BusinessReport.com

School daze

To the publisher:

While there is no doubt there was a low voter turnout, as is usually the case in summer elections (“Publishers View,” July 17, July 31), I write to reiterate to your readers why the school system chose to place the tax renewals on the July ballots and steps we took to educate the public about the upcoming election.

As you correctly pointed out, the original vote was schedule for the spring of 2007. This vote was to occur after the Central community voted to create its own school system in the fall of 2006. Consequently, these citizens, who were no longer a part of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, would have still been allowed to vote on issues of importance to the EBRPSS in the spring election had we chosen to remain on that ballot. Considering the past voting records of that particular area of the parish on items related to the EBRPSS, even before they created their own independent school system, we were advised to remove our items from the spring election. The next available date was July 21.

While the EBRPSS ballot renewals were the main items on the July ballot, we were not the only organization to appear on the ballot. In addition, had Pinnacle Entertainment remained on the July ballot as they had originally planned, we would have been able to share the majority of the election cost with them. Moreover, we are in no position to dictate to other organizations when they should or should not place an item on the ballot.

You also state that the low voter turnout was by design so that only EBR school employees would know about the election and vote in favor of them. Not only is this statement incorrect, but it is also a misrepresentation of the facts.

In preparation for the upcoming election, the school system began our advertising campaign in early June by placing an advertisement for the tax in the Business Report’s “Women in Business” special section. Full-page advertisements highlighting the election were placed in over five area magazines, The Advocate’s “Back-to-School” special, as well as 10 billboards strategically located around the parish. In addition, The Advocate also wrote not one, but two, editorials and opinions regarding the election, as well as publishing an article by reporter Charles Lussier, which appeared in the newspaper July 18, just three days before the election. These articles and advertisements do not take into account the editorial in the Business Report urging readers to vote against the education tax renewals.

In addition to the Business Report, advertisements education the public about the upcoming election were placed in The Advocate, 225 magazine, InRegister magazine, Southeast News and Baton Rouge Parents magazine. The combined circulation of these magazines indicates that we were able to reached over 397,500 households in the Baton Rouge area. This is far greater than the 7,079 votes in favor of the renewals.

I also feel the need to point out that while many in the media have reported on the low turnout and somehow implied that this was the plan of the school system all along, we did not call for a special election. These elections are scheduled years in advance. We advertised as best we could, but we are especially careful on how we spend taxpayers’ money.

The school system thanks and appreciates the support from the Baton Rouge community. We know they put their trust in us to provide a high-quality education, and that is our focus. It is important to remember that a community is only as strong as its public school system.

Chris Trahan, East Baton Rouge Parish School System

Thanks to ethics supporters

To the publisher:

Several months ago, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) and 50 other organizations formed the LA Ethics 1 coalition to push for Louisiana to become a national model for governmental ethics laws and enforcement.

Although we faced tremendous opposition in the recent legislative session, we succeeded in passing several meaningful ethics laws (e.g., stronger whistleblower protection, a full-time ethics administrator and mandatory ethics training for public officials). Additionally, the Board of Ethics adopted our recommendation to create a task force that will evaluate the 100-plus exceptions to the Ethics Code.

Unfortunately, the Legislature killed our top bill—financial disclosure for legislators and statewide elected officials—on the last day of the session. Louisiana, therefore, remains one of just a few states that require virtually no financial disclosure for legislators. This is particularly unfortunate given that business executives outside Louisiana say that governmental ethics reform is one of the top things our state could do to attract more business investment and jobs.

Fortunately, there were a number of legislators in the Capital Region who fought hard to improve Louisiana’s governmental ethics laws. We would like to express sincere thanks to Reps. Regina Ashford Barrow, Don Cazayoux, William Daniel, Michael Jackson, Karen St. Germain and Bodi White as well as Sens. Sharon Weston Broome, Cleo Fields and Ben Nevers for their strong leadership on ethics reform in the 2007 legislative session. We also thank top ethics reform supporters from other parts of the state, including Reps. Eric LaFleur, Billy Montgomery and Joel Robideaux as well as Sens. Ann Duplessis, Reggie Dupre and Mike Michot.

We are grateful to the thousands of voters who took the time to encourage their legislators to support ethics reform. And we deeply appreciate the compelling testimony provided by top state business leaders like Jim Bernhard, CEO of The Shaw Group, and Lee Griffin, former chairman of the Committee of 100, who urged the adoption of strong governmental ethics laws to improve economic development. Other business and civic leaders, including Dennis Blunt, Michelle Carriere, Pat Felder, Mike Hunt, Eric Lewis, Chris Tyson and Rabbi Barry Weinstein, also made notable contributions.

Ethics reform may have been an uphill battle this year, but there is growing momentum for more change in 2008. Voters have an opportunity this fall to elect leaders who will support economic development by adopting laws that transform our state into a national leader in governmental ethics.

Stephen Moret, BRAC president/CEO, LA Ethics 1 spokesperson

Health care questions

To the editor:

What should be done with health care delivery in Louisiana comes down to a simple question: Do you want to transfer billions of taxpayer dollars to private hospitals and private insurance companies?

Does anyone really believe that privatizing health care, dismantling our state’s system of safety net hospitals and trauma centers, and turning over the operation of medical education programs to for-profit companies will result in better and more affordable care at lower costs?

If you’ve paid the full cost of a hospital or doctor’s bill lately, much less the tab for prescriptions, you know how expensive health care is. The fact is, however, almost no one pays the true cost of health care. Insurance companies pay. Most of us pay deductibles and co-pays. Everyone else, and that’s an estimated 45 million Americans and more than 600,000 people in Louisiana, have no insurance and depend on public hospitals and clinics.

