Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to modify the retirement plans of thousands of state employees — for the worse, many of them believe — even as he reforms his personal retirement plan for the better. By Jeremy Alford
It wasn’t exactly a secret that the administration was tinkering with public pension proposals. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s policy advisers were dropping hints about it over the Christmas holidays, and by the turn of the year holding meetings with obvious supporters. Jindal finally unleashed his plan Jan. 25 during a Baton Rouge Rotary Club luncheon.
But three weeks earlier, as his staff prepared legislation to drastically alter Louisiana’s pension programs, Jindal made changes to his own retirement plan. According to documents released by the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, Jindal added 2.2 years worth of service to his own plan Jan. 4.
Five days later he would be inaugurated for a second term. And all the while, he was developing proposals that would come to ask state employees to contribute more and address the state’s looming $18 billion worth of retirement debt. Jindal has even proposed increasing the retirement age — this, after he has accelerated his own retirement date.
On paper, the retirement transaction means that Jindal is halfway finished with his second term, which technically spans four years and just started the second week of January. Don’t understand the math? It’s all in the wording. Tonja Normand, LASERS’ public information director, explains: “Together, the 2.2 years of credit restored and the four years earned during his first term as governor total about 6.2 years of service,” she says.
On the page, as in the digital and inked sort that craft public opinion, this revelation may not bode well for Jindal in the short-term, especially as he advances his reform agenda. Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin says LASERS has a process for repurchasing and restoring credit and the governor simply chose to exercise that option. “It has nothing to do with the changes,” he says, referring to the governor’s proposed legislation.
Baton Rouge blogger Tom Aswell, who holds forth from LouisianaVoice.com, was the first outfit to post the public documents, which in turn sent a handful of mainstream reporters tiptoeing over to LASERS to score confirmations. “This would appear to be yet another shameless display of Jindal’s total contempt for state employees and his relentless agenda of self-promotion,” Aswell wrote in a post last week.
Jindal, however, followed all state guidelines and didn’t break any laws. The 2.2 years of service added back into his plan were originally earned by Jindal from 1996 to 1998. That’s when he served as secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals under former Gov. Mike Foster.
When Jindal left the secretary’s post to head up the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, he also requested a “refund of employee contributions,” which state employees often do if they’re leaving the public sector and exiting LASERS for good, or at least the foreseeable future. After all the proper paperwork was complete, Jindal got his contributions back, which amounted to roughly $15,000 — he didn’t reap interest or investment earnings.
Here’s LASERS’ interpretation of how Jindal came to restore the same credit and place it into his retirement plan as governor: “In order to reestablish forfeited creditable service, a former member must again be employed in state service and be a contributing member of the system for at least 18 months. The member may then repay the refund plus interest as established by law.”
Before the ongoing regular session started, Jindal paid more than $42,000 to boost his service time to 6.2 years. According to LASERS’ own guidelines, increasing credit in a plan “may qualify a member for earlier retirement eligibility and/or an increase in monthly retirement benefit.”
Whether those perks will eventually outweigh Jindal’s $27,000 payment — essentially the cost of adding back in 2.2 years — remains to be seen. It all depends on how long Jindal will be a member of LASERS and what his future salaries will look like. Even bad investments could come to skew the results.
But possibly more telling, about the plan’s future performance and the man himself, will be what kind of pension changes are signed into law by Jindal’s pen. That at least could help us decipher his latest moves and better understand his intentions, even if we don’t like what we eventually learn.
Jeremy Alford can be reached at
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MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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