SCIA members respond to governor’s address

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph offered a laugh when she was asked what she expected to hear from Gov. Bobby Jindal while he prepared to address a standing-room only crowd of more than 300 people during last Tuesday’s South Central Industrial Association Membership Meeting.

“It’s always a campaign speech,” Randolph said as Jindal made this stop during statewide rounds a little more than a month away from Louisiana’s primary elections.

“I have a feeling it will be the same speech [he had already been delivering that week.”

“I hope to hear he is in support of trying to decrease this lag time we have between [deepwater drilling] applications to the time these guys are actually able to drill,” SCIA President Kirk Meche said. “That means the opportunity to get our people back to work. I’m hoping to hear very positive comments about getting Louisiana back to work.”

Jindal delivered on the positive comments. And in campaign mode listed accomplishments he has made during his first term in office while seeking re-election.

The governor, speaking to a family-friendly crowd made use of anecdotes involving his children to emphasize points on what impresses people, the national debt, education and making Louisiana a drawing force for families and industry.

“Government doesn’t create jobs,” Jindal said responding to President Obama’s Jobs Act and debt reduction plan. “The private sector creates jobs. We need to produce more energy right here in America … we’ve got to cut down borrowing … we have to live within our means.”

Jindal said it is easy for many people to get lost in the numbers tossed around by government agencies and Congress.

“To me it is not complicated,” he said. “Every business person here, every family member here knows you’ve got to balance your budget. Forty-nine states, including Louisiana are required to balance their budgets. If we can do it, there is no reason Washington can’t do it. Now is the time for structural reform.”

The governor said Louisiana needs to resist tax increases in order to compete with surrounding states and attract job-creating businesses. “I’ll veto any tax increase and we will not increase taxes as long as I’m your governor,” he said.

Workforce training was another issue mentioned by Jindal as he noted that 70 percent of companies that consider moving to or expanding within Louisiana list workforce training as a priority.

“Our technical colleges and universities are working closer together now than ever before,” he said while making specific note of Fletcher Technical Community and Nicholls State University as positive examples.

“I believe the states with the most educated, the most skilled, best trained workers will be the states that win in today’s economy,” Jindal said.

Infrastructure and coastal restoration were areas touched on by the governor, in which he said Louisianans cannot afford to wait on the federal government to get projects accomplished.

As a final topic, Jindal called for improvements on K-12 education in Louisiana.

“I’m a product of Louisiana public schools,” he said to place a positive spin on an education system that lags behind national averages. “You can get a great education in this state, but it is true we are not done yet. We [need] to give every child and every teacher the chance to succeed right here in Louisiana.”

Jindal noted that while talking about many of the topics he mentioned the bottom line is about seeing results. “Outperforming the national and southern economies, we announced 45,000 new jobs, we’ve announced $10 billion for capital investment. Here is the most important number,” he said. “After 25 years of losing our sons and daughters to other states for three years in a row, for the first time in nearly three decades, we have more people moving into Louisiana than leaving the state. We are outgrowing the rest of the country by 4 percent. We are finally beginning to reverse the drain.”

The governor called on those in attendance to think of their friends and families that live in different states and ask what could be done to get those people to relocate to Louisiana.

Jindal said the state has made great progress overcoming natural and manmade disasters, increasing job opportunities during the past three years and closed by making the promise to continue work along those lines.

“I think [what Jindal said] was good,” developer Jim Erny said as the meeting dismissed. “He was right on target. We got to cut back on a lot of programs we don’t need and let people go to work and let them improve the economy.”

Erny, like Randolph and Meche admitted the governor’s luncheon presentation was served with a campaign flavor but found nothing dissatisfying about it.

“He has always been pretty steady with his statements and he should be on target,” Erny said.

“It’s showing because Louisiana is prospering and everybody’s staying directed.”

Gov. Bobby Jindal told stories about his children to offer examples about how federal government spending needs to be kept in check. The governor spoke to a standing room only crowd of more than 300 at the South Central Industrial Association Membership Meeting. MIKE NIXON