March 26
March 26, 2008
Howard Edward Green
March 28, 2008
With two special sessions of the state Legislature behind him, Gov. Bobby Jindal came to Copeland’s restaurant in Houma last Wednesday to promote what he called the next step for the state: workforce development.
Seventy percent of employers in Louisiana have trouble finding workers, Jindal said. Terrebonne Parish has the lowest unemployment rate in the state.
“We want young people to pursue their dreams here,” he said. “I want Texas and Georgia to complain to me they’re losing people to Louisiana.”
As part of his next step, Jindal is advocating funneling students headed for college into advanced courses.
Students not preparing for higher education should have their training matched to the needs of employers, he said.
Legislation passed at the two special sessions earlier this year expanded financial disclosure laws for state public officials and allocated surplus money for coastal restoration and roads.
“We brought sunshine to the state,” Jindal said, pointing to a front-page article in the New York Times about Louisiana’s war on corruption.
Jindal said the surplus money was spent responsibly. The excess funds have been generated by post-Katrina federal dollars in the state and high crude oil prices.
He said Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes are receiving $34 million in investment from the surplus, including $10 million to improve infrastructure at the Port of Terrebonne to accommodate Edison Chouest’s LaShip fabrication facility.
LaShip could create over a thousand new jobs with an average salary of $54,000, Jindal said.
Legislators allocated $300 million from the surplus for coastal restoration.
“They said Louisiana would not invest in coastal restoration,” Jindal said. “We proved them wrong.”
He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should not postpone work on the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project, which will bring flood-control locks to the Houma Navigation Canal and federal hurricane protection levees to Terrebonne Parish for the first time.
The Corps is asserting the cost of the Morganza project was underestimated.
“The longer we wait, the harder it will be to protect the coast,” the governor said. “Make it perfectly clear to the Corps we don’t want any more delays.”
He said the Tri-parishes’ legislative delegation worked across party lines during the special sessions.
“The bayou parishes are doing so well,” Jindal said, “because your delegation is doing so well.”
