On Thursday, the House & Governmental Affairs Committee reviewed seven congressional redistricting plans before passing out two north-south plans by Reps. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, and Greg Cromer, R-Slidell. Ponti’s got the strongest vote, 15-4, from the Republican-dominated committee. It also passed out a plan by Rep. Dee Richard, I-Thibodaux, that has a single north Louisiana district. At one point, the governor’s chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, huddled with Ponti and Cromer in a vacant committee room as a state trooper stood at the door. The two Republicans’ plans come closest to the plan by Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, which the governor supported, and will be debated Monday in the Senate.
—The giant investment banking firm Goldman Sachs is negotiating a contract with the state to assess the value of and find a buyer for state employee health insurance plans now run by the Office of Group Benefits, according to the Division of Administration. The Wall Street firm was the only one to respond to the state’s request for proposal. Gov. Bobby Jindal has estimated the state could net $150 million to $200 million from the sale of the plans, in which 78,000 current and retired state workers are enrolled. What makes Group Benefits attractive to prospective buyers is its reserve fund of $500 million to pay claims. The administration did not include the prospective proceeds of the sale in its executive budget. According to state law, the sale of benefit plans would not require an act of the Legislature but only the approval of the Joint Budget Committee. One outspoken critic of the planned sale is Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City, who has said it would be “a catastrophe.” The proposed privatization has caused concern and opposition among state employees, who generally view with satisfaction OGB’s claims management. Yet the Division of Administration points out that the agency’s workforce of 329 employees far exceeds that of agencies in other states performing the same function. The administration claims the privatization will eliminate 149 positions and save $10.2 million in the next budget.
They said it: “I don’t work for Gov. Teepell; I work for the people.” —Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
