Speech Pathologists & Audiologists in Louisiana Schools, Inc.
P.O. Box 12177
Lake Charles, LA 70612
|
Speech Pathologists & Audiologists in Louisiana Schools, Inc.
|
|
|
Dear LSHA Member,
Steve wanted me to let you know that the Senate Finance Committee amended and approved HB1 with our salary supplement intact. HB1 was sent to the full Senate on June 17 and accepted. HB1 will now return to the House for final approval. No action is needed at this time. Please be aware that the amount of the appropriation was left at $2.4 million. Ayn Stehr, LSHA Lobbyist, indicated that the legislators do not feel this is a concern, because the short fall can be dealt with by the Department of Education or by the Legislature in March 2009 by putting forth a supplemental appropriation bill. It appears that our hard work has produced a successful outcome. However, please be aware that if the House does not accept the changes to HB1 made by the Senate then HB1 will have to go to a conference committee of the House and the Senate for negotiation and then return to the House and Senate for final approval before it goes to the Governor’s office. Ayn Stehr feels that the House will accept the changes and the conference committee will probably not be necessary. She will continue to monitor the status of HB1 until it is signed by the Governor and keep us informed. We look forward to giving you the final word that the Governor has signed the bill. Thanks again for all of the hard work you have put forth thus far and it appears that congratulations will be in order.
Sincerely,
Renae F. Colwick 2008 LSHA President
June 13, 2008 3:15 P. M. Dear Members: I just spoke with Ayn Stehr, LSHA Lobbyist, and she reports that Senate Finance did not take up HB1 today as previously expected. At this time it is scheduled for Monday. No action is requested at this time. As soon as I have a report from Ayn Stehr concerning the status of our salary supplement in HB1 as it is sent from Senate Finance to the full Senate for consideration I will let you all know immediately. At that point we will have a plan to deliver our final messages to members of the Senate.
Have a great week end and keep the faith. We truly are so very close. Steve Harris LSHA Legislative Liaison
Friday, May 30, 2008 LSHA LEGISLATIVE ALERT!!!!!! Dear LSHA and SPALS members:
A quick update and a request for action. Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from the Louisiana Department of Education Superintendent, Paul Pasterek. During his testimony, he outlined department funding priorities. He indicated a need to restore cuts made by the House in areas such as the LA4 program, the Louisiana Literacy Program, and for the Voucher Program. Senator John Alario specifically asked Pasterek if the Salary Supplements for Nationally Certified SLPs and AUDs as well as for School Social Workers were considered as a Department priority. His response was, no. Secondly, the State Department of Education Finance Division continues to have problems obtaining data that verifies the number of potential individuals that would qualify for the salary supplement. The data we have (775) is based on our state wide survey. Their data (480) is based on the PEP report, a state required report from all school districts that lists all school personnel by function and object codes. Thus far the two figures are not in agreement. We are working on obtaining additional data from other sources to try to satisfy them that our numbers are valid. Thirdly, Ayn Stehr, LSHA's Lobbyist, reports that the Senate Finance Committee will probably hear public testimony some time next week. The schedule has not yet been released. Therefore, you need to be on notice that at some point next week public testimony before Senate Finance will occur. We were very effective when we showed up in great numbers at the Capitol when the House Appropriations Committee heard public testimony. We really need to do this again. So, make sure to view your e-mail daily and/or go to LSHA's WEB Page daily looking for updates and a notice when the Senate Finance Committee schedules a public testimony hearing. When you see that the hearing has been scheduled put on your red shirts/outfits and head for the Capitol. Finally, at this point we do need you to begin contacting all the Senators on the Finance Committee immediately. We need to ask them to keep the funds in HB1 regarding the Salary Supplement for SLPs and AUDs who have National Certification and to let them know the amount, 2.4 million is incorrect and that we are working with the State Department of Education to obtain a more accurate number (3.8 million.) Also, if anyone knows Senator John Alario personally or has a personal connection to him via family or whatever we need you to contact him and let us know what his response is and if we can get a meeting or commitment from him. Please keep up your efforts. We are still in a good position to achieve our goal. Don't let up now. As always please report back to me any responses you obtain from a legislator so they can be forwarded to Ayn Stehr for follow up at the Capitol. Steve Harris LSHA Legislative Liaison
Dear Members: Just a quick update before school personnel close out their school year and go on to other issues, such as vacation. HB1 did get through the House with our amendment attached and funded although for the wrong amount 2.4 million not 3.8 million. The House leadership is working with the State Department of Education Fiscal Division to correct this issue. The Senate Finance Committee will begin hearing from the Division of Administration (The Governor’s Office) tomorrow. This is just a summary of where HB1 is. This is similar to the process that the House Appropriations Sub-Committee’s followed. Our issue is still in schedule 19 and therefore will not be immediately addressed. In fact our specific issue may not be addressed at all during this review process. We are under the impression that once corrected data from the State Department of Education is available and is shared with the House Leadership (Speaker Jim Tucker, House Appropriations Chair, James Fannin, and our lead representative on our issue Representative Joe Harrison) that they will in turn get this information to Senate Finance Chair, Mike Michot who will then make the necessary amendment (adjust the amount). The Senate Finance Committee will go through a similar process that the House Appropriations Committee went through which will include time for public input. Ayn Stehr is waiting for notice as to when the Senate Finance Committee will set a date for a public hearing on HB1 and will notify us as soon as the date has been set so we can once again, if deemed necessary, go to the Capitol and offer testimony.
