Dangerous waters
Even during the first hours of the legislative regular session on April 27, it was clear this gathering would be dramatically different from most others in recent memory. For starters, Gov. Bobby Jindal kept his opening remarks brief and apologized—sort of—to lawmakers.
Without actually referencing the incident, the governor dredged up the Legislature’s efforts last year to give themselves a pay raise, which Jindal promised he would approve but later vetoed. “As we review these past 15 months, it’s honest to admit that I’ve made mistakes and we’ve made some stumbles,” Jindal said. “But I don’t have a time machine. So it’s important we look forward.” [The governor later clarified that he apologized for not keeping a tighter rein on lawmakers and getting involved in the legislative process earlier.]
As for what lawmakers have to “look forward” to this session, it might be a lot of noise. As Jindal delivered his opening address, a protest by a loud, red-clad group college of students took place outside the Capitol. The demonstration reached a crescendo when an oversized, papier-mâché shark pleading with the governor to “stop eating education” was placed upon the steps of the front entrance. Jindal, who didn’t mention the protest in his speech, has proposed $219 million in reductions to Louisiana’s colleges.
The scene likely will be repeated throughout the session, says Rep. Joe Harrison, a Republican from Napoleonville who serves on the budget-drafting House Appropriations Committee. He believes the session ultimately will boil down to how education funding is treated. “If you look at the most recent public-opinion polls, education is the top area of concern in every area of this state,” Harrison says. “It touches on everything from economic development to outmigration. It’s the one major issue we need to deal with in this session.”
Conflict, however, will be the overriding theme of the session, and there are mini-battles brewing all over the place. For instance, when Jindal and other statewide officials were introduced on Opening Day, Agriculture and Forestry Secretary Mike Strain received the loudest ovation. Most of the cheering came from the Rural Caucus and Acadiana Delegation, which make up the lion’s share of the Legislature. The groups plan on standing by Strain in blocking Jindal’s massive cuts to agriculture programs.
And they’re not alone. The Appropriations Committee made significant changes to Jindal’s proposed $26.7 billion budget, filling gaps he left in the arts, health care, education and elsewhere. While many legislators were eager to shift around money and push proposals, increasing revenues was not on the agenda—a House committee killed a $1 million tobacco tax the day after Jindal’s speech. With only eight weeks to work, lawmakers want the budget, found in House Bill 1, on a fast track. Moving the budget bill through the process quickly will allow lawmakers to remain in the regular session prior to the adjournment deadline of June 25, which would also give them a crack at overriding any of Jindal’s spending vetoes without having to return for a special veto session.
Legislators likewise unveiled a slew of bills during the first week that would force transparency upon the office of the governor. To the ire of reform-minded lawmakers, Jindal’s staff opposed each effort, but they vowed to work on the proposals in coming weeks [similar promises were made last year, just before legislation that would have opened up public records and strengthened campaign finance laws died on the vine]. This time around, though, members of the House and Senate have become hypercritical of Jindal and his team. Moreover, they’ve grown independent and don’t want to follow marching orders, according to a source close to the administration. “This year is going to be very different,” the source says. “This year, they’ve taken out the knives.”—Jeremy Alford
iGulf growth
Cyberspace meets wildlife in a new iPhone application, iPhorest. The eco-friendly “app” allows you to virtually grow a tree from your iPhone. iPhactory, creators of other iPod and iPhone applications has meshed virtual world with reality. Each time the application is purchased, the Conservation Fund, a national conservation organization, will grow a real tree, beginning in areas along the Gulf Coast.
