The Daily Review from Morgan City, Louisiana • 4

Page 4, The Daily Review, Morgan City, Monday, May 13, 2002 State owes feds after insurance fund misuse That left the state with insufficient money in the road-hazard insurance pool to pay the costs. To deal with the problem, Kling and Kyle said, the state borrowed money from other insurance pools. This violated White House Office of Management and Budget policy because some of this money came from the federal government to be used for other agencies, Kyle and Kling said. The total taken from the other pools is $240.4 million. How much the state could owe the federal government is unclear.

Kyle said he thinks the state would owe the full $240.4 million. Kling said it probably would be a fraction of that, perhaps one third. An Office of Management and Budget spokesman would not comment, saying the federal agency did not have enough information. tive Auditor Dan Kyle said the line does not receive adequate financing to pay the premiums needed to cover the state against claims. Road-hazard insurance covers the state for claims brought by people who are injured in accidents and blame a bad road or bridge.

The state Constitution once protected Louisiana against such claims, but former Gov. Edwin Edwards removed that immunity during the 1973 Constitutional Convention. Plaintiffs can now seek money from the state after automobile accidents. Between 1992 and 2001, the state paid $343.6 million in judgments and settlements of road-hazard claims, Kyle reports in an audit. During the same period, legislative appropriations to the pool totaled only $103.2 million.

4 BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -Louisiana could owe the federal government as much as $240 million because the state misspent the premiums it collected to insure state agencies, state officials said. The state violated federal policy by taking money earmarked by the U.S. government for state agencies and using it to pay claims from motorists injured on Louisiana roads. This is a problem.

We've billed the feds for one thing, but we've charged them for something else," said Whit Kling, acting director of the Office of Risk Management. In a similar but unrelated insurance dispute, federal officials have sued Louisiana for $19.5 million in alleged premium overcharges to the federal government. State officials say that claim could be a harbinger of a much larger bill involving the use of road-hazard insurance funds. Kling said the $19.5 million is a sign the federal government is serious about collecting. They haven't just said it's a problem; they've actually sued us," Kling said.

Bob Keaton, the state Senate's fiscal analyst, said the problem underscores the state's need to find a way to finance its road-hazard 'insurance line. Kling and Legisla Lumber company will leave By The Associated Press Louisiana-Pacific is leaving Louisiana. The company, which makes lumber, pulp and building products, is cutting 4,400 jobs and selling 935,000 acres of timberland including all of its Louisiana holdings. That includes plywood and fiber board plants in Urania in LaSalle Parish, and a plywood plant in Logansport in DeSoto Parish, and 190,000 acres of timber in Allen, LaSalle and Winn parishes. Louisiana-Pacific already had found potential buyers for the three Louisiana plants, which employ about 630 people, company spokesman David Dugan said Thursday.

These are good businesses with talented people," he said. "We hope it'll be beneficial to both us and the facilities being divested." Overall, the company, based in Portland, plans to sell 30 of its 60 North American mills and to sell land in Texas and Idaho as well as in Louisiana. Dugan said the company already was in the process of selling about 65,000 acres in Winn and LaSalle. In a statement Wednesday, Louisiana-Pacific said it wants to focus on its more profitable businesses and expects the sale to net the company more than $600 million. Louisiana-Pacific was created after the Federal Trade Commission ordered rapidly expanding Georgia-Pacific in 1972 to transfer 20 percent of its assets to a new corporation.

The company's stock closed at $11.65 Wednesday down 18 cents from Tuesday, at $12.41 Thursday and $11.95 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Contractor expects to cut 638 jobs FORT POLK, La. (AP) The contractor hired to take over civilian jobs at Fort Polk plans to cut 638 of them about half the civilian workforce at the Army base. Nearly half the jobs to be cut are temporary, and another 155 or so permanent employees are expected to leave or retire, but about 200 will be fired, said Brig. Gen.

Jason Kamiya, commander of Fort Polk. This comes as a disappointment, but this is what had to be done. I want to assure (the workforce) that the reduction in force will be fair," he told employees Friday. Military leaders had hired a com is mayor "Harry's been a Rayville High School institution," said John Sartin, superintendent of Richland Parish Schools. This will be quite a change and the end of an era." Lewis said he has mixed emotions about leaving.

