The Daily Review, Morgan City, La., Friday, April 29, 2011, Page
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STATE Vitter questions cancellation of public hearing BATON ROUGE (AP) — U.S. Sen. David Vitter questioned whether next week’s public hearing about the construction of a $1.2 billion public hospital in New Orleans was canceled because supporters of the hospital are trying to get a more favorable review from the latest consultant studying the plans. Vitter sent a letter Thursday to the chairman of the University Medical Center board, suggesting the board’s planned May 5 meeting was postponed to give people more time to lobby Kaufman Hall & Associates Inc. to change its initial report to be more supportive on construction of the large hospital. The report was supposed to be presented at the board’s meeting. The first draft of the report by Illinois-based Kaufman Hall said UMC, a planned 424-bed teaching and research hospital, is “materially larger than is supportable in the competitive environment.” If the hospital isn’t scaled back, it would cost the state anywhere from $70 million to more than $100 million in subsidies each year to operate, the report says. That echoes concerns raised by Vitter. “It appears that it’s exactly because of the inconvenient findings about the sustainability of mega-Charity that the board meeting and review of the Kaufman Hall report have been postponed,” Vitter said in a statement. “An intense lobbying effort by advocates of the current mega-Charity rebuilding plan is now underway to change the final report.” The UMC board meeting was postponed until June 2, with no explanation in the notice for the postponement.
Bobby Yarborough, UMC board chairman, said Thursday the meeting was delayed because Kaufman Hall needed time to complete its work and review additional information submitted by Louisiana State University that Kaufman didn’t have in its initial study. He denied the delay was a bid to get a more favorable report. “How would any organization of reputation ever be tempted to listen to that kind of nonsense? They’re too successful to even have been asked to do something like that. No, that is not what is going on here at all,” Yarborough said. Yarborough said it’s unclear if any of the information provided by LSU will change Kaufman’s assumptions or findings. Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee plan a Monday hearing to discuss Kaufman’s initial report and to dig deeper into financing plans to determine if enough money will be available to cover the hospital’s construction costs, said House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown. The state has committed $300 million in construction money, and another $435 million in federal hurricane recovery money is available for the hospital. UMC hopes to sell bonds backed by anticipated hospital revenue and backed by a federal guarantee to cover much of the remaining cost. The new hospital would replace LSU’s Charity Hospital, an Art Deco landmark that was flooded and heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It never reopened after the flood, and a temporary hospital has been used in its place while work contin-
ues on a new facility to train university students. The proposal to build a large, more than 400-bed teaching hospital to replace Charity was first proposed by Democratic former Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s administration. It now is supported by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal. The Jindal administration hopes to have the hospital opened by 2015. Three previous studies have been done of the plan. The UMC board hired Kaufman to do the latest review. Vitter has become an outspoken opponent of the current UMC proposal and instead supports gutting and rebuilding the existing Charity Hospital shell or significantly shrinking the footprint of the planned new hospital. He’s urged federal housing officials to reject a Jindal administration application to help pay for the hospital. “The state’s current plan is too big and too expensive; it would not attract the patients and income needed to sustain it,” Vitter wrote in the letter, also sent to the governor, legislative leaders and all UMC board members. “As a result, it would put the taxpayer on the hook for major bonded indebtedness and operating cost burdens in the future.”
Notes and quotes from the La. Legislature BATON ROUGE (AP) — House Speaker Jim Tucker said he hopes Southern University at New Orleans could keep its designation as a historically black college even as Tucker pushes to consolidate the school with nearby University of New Orleans. Tucker, R-Terrytown, who is sponsoring the merger bill, said he hasn’t received any guidance from accreditation officials or federal officials about whether a merged SUNO would be able to keep the tag as a historically black college and university, or “HBCU.” But he said if the HBCU status cannot be maintained, he still supports the consolidation effort (House Bill 537). “You don’t save an HBCU because it’s black. You save an HBCU because it’s an outstanding institution. We’re not there with SUNO,” Tucker said Thursday at a luncheon with reporters. The proposal by Tucker — and identical legislation in the Senate by Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie — would create a new University of Louisiana at New Orleans in the University of Louisiana System. The new ULNO would keep two separate colleges with different admissions criteria and program offerings. But the university would have one accreditation and one academic chief, leaving higher education leaders to question whether the HBCU status would be lost, along with federal grant dollars for schools with the designation. Black lawmakers and SUNO leaders, alumni and students have called the con-