So, at this point we do not need to contact anyone, however, if you feel compelled to do so then here is the message you need to convey to members of the Senate Finance Committee: Funding for the Salary Supplement for Nationally Certified Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists employed by public school systems in Louisiana is in HB! however the amount is incorrect. The State Department of Education is working to obtain the correct information on total number of personnel eligible for the supplement and that will be provided to the House Leadership who will in turn send it on to the Senate Finance Committee Chair. If you have any questions please call or e-mail me. Steve Harris Legislative Liason, LSHA
May 16, 2008 Dear LSHA Members: Yesterday was a great day. Our supplement made it into the appropriations bill. The actual amendment did not come up separately as it was considered a part of HB1 and not a separate issue that had to be voted on up or down. Ayn Stehr explained this to me yesterday when I asked her why I did not see it come up for an up or down vote. There is a minor issue in that the amount requested was incorrect (2.4 million not 3.8 million). Ayn indicated that this was the result of information provided by the legislative fiscal analyst for the House. The information was provided to him by the State Department of Education. The House leadership, House Speaker Jim Tucker, Appropriations Chair, James Fannin, and our lead representative, Representative Joe Harrison, are working with the fiscal analyst, the State Department of Education, and us to get the amount straightened out. They feel confident that once the numbers are verified that there will be no problem with getting the Senate Finance Committee to change it to the appropriate number. Everyone should be very happy at this point. You have done an incredible job. At this moment there is no action needed but stay tuned as we will need to begin contacting Senate members in the very near future. But at this time savor the moment. One thing you need to begin thinking about as school systems close is how you will continue to keep in touch with LSHA’s communication alerts as many of you use your school e-mail addresses. The legislative session does not end until June 23. We still have work to do and as you have seen the legislative process is not predictable. One method would be for you to check the LSHA webpage (lsha.org) and the SPALS webpage (spals.org) daily. Renae posts the e-mail blasts on the webpage as soon as one goes out. SPALS will disseminate to members through e-mail blasts also. Thanks for all of your efforts. You are making this happen. Steve Harris
** The latest news from Steve Harris, LSHA Legislative Liaison, regarding the amendment to HB 1 to fund the salary supplement ** May 13, 2008 Dear LSHA Member,
It appears that the Appropriations Committee did adopt an amendment to HB 1 (state budget bill) to provide for a $5,000 annual salary supplement to public school speech-language pathologists and audiologists who hold national certification. However there was one problem - not an insurmountable one - the amendment is for $2.4 million - not $3.8 million as the Department of Education indicated was needed given the number of professionals who would qualify for the supplement. The Department of Education has been requested to provide an accurate number of qualifying professionals again so that the proper amount can be amended into HB 1. This amendment will take place on the House floor on Thursday, May 15 - HB 1 is special order for the House on that day - beginning at 9:00am. The Department of Education's budget is in Schedule 19, so it may take the House a little while to get to that part of HB 1 to consider the amendment.
With all of that said, this is what we need to do at this time:
1 - Thank all members of the Appropriations Committee for supporting the amendment; let them know there was an error in the amount, but the correct amount should be part of an amendment offered by Rep. Fannin on the House floor; ask for their continued support. 2 - Contact all other representatives and update them about the amendment and request their support on the House floor. 3 – Also, anyone who is available this Thursday, May 15 needs to put on their red and come to the Capitol to sit in the gallery and write notes to the representatives to make our presence known.
Please stay tuned as soon as the HB 1 leaves the House we will need to start contacting our Senators. Thank you for your continued hard work.
