La. DemoKKKrat Business: Let them eat cake.....

I saw this in several places yesterday. Kinda reminds me of something from Wizard of Id...






Office tab: $564,838


By MARK BALLARD
Capitol news bureau

Some members of the governor's staff will return from the three-day holiday
on Tuesday to newly renovated offices at the State Capitol.
Shortly after the two hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco decided to renovate
some of her staff's offices. At the time of her decision, Blanco also was
hinting at deep budget cuts to state programs and the possibility of laying
off 20 percent of the state workforce.

The project cost $564,838.

The newly refurbished office space on the sixth floor of the State Capitol
includes hookups and mounts for two flat screen televisions, Swedish granite
countertops, walnut paneling and frosted laminated glass. The floor, which
will not be accessible to the public, was redesigned to add three new
offices, a conference room and file storage areas.

About 20 members of the governor's staff - who focus on constituent
services, children's issues, women's policies and other functions - will
work on the newly restored floor.

Concerned about the perception of fixing up their office space while
slashing others' spending, Jimmy Clarke, Blanco's chief of staff, said
Friday the governor's top aides considered not fixing the 6th floor.

But the sixth floor project was bid six days before Hurricane Katrina came
ashore near Buras on Aug. 29. Clarke said he became concerned that the state
could be sued successfully if the restoration project were shut down.

"We certainly would not have initiated this work post-Katrina and Rita,"
Clarke said. "Given all that the state faces at this time, these renovations
would be a very low priority."

The floor had not been improved since the early 1980s and the space needed
to be upgraded to meet safety codes, Clarke said.

Restoration work began on the sixth floor Oct. 10, two weeks after Hurricane
Rita struck Cameron on Sept. 24.

The week before work began, Blanco ordered a spending and hiring freeze to
rein in state government expenses.

Three days after crews started tearing out the old offices, the
administration announced that the state's budget would be about $1 billion
short because of damages caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That day,
Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc told a legislative finance
committee that the budgets supplying money for public health care and
education would need cuts of 20 percent or more and that more than 18,000
state employees would have to be laid off.

All three floors that the governor and her staff occupy saw some upgrades,
said William Wilson, director of the Office of State Buildings.

A bathroom was added to the fifth floor and new carpet was added to all
three floors, he said.

But the sixth floor saw the most work, costing almost $300,000 alone, he
said.

Like most of the government offices in the State Capitol, which was built in
art deco style in 1932, offices line the perimeter of the sixth floor with
one office per window. The center section had offices and storage space, he
said.

With copy machines in the halls and files stacked in corners, "it really
wasn't very efficient," Wilson said.

The center section was ripped out and rebuilt to include three new offices,
space for student workers and a new conference room. The coffee room in the
northwest corner was modernized.