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scuttlebutt Quote of the week “In New York, people don’t hug me. If they hug me, they’re either from New Orleans or trying to steal my purse.” — NBC News’ Hoda Kotb, addressing local journalism students at Loyola University, as quoted by Melanie Potter in a story in the Loyola Maroon.
children’s Hospital can buy nOAH
leaders of the pack CIGARETTE TAX BILLS BURN OUT Smokes are likely to continue to be comparatively cheap in Louisiana after Rep. Harold Ritchie, D-Bogalusa,
time delay COUNCIL PUTS OFF HEARING ON NOPD OFF-DUTY DETAILS The New Orleans City Council Budget/Audit/Board of Review Committee delayed a hearing last week on the Landrieu administration’s controversial overhaul of the New Orleans Police Department’s (NOPD) off-duty security details. Last week was the third delay of the hearing since the beginning of April. According to a report in The Times-Picayune, the move to push back the debate followed a private, late-night meeting between city officials and representatives of police officers’ associations, which have opposed the proposal. — CHARLES MALDONADO
Gusman: city funding is the problem SHERIFF OPPOSES OPP TAKEOVER Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman last week formally opposed New Orleans city government’s motion — filed this month — to appoint a federal receiver to take over the operations of Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), arguing it is not inadequate management but decades of inadequate city funding that led to the jail’s current state. “On Sunday, April 7 The TimesPicayune ran a front-page story asking the rhetorical question, ‘Sheriff Marlin Gusman — worst jailer? Or — is he just burdened with the worst jail?’ As will be clearly proven below, the answer to that question is that he is burdened with the worst jail,” reads the opening paragraph
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Rep. Neil Abramson has been behind a drive to reopen NOAH as a children’s and adolescents’ psychiatric hospital.
of Gusman’s motion in opposition to the city’s request. The city pays the sheriff’s office $22.39 per inmate per day to fund operations of the jail. According to Gusman’s filing, that is 15 cents less than the $22.54 a city-commissioned expert report recommended in 1990. “The city cannot continue to balance its budget on the back of the Sheriff and the United States Constitution,” the filing says. “Today, OPP faces the inevitable result of more than thirty years’ neglect by the city of the city’s correctional operations and facilities and its obligation to that system.” Mayor Mitch Landrieu believes the tens of millions of dollars in potential yearly expenses associated with the proposed consent decree would force the city to layoff or furlough hundreds of essential employees. The city believes the decree is overly broad but that Gusman is unfit to run the jail. Gusman, meanwhile, is in favor of the consent decree. But he does not concede that conditions are unconstitutional — the U.S. Department of Justice’s rationale for attempting to impose the consent agreement. U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk is weighing whether to accept the consent decree, following a weeklong fairness hearing early this month. Two more hearings on the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office’s budget and funding for the consent decree have been set for May 28 and July 1. — CHARLES MALDONADO
correction In Jeremy Alford’s column last week (“Litigation Nation,” News & Views, April 23), Rep. Marcus Hunter’s political party was misidentified. Hunter is a Democrat. Gambit regrets the error.
GAMBIT > BESTOFNEWORLEANS.COM > APRIL 30 > 2013
HOUSE BILL DROPS PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL REQUIREMENT A newly amended state House bill, advanced by the House Natural Resources Committee last week, would allow Children’s Hospital to purchase the shuttered New Orleans Adolescent Hospital (NOAH) for $29 million. Children’s agreed to lease the property in January but balked at the terms of the agreement, which required that it reopen NOAH as a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. The amendment strips that requirement for the sale but requires that Children’s expand mental health services on its main campus. The bill puts an end to a dispute between Children’s — which has been trying to buy the property for a number of years — and state Rep. Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans. Abramson, who represents the district that includes NOAH. He wanted the property reopened as a children’s and adolescents’ psychiatric hospital, but Children’s wanted to use the site for additional ambulatory outpatient clinics, a surgical center and new radiology and lab facilities, Children’s marketing vice president Brian Landry said, adding, “We’re very pleased with the bill.” Landry said the sale price for NOAH will be $29 million. The new bill also provides for $10 million to $20 million in state capital outlay funding, which likely will help pay for the mental health expansion: “Children’s plans to put $50 million to $60 million into the NOAH campus just in the next several years,” he said. Children’s Hospital met with Abramson and reached a compromise requiring it to provide expanded mental health treatment, likely on its main campus adjacent to NOAH, Landry said. Under the newly amended bill, Children’s would not be required to reopen NOAH for children’s and adolescents’ mental health services, but it would require that Children’s expand mental health services, opening 16 new beds for children and adolescents. “It is important to the entire community that these services be provided locally, and that Children’s will now have the resources to add desperately needed care,” Abramson said in a prepared statement. — CHARLES MALDONADO
pulled a bill April 22 that would have bumped the per-pack tax from 36 cents to $1.41. One day later, the House Ways & Means Committee snuffed out a plan by Rep. Katrina Jackson, DMonroe, to raise it to 68 cents per pack, which seems to end the Legislature’s annual discussion of whether to raise taxes on cigarettes. Louisiana has the third-lowest cigarette sales tax in the country, according to figures compiled by the American Lung Association and the Tax Foundation. Only Virginia at 30 cents, and Missouri at 17 cents, are lower. The highest is New York, which adds $4.35 to each pack sold in the state. Other states also are looking to hike their cigarette taxes, including Massachusetts, where Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, is proposing a $1-per-pack tax (bringing it to $3.51). Gov. Bobby Jindal wanted a similar hike ($1.05 per pack) as part of his own state income tax overhaul, but he dropped the notion when his tax plan was rejected. Jindal now says he will veto any new tax on cigarettes that does not come with lowering of other taxes, which is consistent with a previously held position. In 2011, the legislature agreed to renew a 4-cent per pack tax, which Jindal promptly vetoed, calling it a tax increase. — KEVIN ALLMAN
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