News analysis: Constitutional amendment battle moving to airwaves

By JEREMY ALFORD
LaPolitics News Service
The Louisiana Hospital Association, Louisiana Nursing Home Association, Louisiana Pharmacists Association, ambulance providers and intermediate care facilities are pooling their resources and planning for a statewide media buy to promote the passage of the first two constitutional amendments on the November ballot.
Sources say the buy will include TV, radio and web, but no specific dollar amount has been set. The hospital association has already launched a website, VoteYes1and2.org. But a major component of the campaign will be on the grassroots level, with face-to-face contacts made in community meetings and other venues.
“We’re not taking this for granted,” said Sean M. Prados, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Louisiana Hospital Association. “We’re going to be doing a lot of education.”
It’ll be a tough fight to grab the attention of voters with a major U.S. Senate race being waged, but the recent headlines involving financial turmoil at hospitals in Baton Rouge and LaPlace will help make the amendments relevant and timely.
According to the Public Affairs Research Council, which has a new guide to the amendments available, Constitutional Amendment No. 1 would give constitutional protection to the Louisiana Medical Assistance Trust Fund. It would also set a baseline compensation rate for nursing homes and other health care providers like ambulance companies that pay a special fee.
One group, Louisianans United for Home Care, is already sponsoring web videos arguing the amendment could make it harder for certain individuals to obtain home care as opposed to institutionalized care.
Constitutional Amendment No. 2 would create the Hospital Stabilization Fund, allowing hospitals to deposit assessments and draw down more federal Medicaid money.
Critics argue this could further open up higher ed and other health care providers to budget cuts, since they wouldn’t have the same protections. To be certain, universities may be wishing they would have done something similar if the second amendment on the ballot passes.
Ballot confusion feared in November
The Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office sent 6,112 mail ballots overseas last week so that members of the military, and citizens in foreign lands who have requested ballots, can vote in the November primary election. The recipients, however, may also find a bit of confusion in their envelopes.
More than 100 candidates either withdrew from their races or were disqualified since the mail ballots were printed following the August qualifying period.
“No one remembers this many withdraws ever happening,” said SOS press secretary Meg Casper. “But this is also the largest election in terms of candidates and races on the ballot anyone can remember in the last 10 years.”
Special notices had to be included with the mail ballots to let voters know which candidates are no longer running, despite being listed. The same kind of notices, although more visible, will be placed at polling precincts as well.
Still, it’s not a perfect process. Casper said two or three more candidates have withdrawn from their races since the mail ballots and notices were sent last week.
Could this create problems?
“It certainly could,” Casper said. “Any votes cast for someone no longer running are just not going to be counted.”
Voters are being asked to review their local ballots on the SOS website, which is updated in real time.
Payday loan issue being resurrected
After failing to pass reform legislation aimed at the payday loan industry last year, Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, said he is considering bringing a bill again but is still on the fence.
“I haven’t decided yet,” he said. “There’s an audit advisory meeting I want to attend in October that should give me a better idea. I’ve been told there are strides being made in monitoring the industry. I’m trying to listen to all sides right now and figure out what is best.”
Nevers doesn’t sound eager to repeat the huge lobbying battle that was waged during the spring session. Yet he is still interested in learning more about the issues of repeat lenders, meaning those consumers who repeatedly take out payday loans, and what reporting requirements look like.
Right now, local-level governments, like the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council, are taking turns looking into the industry, but there’s no telling where that might all end up.
Meanwhile, the industry has formed a new trade group, the Louisiana Payday Loan Association. Lobbyist Danny Ford, a spokesman for the association, said members will be meeting soon to discuss a 2015 legislative agenda and to address potential regulations that may be handed down by the federal government.
“But it’s too early to tell what kind of strategy we might have for next year,” he said.
Ford pointed out that the industry supported HB 766 by Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, during the most recent session to give the state the ability to regulate online lending; establish debt consolidation and extended payment plans; and to abolish delinquency fees
They Said It
“There’s no reason to be coy.”
—Gov. Bobby Jindal on his intentions to run for president, on CNN
“The first time I ran for office, I was polling within the margin of error, which means I was zero.”
—Jindal, on his 3 percent showing in a New Hampshire Republican primary poll, on CNN
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.