Washington Mayor Joseph Pitre was in the hot seat at the state Capitol Monday morning to address the more than $200,000 his town failed to turn over to the state last year for speeding fines along I-49.
The Independent Weekly reported in its June 1 cover story “Need for Speed” that Washington, a small St. Landry Parish town of about 1,000 people known for antiques and speed traps, exempted itself from a 2009 state law requiring that money collected for speeding violations of 10 mph or less above the posted speed limit be redirected to the state. The town’s 2009-2010 audit revealed that the town kept more than $200,000 in speeding fines that should have gone to the state treasurer’s office.
Those fines, however, must have been collected before the fall of last year, when the town held an election and voted in favor of a home rule charter, i.e. a loophole in state statute that allows the town to legally continue to keep money for all speeding fines. The state law only applies to towns that govern without a home rule charter and only pertains to tickets issued along interstates.
The Legislative Audit Advisory Council, a joint legislative committee comprising 10 state lawmakers, addressed the issue with Pitre Monday morning, though it wasn’t immediately clear this morning whether the mayor is trying to repay the money or if he’s still arguing that the law is racially discriminating and unfairly targeting a black mayor.
“I, as mayor, believe as other state officials believe at all levels of government, that the intent of the code was specifically directed toward me as both Mayor of this Town, and as an African American,” Pitre says in the town’s response to the audit findings. “The hypocrisy and the negative effects of this legislation not only threaten public safety, but it infringes on the very rights of the people of whom we serve. In addition, sadly citizens of this Town and others of similar size, have the perception that state legislature is discriminating against them. People feel as though state government is trying to eliminate small town governments in the state of Louisiana and the implementation of LA R.S. 32:266, by state legislature is dissuading them from enforcing existing laws passed by that legislative body.”
State Rep. Ledricka Johnson Thierry, an Opelousas Democrat who sits on the committee and whose District 40 seat includes the town of Washington, says the committee meeting was held to hear from the mayor on why he hasn’t yet paid up on the town’s debt to the state. She says she’s unsure whether Pitre is trying to repay the state or if he’s still asking for the state to forgive the debt, as he did when the audit report first came to light. After some discussion with the mayor Monday morning, the committee rescheduled the meeting without any action taken.
Read The Ind's June 1 cover story here.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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