Public appeal issued in Terrebonne for elderly heat health
March 22, 2011"The Metal Children" (Baton Rouge)
March 24, 2011With the regular legislative session still a month away, State Rep. Jerome Richard (I-Thibodaux) has submitted a pair of bills that address college tuition and state contracts.
Rep. Jerry Gisclair (D-Larose) also pre-filed a bill requiring college students who are sex offenders to also register with campus police.
The special legislative session on reapportionment opened on Sunday and is scheduled to adjourn no later than 6 p.m. on April 13. The regular session opens 12 days later on April 25. Odd-numbered year legislative sessions are limited to 60 days by state law.
HB-25 by Richard would give each of the state’s higher education boards the authority to increase tuition for the various campuses under their jurisdiction provided the student is enrolled in excess of 12 semester credit hours or eight quarter-credit hours.
The additional tuition “shall not exceed one-twelfth of the charge for 12 semester hours or one-eighth of the tuition charge for eight credit hours per quarter,” the bill stipulates.
Richard’s bill also says that any additional tuition charge shall not be included in the determination of the amount to be paid on behalf of the student under the Louisiana Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) and no additional tuition charge shall be paid as part of TOPS awards.
The bill does allow for waivers of the increased tuition in cases of financial hardship.
Richard’s second bill, HB-15, would mandate a minimum 10 percent reduction in the dollar amount of state contracts.
For fiscal year 2008-09, the latest data available, Louisiana had 6,304 contracts for goods and services worth a whopping $5 billion, according to the state’s annual report for that year. That figure is somewhat misleading in that 1,083 were cooperative endeavor agreements ($2.9 billion), 468 interagency contracts ($213.4 million) and 495 intergovernmental contracts ($79.4 million). In other words, it was money simply shuffled between agencies.
The bill allows several exceptions, including one that would allow the commissioner of administration to make a determination that the proposed contract represents a priority expenditure for the state.
Gisclair’s bill, HB-1, would make mandatory the registering of convicted sex offenders and child predators with campus police at any college or university where the offender might be attending.
It would also require the offender to pay an annual registration fee of $60 to the appropriate campus law enforcement agency to defray the costs of maintaining a record of the offender.
Another bill by Rep. Henry Burns (R-Haughton) HB-9, would double the minimum distance from any public or private elementary or secondary school in which a convicted sex offender may reside from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet.
The bill also would apply to day care centers, group homes, residential homes, or child care facilities, playgrounds, family child day care homes, public or private youth centers, public swimming pools, or free-standing video arcade facilities.
