House Gives Approval to $113 Million Capital Construction Program

              House Gives Approval
To $113 Million Capital
Construction Program
By John Hill
Times Capital Bureau
BATON ROC/GE — The
House approved without
change Gov. Edwin Edwards'
proposed $113.4 million
capital improvements
program — the largest, pay-as-
you-go pie ever to be sliced
for local projects — without
making a single dollar
change.
The building pie includes a
$6 million slice for a new foot-ball
stadium at Northeast
Louisiana University at
Monroe, ,,$3 million for
renovations at Shreveport's
Confederate Memorial
.Hospital, $3, million for a
student center at LSU's
Shreveport campus and $1.7
million for a fine arts
building and an overpass at
Grambling University.
The House approved the
measure 89-10 after Rep,
Jimmy Long of Natchitoches
moved to shut off debate.
A group of New Orleans
legislators asked the House to
cut out $50 million of phe
projects to create a Natural
Resources Trust Fund desig-ned
to replace eventually
dwindling state revenue from
oil and gas severance taxes.
But the House members
rejected that idea — presen-ted
by Rep. Sam LeBlanc —
by a 25-72 vote.
Rep. Risley Triche of
Napoleonville wanted to tie
the architects involved in the
capital improvements
program to passage of the
proposed architect's selection
bill, but House members
rejected that idea.
But the House did tack on
an amendment which would
make the capital building
program subject to the
provisions — including
maximum fee schedules — of
the architect's selection bill,
should it be passed.
Triche had prepared an
amendment to create a board
to study priorities for the con-struction
project when the
House decided to end debate.
"Is this the way to spend
$113 million of the state's
Related Stories on 2-A, 12-A
money?" Triche said. "There
are many things in this bill
that we don't need.
"They're bad and we
shouldn't take them without
discussion," he said. "We
could sit here and see there
would be no changes.
"I suggest to you ladies and
gentlemen that we've gone
back to business as usual,"
Triche said. "We've eaten
this watermelon and I just
hope we don't have in-digestion
too bad."
He said the voters would
react negatively to such
pork-barrel appropriations
made without much study.
Rep. Kirby Mills of Colum-bia
tried to take away money
from 31 projects to ap-propriate
$200,000 for a
vocational - technical school at
Jena, but the House rejected
that idea 15-52.
Rep. Carl Gunter at DeVille
tried twice to limit architect's
fees to five per cent.
"We need to protect the
people of Louisiana from the
ridiculous (architect's)
charges that have been made
in the past," Gunter said.