The agreement will provide up to 45,000 seedlings to be planted in Caldwell and Catahoula parishes, within the 100 acres that have been designated for the project. The Conservation Fund chose Louisiana as the launching site for the application, as a part of their national effort. So far, state officials are excited about the potential of the new application. Robert Berham, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, says, “This new-age product gives conservationists from around the world the chance to reforest land right here in Louisiana.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal also is excited about the progress toward coastal restoration for the state. “This announcement is a great example of what we can do when we combine technological innovation with efforts to protect our beautiful forests and the natural habitats that make Louisiana Sportsman’s Paradise.”—Summer Suleiman
The buzz word
Imagine Louisiana in August, the summer heat hovering over the cracked pavement, sweltering humidity and a tall glass of iced tea. But as the sun sets over the winding Mississippi River, something is missing—mosquitoes.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a developmental “mosquito laser” which would use a Star Wars-like laser beam to individually zap the pesky insects right out of the sky. The device’s driving force is none other than a man who worked with the creator of the hydrogen bomb and was involved in Cold War-era weapons development, Lowell Wood.
Mosquito destruction is big business. Think bug spray, citronella candles and, in many African countries battling malaria, mosquito nets. The laser technology would eliminate the blood-sucking pests and help save millions of lives.
Nathan Myhrvold, the project’s funding firm with Intellectual Ventures, told the Journal the laser would even be able to distinguish mosquitoes from butterflies and the males from females within the species based on wing speed alone. “You could kill billions of mosquitoes at night,” Myhrvold says, “and you could do so without harming butterflies.”
So Louisiana residents could enjoy pest-free summer nights, and millions in Africa could rest easy without the need to seek the protection of nets.—Olivia Watkins
‘King of its class’
Business Report received 11 awards, including first place for best news coverage, best news story, best news photo, best photo package and best Web site—at the Louisiana Press Association convention on April 25 at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center.
In winning for best news coverage, Business Report was honored for its March 11, 2008 issue, which featured a cover package on business sectors feeling protection from the storm clouds swirling around the national economy, and the Sept. 23, 2008 issue, which focused almost exclusively on the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. “Far and away the king of its class,” said judges from the Kansas Press Association.
Other first-place awards went to writer Anna Thibodeaux for her Oct. 7, 2008 cover story on the dredging of Bayou Postillion; graphic designer Carolyn Valentine Blakley for her Sept. 9, 2008 cover photo of a tree that fell into a house during Gustav; photographer Marie Constantin for her March 25, 2008 photo package of dirty jobs in the Capital Region; and the Business Report Web site, businessreport.com, led by Web editor Brandi Simmons and online editor Timothy Boone.
Business Report finished second to New Orleans’ Gambit Weekly in general excellence. Writers Stephanie Riegel and Steve Clark received second place for best continuing coverage of a single news event for their stories on the Baton Rouge housing market, and Riegel, Boone and writer David Jacobs received second place in the same category for their stories on downtown Baton Rouge. Constantin also received second place in best photo package for her Women in Business portraits.
Art director Hoa Vu received honorable mention for best front page for the May 26 and Sept. 9 issues, and Riegel received honorable mention for her June 17 story on the Capital Region’s residential real estate market.
Executive Spotlight: Thomas Livesay
Executive director
LSU Museum of Art
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas
Thomas Livesay has come a long way from his first job in the art world as the director of the Longview Museum & Art Center in Texas. As the executive director of the LSU Museum of Art, Livesay is still sculpting the art community, only now in Baton Rouge. And he’s doing it by bringing in the best and the brightest. The best business advice he’s ever received is to “Always hire people smarter than you,” he says. “I always do exactly that: just ask our employees.” With any luck—and the intellectual power of his staff—he’ll fulfill his greatest hope for the city, making the arts a crucial part of its soul.
To find out more about Livesay, read the rest of his profile and Q&A here.
Book Review: The Power of Less
Author: Leo Babauta
Publisher: Fred Stella
Year: 2008
Description: 4 CDs, 5 hours
Just like everybody else, you have 24 hours in a day.
You sleep some of it away. You take time for daily ablutions, nutrition and a few minutes to catch your breath, no matter how few. But at the end of the day, it always seems like you have more tasks than you have time.