solidation proposal racist and said it would diminish education opportunities for minority students. The merger would require two-thirds support of the Legislature to pass, a high hurdle for a controversial proposal. ——— A redesign of the eight elected districts for the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is on a fast track for approval in the Louisiana Legislature. The House voted 82-0 Thursday for the map (House Bill 519) that accounts for population shifts over the last decade, as shown in the latest federal census data. Lawmakers didn’t complete the BESE reshaping during their recently ended redistricting special session, so they’re trying to complete the work quickly in their regular session. The state needs federal approval for the design of the districts under the Voting Rights Act before those maps can be used in this fall’s BESE elections. ——— Military veterans should be given choices for how they can receive medals from the state honoring their service, rather than waiting for a ceremony involving the governor, lawmakers agreed Thursday. The House Judiciary Committee approved a proposal that would outline three methods in state law for a veteran to receive the medal: delivery by mail, delivery to a local veterans’ affairs office, or delivery by the governor or his designee in a cere-
mony. Lawmakers have criticized a previous requirement by the Jindal administration that most veterans must attend a ceremony presided over by Gov. Bobby Jindal to receive their medals, complaining that it appeared the governor was using the ceremonies to bolster his re-election efforts. Lawmakers had said they’ve received calls from veterans who have waited months for their medals. After months of criticism, the Jindal administration quietly changed its handling of the medals, allowing veterans to skip the ceremony and get their medals in the mail. But lawmakers say they still want to spell the options out in law. The Judiciary Committee advanced the measure by Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, to the full House for debate without objection. About 26,000 medals have been awarded since the program began. An analysis of Edwards’ bill says about 300,000 veterans live in Louisiana. ——— Quotes: “My instinct tells me right now the votes aren’t there to pass a two-thirds vote, and if the votes are not there, we’re not going to make them bleed over it.” —House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, saying he won’t push for a House floor vote on a cigarette tax increase, if it appears the proposal can’t pass.
10 accused of UI payment fraud NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities have arrested 10 people in the New Orleans area as part of the start of a statewide crackdown on fraudulent unemployment payments dubbed “Operation Spring Cleaning.” The 10 suspects are accused of scamming the state’s unemployment benefit system out of payments ranging from about $6,100 to over $24,000, the state attorney general and the Louisiana Workforce Commis-
sion said Thursday. A task force this week took the 10 to Baton Rouge where they were booked with felony theft over $1,500 — a charge carrying up to 10 years in prison and fines of $3,000. In the initial batch of cases, the Workforce Commission had identified overpayments and worked out reimbursement plans. But the payments back to the state were either stopped or never made, said Curt Eysink, the state labor agency’s
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executive director. “We are scooping up these cases because they are the lowhanging fruit,” Eysink said in an interview. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said the crackdown is intended to send the message that “fraud equals theft.” Eysink would not reveal how many other cases are under active review for possible prosecution, but said they were all over the state. In general cases of overpayment, the Workforce Commission demands restitution. Fraudulent overpayments also result in a denial of jobless benefits for a year. State law allows overpayments to be taken from state income tax returns and Eysink said the Workforce Commission is working with the Internal Revenue Service to take overpayments from federal tax refunds. “Every time we find an overpayment, this goes on as a matter of routine,” Eysink said. “With Operation Spring Cleaning, we had contacted the people, they had agreed to repay and either quit paying or never made the first payment.” To fund the unemployment compensation system, businesses pay a state tax based upon payroll size and the number of workers who have filed jobless claims after working for them. On a weekly basis, those receiving jobless benefits must swear they are actively seeking work
and report income of any kind during the previous week, which can affect the size of their benefit. Eysink said one of the major reasons for overpayment is newly hired workers who try to collect unemployment benefits until they get their first paycheck at their job. “They aren’t trying to intentionally rip us off,” Eysink said. “But people need to realize that is not legitimate and we will come back and get that money.” One tool that is being used to catch cheats is cross-checking the names of those receiving jobless benefits against the National Directory of New Hires, a national directory of employment and unemployment insurance information operated by the federal government to help states locate parents and to enforce child support. Employers are required by federal law to provide the names of newly hired workers to a state directory, which feeds into the national database. “With the system we have in place now, they ought to know we’re going to know when they’re ripping us off,” Eysink said. The Workforce Commission said those who have collected fraudulent overpayments may contact the agency to establish a repayment plan. Officials said each of those cases will be reviewed — but there is no guarantee of avoiding prosecution.
Seafood declared safe in Barataria NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Recreational and commercial fishing has been reopened in the Barataria basin, the coastal area hit the hardest by the massive BP oil spill. Officials say tests show it is safe to fish in Barataria, an important seafood estuary. Parts of the basin were closed to commercial fishermen until Tuesday’s announcement. Robert Barham, the state’s
wildlife and fisheries secretary, ordered the opening after the Food and Drug Administration advised that shrimp, crabs and finfish are safe to eat based on tissue samples tested from closed areas. “Today we are one step closer to resuming normal fishing practices,” Barham said. Now, more than 99 percent of state waters are open for fishing.
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