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Greater Baton Rouge Business Report - July 17, 2001

La. not only state with fine-collection problem

To the editor:

I just completed reading the June 2001 issue of Salt Water Sportsman magazine. An article in this publication talked about how the Texas Wildlife and Fisheries Department has some $3 million in unpaid civil fines by some 8,000 offenders who broke game and fish laws in Texas. Many of these fines had gone unpaid for years. Because of this problem, the Texas Legislature has authorized Texas Wildlife and Fisheries to revoke hunting and fishing licenses of those who have fines they have not paid.

Reading this article, it is easy to see that Louisiana is not the only state having a problem getting people to pay money owed for fish and game fines. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has been fighting this problem for years, and recently, with the help of the Louisiana Legislature, is going to get very aggressive in collecting the $1 million that is owed to LDWF. It is good to see that Louisiana is not on the bottom of this list and has taken action to collect these fines just as Texas has.

But one problem still exists: How much money do you spend to collect a $60 fine? This is not an easy problem to fix.

Henry M. Mouton, Lafayette

Thanks to governor for education efforts

To the editor:

On behalf of the Louisiana Board of Regents for Postsecondary Education, we wish to thank Gov. Foster and the legislators for making education at all levels, and especially postsecondary education, a top priority in the last legislative session.

Thanks to the governor and the Legislature, Louisiana's investment in higher education has continued to improve significantly over the last five years. With that support, we have initiated major reforms, we have begun to rebuild deteriorating campus physical facilities, and our colleges and universities have received much-needed operating dollars.

The state's budget for the next fiscal year, which began July 1, contains targeted increases for faculty raises, operating budgets, endowed chairs and professorships, library holdings, academic and scientific equipment purchases, and information technology initiatives. Sustaining this investment in our postsecondary education is critically important because, as all experts agree, education is a direct investment in the future of the people of our state. Studies show that states making the greatest economic strides--states such as Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Florida--are doing so because they are making long-term investments in postsecondary education. Louisiana must remain focused and sustain our education reform efforts over the long term.

The performance of the entire post-secondary education community over the last six years has demonstrated an all-out effort to create a more accountable system that is relevant to the needs of our state. Those ongoing reforms include the new Master Plan that clearly defines the role, scope and mission of our colleges and universities. We have initiated teacher preparation reforms in our colleges of education to put better prepared and more certified teachers in our elementary and high school classrooms. We created the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, expanded the statewide Louisiana Library Network and launched the new Compressed Video Distance Learning Network, which provides practically every college campus in the state with a fully interactive distance learning classroom.

Postsecondary education reform is moving at a rapid pace in Louisiana, thanks to the sustained support of the governor, the Legislature and the public. But we must remain focused on the role of higher education in creating social and economic opportunities for the people of our state.

Richard E. D'Aquin, chairman, Board of Regents

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