By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – State Treasurer John Kennedy discussed the state’s budget and more when he addressed a group of business and political leaders from across the River Parishes Thursday for the River Region Chamber of Commerce’s annual general membership meeting.

Representing various governmental offices as well as business interests as diverse as RTC, Dow and local financial institutions, the meeting’s attendees gathered in the Grand Ballroom at the Quality Inn for food and information.

Kennedy was introduced by Public Policy Committee Chair Henry Friloux, who said, “As treasurer, he manages a $5 billion bank account.”

In truth, Kennedy explained, the state’s budget is closer to $30 billion, a figure he sees a greatly inflated.

According to Kennedy, the budget has grown from $12 billion when Mike Foster was inaugurated as governor in 1996 to its current figure at an alarming and unnecessary pace.

“A billion is a big number,” he said. “A billion seconds ago it was 1959. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.”

As head of the Committee on Streamlining Government, Kennedy believes this number can be reduced to a more reasonable figure.

Kennedy then outlined his three-pronged plan for achieving this, a process he said can and must be done without raising taxes. As proof, he used the example of California, which has the highest taxes as well as the largest deficit in the nation.

The first part of his plan involves reducing the size of the state payroll. Louisiana currently has 104,000 state government positions, the highest of any of the southern states. His plan entails eliminating 5,000 positions per year for the next three years. This would bring Louisiana’s state government down to the size of that of Alabama, which has a larger population than Louisiana.

He insisted this can be done not through firings or layoffs but merely by not filling positions when they become vacant.

The state’s consulting contracts are the target of the second part of his plan to reduce the budget. According to Kennedy, Louisiana has 16,000 such contracts.

“I’m not saying all of these contracts are wasteful,” he said. But he does believe many represent wants rather than needs of various departments and should be considered more carefully.

For instance, he said in the past five years the Department of Education has spent $250,000 on providing an awareness campaign for professional development programs and $94,000 on a study to increase children’s social skills during playtime.

“This isn’t limited to the Department of Education,” he added.

The third part of his plan does not deal with reducing the budget directly but could aid the state in retaining some of its more skilled and educated graduates.

“I want our young people to come home,” he said.

According to Kennedy, Louisiana must create a more business-friendly environment, and at the root of this discussion is an overhaul of the state’s elementary and secondary education systems.

“Schools are a lot different today,” he noted. He believes anyone who serves on an education board and others should substitute in a public school at least twice a year.

Despite the hard work that lies ahead, he said he believes in the people of Louisiana.

“They are hard working, they are God fearing and they are fun loving,” said Kennedy. But he said the people of Louisiana, including their elected leaders, must realign their thinking to make the government truly sustainable.

When discussing items such as a budget, he said, leaders must learn to look past the present. “It’s a discussion about our future.”

Before Kennedy’s remarks and after everyone had filled up on a lunch buffet courtesy of Armand’s Bistro, Friloux opened the business portion of the proceedings.

He discussed some of the areas the Chamber has been following with particular interest, including the Employee Free Choice Act, energy issues and healthcare.

“We’ll be in touch with you to let you know our position on these things,” he said.

He added one of the main issues the organization is looking at on a statewide level is opening up onshore deep gas drilling.

After Friloux was finished speaking, Chamber Executive Director Chassity McComack spoke briefly about the group’s achievements in this, it’s sixth year in existence. She commended John Harmon, Sheila Butler and Melanie Basile on their community leader awards, Dayna Parker on her Shining Star Award and Henry Friloux on his Board Member of the Year Award. McComack also highlighted some of the Chamber’s upcoming events, such as the “Luck of the Chamber” Irish-themed networking event set for March 25.

“There has been about $12,000 that has been generated by these social networking events,” she noted.