"I've been here through it all and it's been great being a part of that. But after 32 years if time for a new life." But he said the new job won't be vastly different from his old one. They have the same type problems, just at a different level Lewis said. TBut the town and school should go hand-in-hand. HI always be a part of the school." Principal RAYVILLE, La.

(AP) After 32 years at Rayville High School, principal Harry Lewis has left for a new office the mayor's. Tve always wanted to be mayor one day," said Lewis, who got two-thirds of the vote April 6 to unseat two-term Mayor Isam Berry. Tve let the people know that I will work just as hard as mayor as I did as principal." Students, faculty and friends held a farewell ceremony Friday for the mayor-elect, whose years at Rayville High included time as a teacher, coach and assistant principal, as well as principal. THE TRINITY EPISCOPAL Church women's group donated $1 ,000, from the sale of Christmas Evergreens to St. Mary Outreach.

St. Mary Outreach Director Kay Raymond received the donation. The sale is an annual project of the church. State relents on Bible tax, AG will appeal ACLU suit Tezcuco plantation destroyed by fire DARROW, La. (AP) Tezcuco, a plantation that stood as a stoic landmark in Ascension Parish for 141 years, was destroyed by fire early Sunday, employees said.

No one was injured in the fire that was first noticed about 2:45 a.m., said Meg Madere, a tour guide. A guest in the mansion, operated as an inn, escaped the building and called 911, Madere said. Two people were staying in the building when the fire broke out. State fire marshal officials were at the scene Sunday and investigating the cause of the blaze. The Greek revival mansion was completed in 1860 and owned by Benjamin Tureaud, the son of a plantation owner, according to the plantation's Website.

Blue indigo, tobacco and sugar cane was grown on the property. The plantation remained in Tureaud's family until 1950. The current owner, Annette Harland, bought the property in 1982. She was out of town Sunday and on her way to Darrow to assess the damage, Madere said. On the Net: http:www.tezcuco.com BATON ROUGE, La.

(AP) Attorney General Richard Ieyoub said he is appealing a federal court decision that struck two Louisiana's laws giving certain church-related tax breaks. More than a month ago, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan ruled as unconstitutional the 1996 laws forgiving sales tax on purchases of Bibles and other religious items obtained for instruction, and on fees paid to attend religious retreats and camps. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit. State revenue officials told Bible vendors to begin collecting the tax this week, giving up their fight.

Kimberly Robinson, a revenue agency attorney, said the state did not have a good case to defend the tax breaks, which the judge had ruled violated the separation of church and state clause. Ieyoub disagreed. "We feel there are issues upon which we can establish a basis for appeal and for reversal of the ruling in district court," he said in a brief interview. He did not go into specifics. "We have filed notice with the 5th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals today that we are appealing Judge Berrig-an's decision," Ieyoub said. The ACLU should get the message that when they file against the state, they are in for a fight." Joe Cook, state director of the ACLU, said there are no grounds to appeal. "We're one of the greatest defend-' ers of religious freedom in country, but the government has got to be neutral. It's Constitutional law 101." The revenue department's decision to collect the tax concerns some church officials but others said they were not terribly worried about it. "It will have an impact on church budgets," said Randy Tompkins, director of stewardship and cooperative programs for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

He said churches spend millions of dollars on Bible, song books and other instructional materials. Churches sometimes take about 100 people on retreats and now will have to pay sales tax on room and board as well as other fees the camps charge, he added. Lee Stepleton of the Sunshine Christian Armory, which includes a book store, said many of the 300 churches he deals with run on tight budgets already. The additional 9 percent they'd have to pay for his books "is a lot of money when you're talking about a $1,000 purchase," he said. Karen Benoit, controller for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, said it was too early to foretell the effect of the court case, but added, "I really don't think it's going to be that much of an impact." River pilots' $94,000 raise stands, high court says NEW ORLEANS (AP) Mississippi River pilots may keep the $94,000 pay raise they won from the state Public Service Commission last year, the Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled.

It reversed state District Judge Timothy E. Kelly, who ruled in January that opponents had too little say in the PSC hearings on pay for members of the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association. Citgo Petroleum Corp. and Conoco which operate refineries in Lake Charles, contended that the PSC should have let them intervene in the suit. That would have given them the right to testify, challenge evidence and review documents submitted by pilots to justify the pay raise.

