Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle emerged declaring their own particular victories
BATON ROUGE -- After three months of wrangling, Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle emerged Monday evening declaring their own particular victories. The Republican governor praised primary and secondary education laws that he signed just weeks into the session, along with a $25.6 billion operating budget that he says will preserve necessary services, despite widespread cuts to state agencies, including colleges and universities.
Democrats celebrated derailing nearly all of Jindal's proposed changes to state employee pensions, most of them aimed at reducing benefits. And, even as the state Department of Education implements the governor's education policies, leaders of the legislative minority said they look forward to a court fight over the constitutionality of using the public school financing formula to pay for tuition vouchers at private schools. There also is the possibility of litigation over the slice of Jindal's pension agenda that cleared the Legislature.
The second-term governor did not seem concerned with those prospects Monday, calling it "the most successful and significant session since I've been governor." He added that the bills approved "will pay dividends to the people of Louisiana for years to come."
Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said he expects to file suit in a matter of weeks. He said the Louisiana Constitution dictates that the public school financing formula, which Jindal and the Legislature designated as the money source for vouchers, can be used only for public schools. Jindal's executive counsel said the Constitution requires only that the Legislature provide an education for all Louisiana children, leaving lawmakers free to define the system that delivers the mandated services.
State Superintendent John White, a Jindal ally, is accepting applications from parents interested in the 5,000 new voucher students, in addition to more than 2,000 spots in Orleans Parish, where a pilot program has operated since 2008. White also is implementing perhaps the widest ranging component of the Jindal plan: tying teacher tenure to student performance and making it harder to secure for all newly hired instructors. A related provision also links local superintendents' job security to student and teacher performance in their districts. The courts are unlikely to have any significant say over those policies.
House Minority Leader John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, called the governor's agenda radical, but supporters of the school package called it bold. Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana, said the new education laws are among the most significant measures he has seen. "The tenure reforms can be huge," he said. "Now we just have to see how local districts respond. We have given superintendents some great tools to make sure the right teachers are in the classroom."
On retirement, Jindal cast as a major victory approval of a bill that would grant newly hired state workers a 401(k)-style "cash balance" plan, rather than a traditional defined-benefit pension. Senate President John Alario, a Jindal ally, said, "The cash balance plan is new start for us, beginning to nudge at solving the problem we have," referring to more than $18 billion in future pension obligations. "We have a lot more work to do in that area and I think we'll be looking at that in the years to come."
Jindal failed to win support for any measure that would apply to existing workers. Among them: increasing retirement age and employee contributions, refiguring governance boards of disparate state retirement systems and lengthening the time period used to calculate a retiree's benefits, a move that nearly always yields a lower payout.
Edwards called those ideas "unfair, unwise and unconstitutional." He said legal questions remain for the cash-balance plan, which passed with simple majorities. The minority leader argued that it required a two-thirds majority.
The session was notable for the shifts in partisan tone over the course of the session. Key education votes fell largely along party lines, with the governor losing a handful of Republicans and picking up even more Democrats, nearly all of whom held chairmanships or vice chairmanships blessed by the administration. But on retirement, while Democrats led the assault, they were joined by many Republicans who heard from state employees in their districts, making the governor's task a near impossible one. "The governor kind of had his second honeymoon on education," Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans, said. "But it didn't work on retirement."
On the budget, meanwhile, the GOP governor depended on House Democrats for crucial votes, as a considerable gaggle of House Republicans defected. Calling themselves "budget hawks," they argued against the use of one-time revenues -- money that does not come from an annual tax stream -- to cover ongoing expenses. Jindal, who took essentially the same position as a candidate, has argued in recent years that cutting out all one-time money would devastate higher education and health care, which already have taken hits in recent years.
The GOP outliers were undaunted at their defeat as lawmakers departed the Capitol. Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, acknowledged that his compatriots are at a disadvantage in more than just numbers. Unlike the governor or the legislative leadership, they have little they can offer their fellow lawmakers in terms of budget perks or chairmanships. But Schroder said the group is not powerless. He said they will meet before the next session to discuss how they can acquire more leverage, including through blocking non-budget bills.
"We have nothing to offer other than a green or red vote," Schroder said. "We're going to have to get more effective about using our red buttons."
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Capital bureau reporter Jeff Adelson contributed to this report. Bill Barrow can be reached at bbarrow@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3452.