In a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal Thursday, U.S. Sen. David Vitter teamed up with Speaker of the House Jim Tucker and Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy to offer a new proposal for the University Medical Center in New Orleans. They say the plan will increase the bed capacity and lower the overall cost.
In the letter, Vitter et al again highlighted the state's own Kaufman Hall study showing that the current Mid-City hospital plan is unsustainable and offered their own proposal that includes buying Tulane’s privately owned facilities.
That the proposal would come from Vitter and Kennedy is no surprise, as both have maintained that the Mid-City plan is too large and would require a more than $100 million tax subsidy annually. Tucker, however, had previously supported LSU’s model. The Times-Picayune reported Thursday that the speaker now says political and fiscal realities in Baton Rouge have changed over the course of the hospital planning. The letter comes very late in the game, the T-P points out, as a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility was held last month in Mid-City and the UMC board is developing a business plan with the intent of selling high-yield bonds for construction by the end of the year.
“We are very concerned that the Charity Hospital rebuilding plan as currently proposed (424 beds, $1.2 billion) will saddle the state with large new capital and operating costs for years to come. As you know, Kaufman Hall, a nationally recognized firm of health care experts that your own hospital board hired to study the issue, has issued a report which validates and underscores these concerns,” the trio wrote.
They requested a careful study of their proposal, which they call a fiscally responsible plan that would yield a 600-bed capacity, offering even greater opportunity to host a broad array of specialties and sophisticated practices than the current proposal. Vitter et al say their plan could be be accomplished without the proposed $400 million of new borrowing at high interest rates by the state that is part of the current plan. They also note:
• It would greatly minimize or avoid the need for major operating subsidies (possibly $125 million per year according to Kaufman Hall) from the already strapped state budget.
• Far from delaying the project, this alternative plan can clearly be executed far more quickly than the current proposal of building a new mega-hospital from scratch.
• Buying the current Tulane-HCA facility as part of the plan not only acquires 354 beds at relatively low cost per bed, it also acquires a net revenue stream of $400 million per year and a robust, already existing private-pay book of business.
• It helps ensure that the new hospital is managed efficiently versus continuing the state and LSU’s very inefficient management.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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This is a man who is a blyte on the body politic.
Vitter does not need to use the charity hospital system to cure the venerial diseases that he contracts from his use of prostitute whores.