Thread: Citizens' goals for governor: pay off surplus, address illeg

Citizens' goals for governor: pay off surplus, address illegal immigration

October 3, 2007

By Mike Hasten
mhasten@gannett.com


http://www.shreveporttimes.com


BATON ROUGE ? While candidates for governor are espousing plans for what they want to accomplish, average citizens have their own ideas.

Ken Krefft has his "top five" ideas, starting with using the new-found $1 billion surplus to pay off some of the growing state debt.


Joe Citizen wants the new governor to do something about the illegal immigrant problem.

Barbara Spencer says the governor should do something about the discipline problem in schools.

Krefft, a community activist in Shreveport, said that although "it's not very sexy, that $1 billion they just found from the past fiscal year would go a long way toward paying off state debt."

His second priority for the next governor is completing Interstate 49 construction, "particularly the portion up here. With the additional funds we got this year, there's some progress right now. They need to keep the momentum going."

Krefft said few people have ever thought of his third priority ? making schools tornado safe. Schools would not have to be rebuilt ? "just a place to go."

The National Weather Service usually issues about a half-hour warning when tornados approach, he said, so students could be moved into a safe structure on campus. "It's going to be too late when they're counting dead students," like in Enterprise, Ala., last March.

The new governor needs to reform the way the Legislature approves construction projects in the Capital Outlay Bill, he said, because too many pet projects are being funded.

Krefft also agrees with proposals to improve Louisiana's ethics, "but I don't think they can do it all in one year."

Citizen, an Opelousas resident, said the governor should use state police and get federal immigration officers more involved in stopping illegals at the Texas border.

"We have problems will illegal immigrants," he said. "They come here and take jobs at lower wages," leaving local residents unable to find work unless the also want to work cheap.

"Stop these people from using our hospitals and emergency rooms," Citizen said. "If the governor could do that one thing, he would be a good governor.

"It also would be good if he could work a little on insurance and help the poor people ? not the rich people; they're doing all right."

When called for a comment, Lafayette High School English teacher Spencer was working on four discipline reports for two of her students who had caused problems twice and she had to fill out separate reports on each student's actions. "There's got to be a better way," she said.

The governor should work to "set up a more uniform program to address discipline problems in schools," she said. "We always hear that Louisiana ranks far below other states in education. We need more alternative methods of educating students with problems and more places for at-risk students. Often, they are made to feel that they are not worthwhile, so we need to help them overcome the image that they cannot learn."

She also said the state should create some type of community relationship program to work on social problems before they grow into conflicts.

"If problems exist, people of different ethnicities should be able to sit down and talk about it and have a meeting of the minds," Spencer said. "We need more community support. As they said in 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'What we have here is a failure to communicate.'"

As a teacher, she said she also would like the next governor to put more money into teacher salaries, "not for me, as I may be retiring," but for younger teachers who need the assistance.

They FOUND a 1 BILLION dollar surplus??????

Billions of taxpayer dollars flowing into LA coffers for Katrina, and they FIND 1 billion dollars? Something smells fishy. How many states have billion dollar surpluses? ESPECIALLY states overrun with ILLEGALS? Someone needs to account for this.