The PSC said the companies could not be official adversaries because they have no major business interest along the Mississippi River. The commission also cited a state law that it said greatly limits the types of participants in pilot rate cases. The commission voted in March 2001 to raise the annual target pay for NOBRA mem bers from $220,400 to $314,000, plus yearly raises. In its single-page ruling, the Supreme Court said Citgo and Conoco did not have the right to appeal the PSC's decision. Had the lower court's ruling stood, the PSC would have been forced to rehear the case while allowing the oil companies to participate as intervenors.

Gay couple barred from prom by 'unwritten rule' mercial contractor take over the civilian workforce after completing a four-year Commercial Activities Study. AECOM Government Services Inc. of Orange, won the contract with a bid of $197 million. The post's civilian workforce bid $252.1 million. Civilian workers are expected to receive notice between Dec.

3, 2002, and Feb. 28,2003. This is one of the most disappointing days at Fort Polk in our time," said Robert Love, president of a civilian government employees union. This means that soldiers will be demoted and forced to do civilian jobs." The targeted jobs include 355 permanent positions. About 155 of those workers will be able to retire, and may be able to receive up to $25,000 in incentives.

"We have several complaints and have filed our appeals and will file more. There are several discrepancies and flaws in the study Love said. mental value." After being turned away at the door, Scott and Alexander called an attorney, who then set up a meeting with East Baton Rouge Parish school officials Wednesday. The next day, the school system issued a letter telling principals they would have to sell tickets to school functions to all couples, regardless of sexual orientation. According to the letter, the reasons for the change are "potential legal problems" and "alleged discrimination." But the letter said BATON ROUGE, La.

(AP) He had the tickets, he had his black suit and even a $40 loan from his dad, but Cy Scott didn't get to go to his senior prom last weekend. Scott and his date, Paul Alexander, were told when they arrived at he Robert E. Lee High School that same-sex couples were not allowed to enter because of an "unwritten rule" that barred selling tickets to same-sex couples. "I really wanted to go to the prom," said the 18-year-old Scott, a graduating senior. "It had senti- T'rWT'T" Scott.

The thing that really bothered me was that I had told a kid who wanted to do something that was fun that I had to deny him," Stokeld said. Stokeld maintained he wasn't deliberately trying to keep a homosexual couple from going to the prom, he simply thought he was obeying a long-standing rule. "I did it just because that was the way we did it all our lives. It didn't really occur to me that something might come up where someone would be denied," he said. the ticket-buying policies were not designed to discriminate against same-sex couples.

"Schools who used this declaration were not intending to discriminate against anyone because of their sexual orientation, only to close a loophole," wrote David Corona, assistant superintendent for high schools. "It is a longstanding practice that has simply outgrown its usefulness." The loophole the letter refers to was a problem that arose in the 1980s, said Lee High Principal Jack Stokeld. Same-sex friends 17 would get together and buy couples tickets because they were cheaper. But what seemed like a logical way to get around pricier individual tickets actually meant school groups lost money, Stokeld said, because the more expensive individual tickets went unsold. This was kind of a wholesale thing back then," Stokeld said.

Stokeld, who had turned Scott and his date away at the prom, said he was also unaware that individual and couples prom tickets at the school were all the same price. On Thursday, he apologized to TT 'r ill 1 7 Hi 1 V' I CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH School inducted students into the National Junior Honor Society in a ceremony held at Holy Cross Church in Morgan City. Inductees are, seated from left, Heather Morgan, Ashley Natalie Williamson, Alex Richard, Christie Orlando and Michelle Felterman. Standing, in same order, are Michael Miller, Lexy Schexnayder, Derek Stevens, Colby Adams, Devin Sauce, Jeffrey Accardo, Michelle Williams, Kori Garrett, Jessica Orlando, Cassi Coleman, Brad Ratcliff, Ashley Fears, Bret Sparks, Seth Moncrief, Matt Patureau and Kimberly Goodwin, dents acquire sponsors who pay for students to do math problems. MCJHS Principal Carolyn Chaisson said these students displaying project T-shirts were but a few of the students who pitched in to help.

MORGAN CITY JUNIOR HIGH School students donated their time to help St. Jude Children's Hospital in Tennessee earn money for research and treatment by participating in a Math-A-Thon. The unique fundraiser is now in its 22nd year. Stu.