What would you say to doing less and getting more out of your 24 hours? Pick up the new audiobook The Power of Less by Leo Babauta, and you might discover the secret to better time management.
No doubt about it, fighting distraction is a big part of your workday. It’s difficult to resist the lure of e-mail and easy to justify going on Facebook or Twitter. Check last night’s scores, your horoscope, and before you know it, you’ve wasted an hour of your day.
So what to do? First, Babauta says, set limitations and “choose the essential to maximize time and energy.” Playing online isn’t networking, it’s playing online; in fact, he says, you probably don’t need to check e-mail more than twice a day and you can usually reply in five sentences or less.
In today’s workplace, where 20 people want your job and you’re being asked to do more and more, does it make sense to slow your pace?
I didn’t think so, either.
Babauta has some good ideas, in theory. Who wouldn’t like to focus on a mere three tasks each day? Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to participate in an “online forum” during work time? All these things are wonderful if you can get away with them, but Babauta’s program is filled with what I think most executives would consider a waste of precious time and—since a good chunk of this audiobook is devoted to meticulous [and common-sense] diet and exercise advice—a waste of good money.
If you think you have the luxury of slowing down your pace at work, give this audiobook a whirl. For most workin’ folks, though, The Power of Less is a lot less useful.—Terri Schlichenmeyer
Fast Forward: Luxury moves
The Business Report cover story “What Baton Rouge’s real estate experts aren’t telling you” (June 17, 2008) warned that the bloom could be coming off the local housing market. Several factors, from overbuilding to a lack of consumer confidence and from tight credit to high gas prices, were blamed for putting the brakes on a real estate market that hit top speed after Hurricane Katrina.
While the Baton Rouge housing market hasn’t plunged to the levels seen in other parts of the country, home sales have dipped below pre-Katrina numbers. According to the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service, home sales in metro Baton Rouge are down 23% in the first quarter when compared with the same period in 2008.
Those figures have members of the real estate community looking for bright spots. Tom Cook, owner of Cook, Moore & Associates, says sale prices were up by 2% to an average of $201,700, and the number of days homes were staying on the market fell by more than 34% to 95 days. “It’s the rate of sales that has slowed down,” Cook says.
Strangely enough, there was one bright spot. One of the strongest categories for home sales in metro Baton Rouge has been houses priced at more than $400,000. Over a 12-month period that ended in February, there were 213 new luxury homes sold in the Capital Region. That compares with the 156 luxury-home sales that took place in the 12-month period ending in February 2008.
Cook noted that discounts made the deals happen. “They cut price and sold these houses,” he says. “But the important thing is that somebody bought these houses.”
To read more about the Baton Rouge market and how it been impacted by the national recession, read the cover story here.—Timothy Boone
The Good Life
Potato, potato …
Deep South Choppers has been building sinister and beautiful road weapons for a few years now—mostly bikes based on kits from California-based Big Bear Choppers.
Now Deep South owners Dennis and Brad Mannino have made good on a threat to design, build and sell their own bikes. Meet the DSC Scorcher, their take on the classic “bobber” chopper with the addition of a rear suspension—lacking in traditional bobbers, which are easy on the eyes but hard on the back.
The Scorcher has two versions: the “High Voltage,” with mini “ape hanger” handlebars (pictured), and the “Low Voltage,” with hot-rod drag handlebars. Both feature Harley-Davidson engines and Baker transmissions. For the rest, material and vendors and such, the Manninos insist on being as made-in-Louisiana as possible.
“I had to find a place that could cut our braces and things like that with a laser cutter,” Dennis says. “I found a guy in Central to do that.”
With an MSRP on the Low Voltage at $19,900 and $20,500 on the High Voltage, the Scorcher is significantly more affordable than Big Bears, which start at about $28,000, and most other custom bikes. Not too steep for a front-row seat to the good life.—Steve Clark
fortnight May 6 – May 19
May 12 – On this day in 1902? – the Louisiana State Board of Education was created. Today, the Department of Education is pursuing three primary initiatives throughout the remainder of 2009, “Ensuring Literacy and Numeracy for All,” high school redesign, and career and technical education.