Sincerely, Steve Harris, 2008 LSHA Legislative Liaison
May 2, 2008 As you have probably already heard “The Day At The Capitol” was an immense success. I will not rehash it; although, it was incredible. On the afternoon of April 29th, I met with Ayn Stehr, our lobbyist, and she reiterated what a perfect day it was. When we selected the date for “The Day at the Capitol” we obviously had no idea that the House Appropriations Committee would be hearing public testimony regarding HB1 on that day. But, they did and we were there in full force. It makes you think that ‘the force is with us’. The following is the information shared with me by Ayn that afternoon. We need to continue asking for support regarding funding for the salary supplement for SLPs and Auds. But we need to focus our efforts at this time. There are two issues we need to address immediately. (1) Send thank you notes/e-mails to all of the Representatives on the House Appropriations Committee who offered to author and co-author our amendment, as well as representatives who made positive/supportive comments. Those individuals are Representatives Joe Harrison (main author), Patrick Connick, John Schroder and Simone Champagne (co-authors); Representatives Page Cortez, Elbert Guillory, Pat Smith, and Karen Carter Peterson all made very supportive comments. Letters of thanks should be sent to them as well, especially if you are one of their constituents. (2) Constituents of appropriations committee members need to contact their representatives who are not on record as being supportive. In other words, do not worry about contacting individuals listed in (1) other than sending thank you notes at this time. Remember to e-mail your responses from legislators to me via the LSHA WEB Page as that information is critical to ongoing strategy and must be forwarded to our lobbyist, Ayn Stehr. The legislative process relative to HB1: The Revenue Estimating Conference meets on May 9 to calculate and decide how much money the state actually has for the budget for 2008-2009. Thereafter, probably the next week, the Appropriations Committee will make a decision regarding amendments to HB1 (like the one we expect to see from Reps. Harrison, Schroder, Connick, and Champagne regarding our salary supplement). HB 1 will then go to the full House for consideration. The House too can make amendments or take things out (not likely but you never know). Ayn indicated when it goes to the House we should again try to have as many people go to the Capitol and sit in the gallery to show our continued interest. We will not be allowed to speak at that time but we can and should send in notes to our representatives telling them we are here and please keep/protect our funding in HB1. After a positive vote on HB1, it then goes to the Senate Finance Committee. That is when we begin to contact the members of the Senate Finance Committee in earnest, as well as, all 39 members of the Senate. The Senate Finance Committee will go through a similar process as did the House Appropriations Committee and then they too will vote to send HB1 with any new amendments on to the full Senate. The full Senate will then consider and ultimately vote to pass HB1. At that point if there are any significant differences between the House and Senate versions of HB1 it willl/may go to a conference committee that consists of several members of the House and the Senate to come up with a final version of the bill. At that point final passage occurs and it goes to the Governor for his signature. Just one final note, this morning I was driving to work while listening to the WWL radio station out of New Orleans and Representative John Schroder was a guest and was speaking about legislation he has introduced that would eliminate funding of NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations). That was interesting, however; in making his point, he explained that there are many issues that the Appropriations Committee must address each day with regard to funding, (for example, unfunded mandates). He also said, and I am paraphrasing, we have Speech Pathologists, Audiologists and School Social Workers who have an unfunded mandate to provide for their salary supplement. Should we have important public education funding issues go unfunded while we spend money on NGOs? That is unfair and not the appropriate use of tax dollars. I was so excited when I heard this. Our issue is getting a lot of buzz. Everyone is doing such an outstanding job. I hate to say it, but I am optimistic. Let’s keep the momentum moving forward. If you were not able to be at the Capitol on Tuesday, you should access the link at the House of Representatives homepage using the "Video on Demand Archives" link. It shows the committee hearing including Theresa Rogers and the two parents testifying as well as the comments made by the members of the House Appropriations Committee. It was awesome. Steve Harris LSHA Legislative Liaison
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
Dear all, Following is a message from Steve Harris, Legislative Liason for LSHA: We are almost 1 month into the session and still have 2 more to go. Please know that this can be a lengthy and confusing process with things changing from moment to moment at the Capitol. As of today it looks as if Representative Joe Harrison is going forward with HB 817 to fund the Salary Supplement. He is preparing two amendments to HB 817. One will increase the funding of the supplement from $1000 to $5000 and the other will amend the bill to include social workers. So what we need to do is to ask our Representatives to sign-on as co-sponsors to this bill (explaining the changes that Representative Harrison proposes). This needs to be done IMMEDIATELY and the Representative’s responses should be sent to Steve Harris (sharris@stmary.k12.la.us), or myself. Please see below a sample email/letter you may send to your Representative. Please be sure to include your name and address on all correspondence with your Legislators. Sent by: Cynthia Chauvin SPALS Legislative Action Co-Chair Sample Letter:
back to TOP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
