http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/2...t-cutting+plan
Will Louisiana taxpayers rise up? Your bloated state government is draining resources from higher education.
And someone is worried about hiring replacement workers with 10% unemployment?
http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/2...t-cutting+plan
Will Louisiana taxpayers rise up? Your bloated state government is draining resources from higher education.
And someone is worried about hiring replacement workers with 10% unemployment?
The saddest part is that not a single one of our legislators up here has the balls to buck Jindal on anything.
I agree with Kennedy's plan more than what the Governor is doing...
You are consolidating and stream lining without reducing services which is much more manageable
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
So cut everyone across the board is better than making the obvious waster's of money reduce, reorganize, and streamline? (looking at you ULM and other unneccessary 4-years) One thing I don't like is how Kennedy play's the fear card at the end of the article:
That to me screams "I don't know how to counter-argue these good points that Rainwater is bringing up!""What's our choice? Reduce the cost of labor by not filling vacancies, or shut down ULM (the University of Louisiana at Monroe). I know how I'm going to vote, and I think I know how the taxpayers are going to vote."
One more thing -
Everyone knows Jindal's eye is on the national stage and its on him also -
This plays a big role in his path of execution/reduction -
Nearly all the long time officials at the municipal and local levels are longing for the days of EWE again because he "took care of them"....
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
I think a combination of the higher ed cuts and across the board cuts would be best, but higher ed definetly has the most fat, no matter what the campuses are screaming. Look at Tech, it's a shining example of efficiency, have you heard Reneau or anyone on campus whining about the cuts in a paper? No, because we've run our campus efficiently for a long-time, if you go on campus you can't even tell we've been in the middle of major budget cut's over the past few years. it looks like their's a surplus!
Furthermore, Rainwater said, 42 percent of all state positions are in higher education, and eliminating positions in that area does not jibe with Kennedy's stated goal of limiting cuts to campuses
And this plan is a round-about way of cutting the campus budgets anyways and I don't like that kind of cost-cutting (Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining). Because the schools are forced to reduce staffing and cram and the teachers/students feel the most pain. Instead of giving the admin the leeway to figure out where and how to trim down their operating costs.
There is no IF, and were No. 1 in the south by a long shot -
The bolded part is the most cost effective, least damaging (service wise) way of shrinking govt at any level -
That way you force consolidation on the managers and department heads -
And here is another kicker - in our state gov't, anyone in a supervisory role has exactly 1.1 individuals they are responsible for supervising....
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Lets take Claiborne Parish for an example - in our Parish Road system we have 730.8 miles of road that we are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of -
We employee exactly 20 employees in our Hwy department which includes the road superintendent and that department has NO administrative secretary or receptionist...
That means we have one employee for every 36.6 miles of road...
Yet DOTD maintains less than half of the number of miles of road in the parish we do and has a staff almost double of our road department complete with an administrative staff...
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Jindal has the authority to cut the budget across the board, including the general fund and descretionary spending, up to 5%. The most he has done since he has been in office is 3%. It was pushed to increase that ceiling to 10%, but it was not passed because "the governer doesn't use the 5% he has now." Jindal wants to be the guy that cuts the budget, but doesn't close anything...the kiss of death for a politician. There are 10 universities and several large charity hospitals in the state that need to close yesterday. But he has eyes on his next prize at a higher level of governement.
People, healthcare in this state is about to get ugly. We are seeing the first casualties right now. We were told in a district meeting yesterday by the top dog to get our war paint on, because the Louisiana Hospital Association is going to war. I may be called to Baton Rouge in a month or so.