May 15 – The Leadership Baton Rouge Alumni plays host to a public forum on racial tension. “Dialogue on Race” will bring together community leaders, business executives and concerned citizens. The forum, to be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Baton Rouge Community College, will be led by panelists JR Ball, Maxine Crump, John Noland and John Smith. For more information visit leadershipbr.org.
May 16 – On this day in 1929 – 15 senators affirmed and signed a pledge to prevent an attempt to impeach Gov. Huey Long. As the regular session continues, Gov. Bobby Jindal faces challenges of his own in working with the Legislature.
May 18 – On this day in 1896 – the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Louisiana law with the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. While the “separate-but-equal” decision was eventually overturned, a recent CityStats report found that 40% of respondents to a Baton Rouge Area Foundation poll believe racism is still a problem.
May 19 – Phyllis Coleman Mouton and Suzanne Wilbert Turner will be honored by the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations at the 2009 Louisiana Heroine Awards. Nominees and winners are women “who have given of their time and talent to service their communities.” For more information about the awards luncheon, to be held at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center, visit lano.org.
May 19 – The Louisiana Oil and Gas Symposium begins in the Dalton Woods Auditorium in the Energy, Coast and Environment Building at LSU. The two-day symposium includes lectures from Don Briggs from the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association and Jim Welsh from the Louisiana Office of Conservation. For more information, visit brgs-la.org.
Business of Politics
Coastal living in Gonzales?
As flooding has become a perennial issue in recent years, officials in Ascension have questioned whether the parish should have joined Louisiana’s coastal zone during the 1970s, when the political territory was created by legislation to help municipalities deal with levees, floodgates and other water-control matters. The overriding answer has been increasingly positive, and Rep. Eddie J. Lambert, R-Gonzales, has filed House Bill 423 for debate in the ongoing session to finally add Ascension Parish to the coastal zone. By joining the 19 parishes in the coastal zone, Ascension officials hope to secure both financial and technical assistance.
Special interests
Since a coalition of elected officials and special interests announced their plans to reform the state’s public school boards, Gov. Bobby Jindal has been noticeably quiet. By all accounts, though, he has voiced general support for the legislative package. The real question is whether the backing will last—the legislation authored by Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, received barely a passing mention in Jindal’s opening address to lawmakers last month. [On April 29, the House and Governmental Affairs Committee rejected Carter’s bill that would have set term limits for school board members by an 11-6 vote.] Still, there seems to be lot of interest from the administration, according to supporters. “They have been generally supportive in our conversations and have asked how it’s going,” says Barry Erwin, president of Council for a Better Louisiana, which helped craft the bill. The whole situation gets a bit sketchy when recent history is rolled out. For example, Jindal has been known to flip-flop on legislative promises [legislative pay raises, reporting of contributions from appointments, Stelly tax reversal], but this time he’s at the table with two friends: CABL, which was a cheerleader following the governor’s first special session on ethics last year, and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, which co-drafted the school board package and loudly supported Jindal’s second special session for economic development.—J.A.
Creative cash
The recession has prompted LSU’s business college to seek innovative financing for the new building it’s been trying to construct for a decade. Eli Jones, dean of LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business, says it’s exploring a federal program called the New Markets Tax Credit.
The idea came from Tom Adamek, an LSU alumnus who is president of Stonehenge Capital Company. Though it’s frequently used for economic-development projects in rural or other low-income areas around the country, the $60 million business complex project qualifies—partly because of LSU’s ZIP code and partly because of the impact the college has by teaching students skills to become economically productive, Jones says.
“In our case, the first step was to look at where we’re located,” he says. “The bad news is we’re in a low-income area. The good news is we’re in a low-income area.”
