State rep: Gov. Jindal, get out of New York

Dear Editor,

I’m writing from Louisiana with hope that our governor, Bobby Jindal, might see this letter.

We haven’t seen much of Jindal back home. First, he spent months jetting around the country campaigning for other politicians. Now, he’s back on the road promoting his book and raising money.

Tonight, he’s due in New York City for a high-dollar fund-raiser.

Clearly, personal political aspirations are more important to him than the reality we face here in Louisiana. Our people are facing the largest budget deficits in recent memory n a crisis measured in the billions, not just the hundreds of millions.

The governor’s cuts in education and health care alone will be crippling.

Well-educated and successful college and university students are the key to every aspect of Louisiana’s future. Gov. Jindal’s planned cuts for higher education will set this state back for a generation at the very least.

The impact on Louisiana’s health care system will be just as painful: fewer prescriptions for our elderly, less preventive care for our children, drastic reductions in home-based care. Those who can least afford the pain will be hurt the most.

Louisiana is in crisis, but our top leader remains absent.

Damon Baldone,

State Representative

(Printed in Friday’s edition of the New York Daily News)