Tri-parish teacher retirement bill vetoed by Jindal

It’s been a quarter-century and still lawmakers continue to tinker with the Support Education in Louisiana First (SELF) Fund, originally established ostensibly to bolster salary expenses for K-12 and higher education but realistically was only a political shell game.

The most recent attempt was by Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans) whose HB-516 would have diverted the first $1.8 million from the SELF Fund to a new Casino Support Services Fund.

Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed the bill, which was approved in its final form by the House on June 21 by a 78-3 margin with 24 absences. Reps. Rick Gallot (D-Ruston), Hollis Downs (R-Ruston), and Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro) voted in favor of Leger’s bill in the House as did Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe) on the Senate side.

Jindal also vetoed SB-6 by Sen. D.A. “Butch” Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) and in doing so, may have tipped his hand on his intentions to continue his push for more charter schools and continued contracting and outsourcing of jobs presently being performed by state employees.

SELF had its origins in September of 1986 with a proposed amendment that would dedicate about $540 million from oil and gas leasing production in the outer continental shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico.

Known as the 8(g) fund, it has pumped more than $500 million into the state’s general fund since 1986. The money was supposed to have been used to augment state education revenue. Instead, before money from 8(g), the State Lottery, or EduJobs , is added to the $3.1 billion Minimum Foundation Program (MFP), a formula used to determine the appropriation for education, it is first subtracted from the MFP, resulting in a zero net gain for education.

Leger’s bill would have taken an additional $1.8 million from SELF in order to fund the City of New Orleans’ casino support services contract, Jindal said in his veto message. The casino support services appropriation, Jindal said, “has already been achieved through HB-1,” the state’s general appropriation bill.

SB-6 by Gautreaux would have provided that any employing agency that terminates its participating in the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) be required to remit to the retirement system its share of any unfunded accrued liability (UAL) of the retirement system existing on the June 30 immediately prior to the date of the agency’s termination.

Gautreaux’s bill was apparently targeting charter schools that opt out of the teachers’ retirement system. “If a charter school participates for three years and opts out, I felt they should repay the three years for which they received funding for the retirement system,” he said. “With the veto, they get to participate for three years, pull out, and not have to pay anything back into the system.”

In his veto message, Jindal revealed that his agenda to create even more charter schools and to further privatize the state’s educational system remains unchanged.

He said Gautreaux’s bill “unnecessarily ties the payment of state retirement debt to much-needed reforms such as greater autonomy for public schools through charter conversions and better fiscal management through contracting and outsourcing. In doing so, this bill creates a significant deterrent to educational reform efforts.”

“Jindal wants to expand the charter school system to the benefit of those children who are going to perform well to the detriment of low-income children,” Gautreaux said. “I have no problem with good charter schools, but if a school decides to terminate its participation in the state teachers’ retirement system they should be required to repay the money they received from the state.”

The bill passed the House by a 57-28 margin with 20 members being absent. It passed in the Senate by a 38-0 vote.

Area House members Damon Baldone (D-Houma), Jerry Gisclair (D-Larose) and Sam Jones (D-Franklin) each voted for the measure. Absent and not voting on SB-6 were Gordon Dove (R-Houma), Joe Harrison (R-Gray) and Gordon Dove (R-Houma).

Area senators voting in favor of the bill were Gautreaux, Norby Chabert (R-Houma) and Joel Chaisson (D-Destrehan).