Rotary meets its legislator

State Representative Bernard LeBas addressed the Ville Platte Rotary Club at its weekly meeting Tuesday and updated the club on issues the legislature faced in the latest sessions.
LeBas opened his talk on a light note playing on his short stature. “In reference to people of normal stature versus those who are taller than me, I’ll have you know that I am chairman of the Short Caucus in Baton Rouge,” he began. “It is probably the second largest caucus in the state. We do carry a lot of stature over there. We formed it about nine years ago, and our first order of business was to lower the urinals. We got it done in one week, so we’re in good shape.”
“I was elected chairman because I promised short meetings, short speeches, and that we wouldn’t overlook anybody,” he added. “So it works.”
He then got down to business and discussed what led the legislature going into a special session. “At the ending of the regular session, we didn’t finish business, so we had to go into another session,” LeBas explained. “That began right after the regular session ended. The sad part of it, I feel, is we weren’t doing right by the people in the state because what we did pass in the special session was what we had before us at the end of the regular session.”
The main item that came out of the special session was the budget. LeBas went on to discuss an item that did not make it out of either session was the gas tax. “One of the issues we had was the gasoline tax because our infrastructure is in terrible shape,” he said. “We are driving on dangerous roads, and they’re not going to get better unless we do something about it. We are very limited in the funds available.”
“At the previous session, we formed a Blue Ribbon Committee of people from different universities that deal with finance and balancing budgets to come up with methods that are the best way for the state to stabilize its budget and to stabilize funds coming in,” he continued. “A lot of bills were presented following their methods, but none of them were passed. A lot of them did not even make it out of committee.”
He forecast that the state will again this year have to borrow money until funds come available. “The joint budget committee has already started proceeding for the state to borrow up to $500 million to continue operations,” he projected. “We did that last year also, but we only borrowed around $380 million. This year we will probably borrow something around that again. That’s because we have to wait for the funds to come in because we still have to operate. They did pay back the money they borrowed last year, and their should be no problem for them this year in paying it back.”
LeBas informed the Rotary Club about some strides that were taken to correct some of the highway issues. He said that highway funds were being used during the previous administration to pay state troopers. “We now have a law in place where you can’t do that,” he stated. “It kind of gave us that $80 million back into the budget for the highways.”
He then informed the Rotary Club about a proposed constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot for the next election. “The amendment is going to limit any new tax that is passed as to what the money is to be spent on,” LeBas said. “Whether it is a gasoline tax, it would just be spent on road infrastructure because people don’t realize the committee in charge of highways is also in charge of ports and airports.”
The representative then outlined some of the most costly areas in the state. “The most expensive is healthcare,” he explained. “The state entered into a private-public partnership after they did away with the old Charity Hospital system, and the state is paying hospitals a lot of money for them to take care of people in the state.”
According to LeBas, education is the next costly area in the state because it “goes from Kindergarten through college.” He went on to say, “We did fully fund TOPS this year. It is funded through a lot of different programs. One of the things is the tobacco tax settlement that was done years ago. We had taken a majority of the money that’s coming in and used that as the basis for the TOPS program. We can’t cut it because we already earmarked the money for it.”
Rotary president Wayne Vidrine asked Lebas to touch upon how the state’s budget cut impacted Chicot Park. “Chicot is the biggest park and is the most visited,” replied LeBas. “We’re fighting to keep it open. It’s deteriorating because there’s not enough funding going into it. The parks used to get a percentage of all the money that they drew in, and they would use that for maintenance to improve the park. The last administration took all the money from the parks and left the cubbard with nothing but spider webs.”
“Our Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungessor is 100 percent behind Chicot State Park,” continued LeBas. He’s working with us, and we’re trying to get more people to come. The more people who come, then the better off we are in the area because the park is our main draw for tourism.”
Vidrine also introduced Barbara Buroker as the newest member of the Rotary Club and proposed Deborah Enicke as another new member. According to Vidrine, “she is a legal nurse consultant working here in Evangeline Parish.”
Larry Lachney then reminded his fellow Rotarians about Alyssa Carson who is coming to main branch of the Evangeline Parish Library on Saturday, July 29, ay 10:00 a.m. According to Lachney, “She is a 16-year-old girl from Baton Rouge, and her desire is to be an astronaut. Since she has been 13-years-old, she’s been studying to become an astronaut, and she is expected to be the first woman who will go to Mars in 2033.”