Insurance companies and their backers among private hospitals that overbuilt, over-equipped, and overstaffed, will likely soon propose something euphemistically being called “Right Care” under the rationale that patients should be able to choose from a variety of “alternative, health benefit plans.” The plan to be referred to as an “insurance connector,” and will propose that $1.3 billion in state funds currently used to operate safety-net hospitals be combined with patient financial resources” (more of your money) and employer contributions (otherwise known as a taxes on small business) to “promote more competition.” Medical training would be dispersed to private hospitals across the state. The proposal should be called “Right Care for the Right Dollar.”

It should astonish no one that Dr. Pat Quinlan, Chief Executive Officer of the Ochsner Health System, Louisiana’s largest private health care institution with seven expensive hospitals, 32 clinics, and 9,000 well-paid employees, is flatly opposed to building a new LSU academic hospital in New Orleans, a teaching hospital that will treat the uninsured and attract paying patients with a state-of-the-art medical facility.

Last March, Dr. Quinlan told a congressional committee that he supports the so-called “dollar follow the patient” model, which is the essence of the “Right Care” proposal. The self-styled Blueprint Louisiana group, which is heavily supported by private health care businesses, also backs the concept and wants to scrap public hospitals. The debate over health care, therefore, is not about patient care; it’s about greed.

Proponents of destroying Louisiana’s safety net hospitals know the alleged “high costs and poor outcomes” in health care are directly linked to Medicare patient outcomes. LSU hospitals treat less than 5% of all Medicare patients in the state yet proponents of alleged reform continue to blame public hospitals for Louisiana’s health care woes. They know better and should be ashamed of themselves for misleading the public.

Patients receiving treatment, doctors, nurses, dentists and medical technologists are being trained in our public hospitals and clinics. Those who want to destroy the safety net system should keep in mind that if every penny of the $1.3 billion that Louisiana will spend this fiscal year operating its public hospitals was diverted, the state would still need an additional $2 billion a year to pay for limited health insurance coverage based on the number of people who might sign up. That will still leave more than 300,000 people with no health coverage.

At the same time, trauma centers, hospitals and clinics would be forced to close while the training of more than 3,000 medical professionals would be left to the financial whims of private businesses with a loose and unsanctioned obligation to medical education. Does that sound wise to you?

Jack Andonie, MD, Member, LSU Board of Supervisors, Metairie

Duck and cover

To the editor:

I am truly puzzled as to why Business Report would quote a convicted felon on the cover of their magazine (July 31). Citizens may be the worst financial disaster in the last 100 years and Jim Brown may even be right. But why would you want to give a voice to another embarrassing politician who put himself first before his office to service citizens of Louisiana? The man was convicted of a crime while in office and spent time in federal prison. Your paper could not find a better source than him? Louisiana politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, continue to give Louisiana a black eye and drag this state through the mud. When is enough going to be enough? I am sad to see such a good paper do such poor research to present such a serious problem facing Louisiana.

Jady Regard, New Iberia

Let the buyer beware

To the editor:

I must admit, we, too, once laughed at the newly arrived young folks from Texas whose palm trees turned out to be trunked palmettos (“Random Thoughts,” July 17). When they got water in their new suburban-style house, their bargain-priced lot wasn't such a bargain. They blamed the developer and a corrupt Louisiana government that let a developer get away with developing down in a hole and then calling it a subdivision. Silly Texans. I think they went back to Texas.

But we cried about the folks, many of whom are now our new neighbors, from the once brackish marsh and cypress swamps we know as Lakeview and Gentilly, who lost everything, who ended up on their rooftops, and whose loved ones didn't make it through the Katrina ordeal nearly two years ago. But for the grace of God that could have been us, many of us thought.

And now, here are these young folks who've bought a house in a subdivision right in the middle of an area that just 30 years ago many of us assumed would never be heavily developed because it was obviously too low-lying and flood-prone. Now they are upset because of proposed heavy commercial development squeezing them from both sides. And there, just feet away, is the mighty Mississippi River, a gazillion gallons of flowing water and ships and barges, contained by the very same levee system that crumbled and flooded New Orleans.

“Let the buyer beware,” I say. I know if I lived down in that area, as we once considered doing, I'd keep a pirogue and an ax in my attic.

Call it a sense of karma or community, but at the point we finally realize everyone is our neighbor, and everyone deserves to be treated the way we'd have others treat us, and that all neighborhoods are “our backyard,” we'll truly be on the way to becoming the uniquely wonderful place I know Baton Rouge can be.

Miriam L. Davey, Baton Rouge

Let’s pull together

To the editor:

I read your report every month. In most cases, I agree with you. But in the BREC situation with Darrell Glasper, I have to object to your short negative comment (“Balance Sheet,” July 31).

I watched the BREC meeting with video production on the agenda. After seeing Mr. Glasper's behavior at that meeting, I was appalled. I was so concerned that I dug in and questioned how the decision was made. It was done by more than one committee meeting, and by a number of people looking at all the bids and rating them on a grading system. It was done by the book.

You should, in your capacity, research and confirm facts before you throw out a comment regarding anyone (you sway peoples thoughts with your words). I really can't believe what you write anymore.

Mr. Glasper, by his public actions, appears that he wants nothing more than to be in charge or to create turmoil. Teamwork is what we need for this city, not divide and conquer.

Anne James, Baton Rouge