Rayburn funding stays in Senate version of HB1

Funding for Rayburn Correctional Center and four other state prisons remained in the final version of HB1, passed by the Louisiana Senate by a 36-2 vote at 8:27 p.m. Sunday night.

The bill now goes back to the House for another review and vote. Gov. Bobby Jindal has said he will sign the bill if the House approves it.

The bill authorizes 13 administrative, 290 incarceration and three auxiliary positions for Rayburn for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The House had cut $27.5 million, roughly 5 percent of the total budget of the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DOC), earlier in the legislative session. Those proposed cuts prompted DOC Secretary James M. LeBlanc to send letters to the wardens of the five prisons, outlining the state's "layoff timetable" and setting July 17 as the employee termination date. The memo, which was published on wpnewsblog on Friday, June 3, caused widespread panic in Washington Parish.

This past Wednesday, Sen. Ben Nevers (D, Bogalusa) and Sen. Jack Donahue (R, Covington) explained that money had been moved around. Donahue is a member of the finance committe, while Nevers was deeply involved in helping find funding to keep Rayburn open.

The committee’s members said they tried to maintain the spirit of the House’s version by matching one-time money to one-time expenses. The shuffling — including the use of $55 million in leftover hurricane recovery funds — resulted in a restoration of the $200 million in funding that the House cut.

(Published first at http://www.wpnewsblog.blogspot.com)

Funding restored for Rayburn, four others as Senate Finance Committee moves funds

Sen. Ben Nevers

On Wednesday, the 15-member Senate Finance Committee took steps they think will keep five state prisons, including Angie's Rayburn Correctional Center, open.

"I'm under the impression that the way that we handled it is going to not require any closure of any prisons," Sen. Jack Donahue (R-Covington) said following the early morning meeting.


The news was first reported on WWL-TV and radio.

Sen. Jack Donahue

Members of the finance committee voted to move money around and restore cuts to the Louisiana Department of Corrections. The full Senate is expected to take up the re-worked budget Friday, and then it will go back to the House.


“They shuffled some funding around, things the House didn’t consider,” Sen. Ben Nevers (D, Bogalusa) said. “Money is back in the appropriations bill to fund keeping Rayburn open.”


The House had cut $27.5 million, roughly 5 percent of the total budget of the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DOC), earlier in the legislative session. Those proposed cuts prompted DOC Secretary James M. LeBlanc to send letters to the wardens of the five prisons, outlining the state's "layoff timetable" and setting July 17 as the employee termination date. The memo, which was published on wpnewsblog on Friday, June 3, caused widespread panic in Washington Parish.


"It would seem hard that with a 5 percent cut, it would trigger the closing of all these prisons," said Donahue, "but as they gave testimony, you could start to understand what some of the problems were. I believed them, so we did our best to try to restore those funds."


If Rayburn was closed, more than 300 Washington Parish jobs would be eliminated.


Nevers, who has been very involved in the budget negotiations, met with Rayburn employees last week.


"I told them, give us time to work through this situation and I asked them to have confidence in their legislators and let us do our job over here. And they have," Nevers said. "Certainly they call, they're very concerned, but I feel much better today."


There are more than 300 employees at Rayburn — and the four other prisons have similar personnel counts.


The Governor's Office said Wednesday they were working through the details of the Senate plan, but said they believe if the House approves it, the five prisons can be kept open.


"I made a comment to you before, they would close Rayburn over my dead body and I stand by that. I'm not planning on dying, I'm going to be around and I plan for Rayburn to still be open," Nevers said.


The 2011 regular session of the Louisiana legislature ends Thursday, June 23.