While the jackpot
justice quest by the Southeast
Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East is well known, another such
spin of the wheel by a school district and teacher union threatens to land
Atty. Gen. Buddy
Caldwell in hot electoral water.
Months ago, the Louisiana Supreme
Court ruled
that the Minimum Foundation Program could not be used to fund the Louisiana Scholarship
Program that paid for education at private schools for qualifying students. As
part of that ruling, it engaged in a bit of judicial activism by redefining the
Constitution to allow resolutions as legislative instruments to be treated as
laws for procedural purposes, which in essence meant the resolution to fund the
MFP of last year was invalid. Because of another series of events, this meant
the formula reverted back to that of 2010, using the logic of the ruling.
Grubbing for funds, the St. John
the Baptist School Board decided
to file suit to get extra funds, because in these previous years no
automatic 2.75 percent funding boost was contained as part of the formula,
unlike 2010. But the Court seemed
to anticipate somebody might be thinking along those lines and inserted
some language that it could use to wiggle out of declaring some extra $200
million in spending must occur on education, contrary to the will of the
Legislature and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Thus, this suit seems
doomed.
But what’s grabbing attention
about it now is that the school board contracted for the same hired guns that
unions used in the prior suit on a contingency basis, which could lead to a
huge $20 million payday for the mouthpieces but is illegal in most cases in
Louisiana when the object is a government. And that upsets enough people as to
want Caldwell to do something about it, even if just to deplore this publicly.
Problem is, he’s done everything
he could, legal or otherwise, to introduce a legal regime that accepts these
arrangements. Not only in 2010 did he try
to change state law to allow the AG’s office to use contingency contracts,
he allowed the SLFPA-E to enter into one using a creative argument that as long
as the fee fell below what would be charged by a regular contract, it was all
right. And, it seems, during the period he was trying to get the Legislature to
retract the prohibition, he was writing up such arrangements out of his own
office. (The invaluable The
Hayride provides an excellent summary and links laying out the political
machinations behind it all.)
So, Caldwell has sought political
cover by inviting opponents to some meeting presumably where he will try to lay
out a legal case justifying the contingency tactic, even though it’s unsure whether
he has authority over a local government’s ability to engage in legal contracts
(R.S. 49:258
seems to insulate political subdivisions below the state level). Except that
perhaps his foremost critic of the practice, Louisiana
Lawsuit Abuse Watch, wouldn’t even give him the time of day on this request.
And this came on the heels of former Republican Rep. Jeff Landry’s critique of Caldwell’s
contracting that he says rewards
favorites of his.
This has led to speculation that
Landry might challenge Caldwell, and threatens the balancing act Caldwell has
tried to preserve. Since his switch to the GOP in 2011, as an incumbent
Republican, Caldwell has held a default status where those characteristics were
enough to hold off any Democrat who might challenge him. But throw a
conservative Republican into the fray, and Caldwell becomes considerably weakened
electorally.
Whether Landry is the guy that could
do it is another thing. Before being reapportioned out of Congress, he had
practiced as a lawyer but never as a prosecutor (although almost all of the AG’s
job deals with civil actions). The three previous holders of the office had
considerable experience on the judicial side of government, and even William
Guste as a practicing attorney had stints on local and state government boards
dealing with crime. One must go back over a half century to find an AG without
this kind of experience. Also, it’s unknown how much political good will Landry
lost by his going
down fighting against fellow GOP Rep. Charles Boustany when they were
thrown into the same district that could damage a future run for office.
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