NCCER stands for National Center for Construction Education and Research.
According to Creel, the NCCER keeps a database of certifications which allows students to travel around the country to work without having to repeat any courses.

“They can pull up a student on the database and see that he is on level one module seven and he can pick up from there,” explained Creel.

The Center as well as the skills it teaches is gaining attention from local industry.
George Albers, Director of the T&I school, explains that local industries are going into the schools and speaking to students, encouraging them to look at the career and construction trades.
“They work with us and steer students into our programs,” said Albers.

Creel adds that all of the programs are geared towards helping students transfer credit to post-secondary training.

The instructor’s first priority is to help the students become successful, says Creel. Evidence of that success is found in student achievement.

“One of our students in our carpentry class went to state and finished second in cabinet making,” said Creel.

The culinary arts program boasts three certified junior culinarians.

Despite success of the school’s programs, Albers and Creel face a constant struggle when speaking with parents, students, and the community.

“Our struggle is convincing students and parents that this is a viable option they need to look at for their children. Everyone wants their child to go to college or they feel like they are a failure. That’s not true,” says Creel.

According to Creel the old mentality of sending the behavioral problems to shop class lingers. He shares with people the dignity and importance of acquiring a skill.

“Look at all the work that needed to be done after the hurricanes,” says Albers. “We had more
work than qualified workers to do the job.”

T&I Center has an enrollment of 225 students with smaller programs located on DeQuincy, Starks, Sulphur, Washington/Marion, and Westlake campuses.

Due to student interest and increasing needs in the program, the College Street T&I Center is expanding.

“The city and the parish are donating a half a million dollars each,” said Creel.
Expansion will provide new courses in electrical, pipefitting, plumbing, and HVAC. Students will enjoy the new facilities in the 2010-2011 school year.

Each school offers students opportunities to further their knowledge of possible career paths and get a leg up on the competition. If the schools are successful, the region is too.