The New Markets program funds projects by selling tax credits to large companies, usually for 70 to 75 cents on the dollar. ExxonMobil, ChevronPhillips and financial-services companies are frequent buyers. A portion of the money goes toward funding projects—in this case a new business building. The project is $12.2 million short of the $30 million it needs for another $30 million in state matching funds.—S.C.
Black Tuesday
April 28 was not a good day for Baton Rouge media.
First, it was reported that WVLA-TV and WGMB-TV were no longer producing or anchoring a local newscast from Baton Rouge. The NBC and Fox affiliates will continue to air newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m., but the broadcasts will originate from a sister station in Tyler, Texas, with local news, sports and weather shipped in. In quarterly ratings periods, neither station has earned more than a 1% share of the viewing audience, which translates into 2,000 households at best.
It was a cost-saving measure designed to enable parent Community Corp. of America to air news in several markets for the price of producing one.
Then, Clear Channel Communications announced layoffs of several local radio personalities, including Bill Profita and Josh Innes of WJBO-AM, Rick Cantu and Scotty Mac [Scott Carlisle] of KRVE-FM and Kevin Campbell of WFMF-FM. Carlisle has been reassigned to production duties. They will be replaced by personalities from other cities who will broadcast remotely.—Stephanie Riegel and T.B.
ONTHEBEAT
Lawful congrats: LSU’s law school climbed 13 points in the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of graduate schools. The Paul M. Hebert Law Center is in 75th place among U.S. law schools for 2010, compared to 88th last year. Chancellor Jack Weiss says the jump in rankings is proof that “we are on the right path,” but he worries about the effect of a 15% cut in state funding that would force program and staff eliminations.
Low closures: Baton Rouge had the 37th lowest foreclosure rate in U.S. metro areas during the first quarter, according to a report by RealtyTrac. There were 449 foreclosures in metro Baton Rouge during the first three months of the year, or one per every 714 households. That’s far better than the national average of one foreclosure for every 159 U.S. households.
Recession-proof? Four Louisiana cities, including Baton Rouge and Lafayette, ranked among the 30 best places in the United States for jobs. The report, based on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was heavily dominated by Texas cities and college towns—areas that have held up well during the current recession.
Freaky and fast: Jimmy John’s sandwiches has signed a lease in the former Perkins Road Hardware building and is scheduled to open a 1,400-square-foot restaurant by early fall. This is the first tenant to commit to the mixed-use building and will be the first Louisiana location for the chain. Jimmy John’s has more than 840 locations in 37 states.
Plunging prices: State export shipments during the first two months of the year were $5.3 billion, 29% lower than the total through February 2008. Despite the big plunge, Louisiana actually moved up to seventh place in the rankings of exports by state.
Open hot spot: The Third Street building that was the home of D’Agostino’s is up for lease. D’Agostino’s recently closed; owner Sammy D’Agostino died in September. Diane Zhang, who owns the building, says she’s looking for someone to take over the 5,300-square-foot restaurant space and an adjoining 1,100 square feet.
The Fortune-ate: The Shaw Group and Albemarle were the only two Baton Rouge-based companies to make the Fortune 1000 list of America’s largest corporations. Shaw moved up 69 spots from last year, to finish 357th. Albemarle moved up 18 spots, to 788th.
Bond boost: Standard and Poor’s has upgraded the bond rating for the East Baton Rouge Sewer Commission, a move city officials say will help with road projects. The rating service says it moved the city-parish from an A+ to AA-, citing the strength of sales tax revenues, strong liquidity and regional economic base.
Port diet: The Port of Greater Baton Rouge reports a 5% decline in tonnage from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008, from 5.5 million to 5.3 million tons. The first quarter of 2009 shows a decline of 29%, though the figure is not necessarily indicative of a trend since many commodities handled at the port are seasonal and can vary substantially month to month.
