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By Catherine Hunt
LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A Senate committee on Wednesday passed a version of the state’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year and several other bills that could impact the state’s finances, including freezing pay raises for state employees.
The bill, approved by the Senate Finance Committee, would use $90 million from the state’s rainy-day fund to fill budget shortfalls caused by nearly $1 billion in lost revenues estimated by state economists.
The Legislature is expected to use more than $1 billion in federal coronavirus aid to fill budget gaps. About half of those funds were used in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and the rest will be used in the fiscal year starting July 1.
The committee also passed three other bills Wednesday that would give about $9.6 million in tax breaks next year to hotels, retailers and restaurants trying to recover from the shutdown from the virus, which has caused more than 300,000 Louisianans to file for unemployment.
Meanwhile, the House gave final legislative approval to a tax break for the gambling industry which could cost the state $11 million next year and $83 million over five years.
Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, the chairman of the finance committee, said the various business tax breaks could total between $20 million and $25 million next year.
The Senate committee also included language in the budget bill that would temporarily freeze pay raises for state employees. That would save the state about $60 million.
The money would be set aside in a separate fund, and the Legislature would consider whether to issue the pay raises later if the economy improved. If not, the money would be used to fill budget holes.
Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, supported the freeze, saying layoffs could be prevented “if we make wise decisions now as a Legislature.”
The committee unanimously approved the plan. But Gov. John Bel Edwards, who also would have to sign off on the bill if it makes it out of the Legislature, opposed the move.
“I know there’s some talk about not doing it or maybe delaying them for some period of time in order to achieve some savings that could be put in the budget,” Edwards said. “I don’t believe that is necessary and that we should do that at this time.”
The State Civil Service Commission, a seven-member body with final authority over the central human resources agency for the state, said it would have to approve the move. Individual agencies would have to go to the commission to seek exceptions to the rule, said Byron Decoteau, the commission’s director.
“In all likelihood, the most appropriate route… would be some type of emergency rule process,” Decoteau said.
Despite the federal money and the savings on salaries, the Legislature plans to cut spending on higher education by $22 million even as members push for the tax breaks for businesses.
Also Wednesday, Gov. John Bel Edwards and state Treasurer John Schroder reached a deal to end a fight over what to do with the money that the state has from unclaimed property. Schroder’s office holds money from unclaimed savings accounts and insurance proceeds on behalf of residents.
Under the deal, the Legislature will be able to spend $57.5 million of this money. White said it would use some of this money to cover the cost of the business tax breaks.
The state will create a trust fund next year to hold other unclaimed property and prevent its use in future state budgets.

For most of his professional life, you could find Mike Bertrand in the Vermilion Parish Courthouse.
Between his time working for the Vermilion Parish Police Jury and his time as Vermilion Parish Registrar of Voters, he has spent 35 years working in the courthouse. Add his tenure at Sellers & Associates, that total is nearly 50 years he has spent time in that building.
On July 4, Bertrand is set to walk in the courthouse for his last day of work.
Bertrand will retire as Registrar of Voters on the final day of early voting for the presidential primary. Bertrand made the announcement public during the Police Jury’s meeting last week. Bertrand spent 15 years as the Secretary-Treasurer for the Police Jury, before moving to the registrar’s office 20 years ago. The Police Jury is in the process of finding someone to succeed Bertrand.
For Bertrand, this is the right time to move into retirement.
“I think it’s the right time for me,” Bertrand said. “I think it is a good time to making that move.”
One of the first steps in the move will involve family. Bertrand and his wife, Annette, have 11 grandchildren.
“We are following our grandkids around in a lot of their activities,” Bertrand said.
Bertrand’s son, Chris, is a college baseball coach at Northwestern State University. Bertrand said he plans to follow the team a great deal next season.
“I also have some little odds-and-ends projects around the house,” Bertrand said. “I have some woodworking projects. I also have grass to mow, and things like that.
“There are a lot of different things I think I’m going to do.”
Bertrand’s career never completely left him without time to do some of those things.
“My job did fortunately allow me to do a lot of those things after hours,” Bertrand said. “I was able to go watch baseball games. However, when we had elections, I would have to miss some Saturdays. Now, if we want to travel to watch Northwestern on the road, we can do that.
“We can get up and go.”
Bertrand has certainly enjoyed getting up and going to work each day.
“Absolutely,” Bertrand said. “When I was upstairs with the police jury, I dealt with so many different things on a day-to-day basis. Whether it was roads and drainage, solid waste, or fire protection, dealing with local, state and federal officials, it was really good. In my current office, elections are always a big thing.”
Both jobs brought Bertrand in contact with countless people over the years.
“That is something I will definitely miss,” Bertrand said. “You get to see people and visit with so many people.
“I will miss being able to interact with the people who visit the courthouse.”
There are so many that Bertrand will remember fondly.
“The staff I have had here in the registrar’s office,” Bertrand said. “They have been great. There were so many great people involved with the Police Jury. I have worked closely with so many people in the Clerk of Court’s office.”
Duties of his office are keeping Bertrand busy up until his last day. Early voting began yesterday. It will last through Saturday, July 4, Bertrand’s last day.
“We have been doing a lot to set up for that,” Bertrand said. “Right now, it’s been pretty active.”
At the same time, Bertrand has been packing up some of the things he has collected in his office over the years.
“I have papers from basically 35 years,” Bertrand said. “I am pretty much a hoarder when it comes to paper. I have kept a lot of things, like articles about the storms. I have got a lot of things packed up.”
Bertrand added with a laugh that what he’s bringing home from his office is not good news for his wife.
“She keeps asking me what I am going to do with boxes of stuff I have in a room at home,” he said. “I plan to go through that stuff and reorganize.”
As Bertrand goes through 35 years of memories, not many “bad” days show up.
“It’s like anything else,” Bertrand said, “you have those tough ones, but with everything I had to deal with, they were all interesting.”
It all started on his first day.
“The first day I came in with the Police Jury,” Bertrand said, “I was the assistant Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. Jewitt Hulin was still the Secretary-Treasurer. When I came in, I found out that he would not be there that day. They told me I was going to have to handle the meeting later that night. It was an interesting way to get started. It set me up for 35 years.
“It’s been good.”

Today, the old Herod High School on Martin Luther King Drive in Abbeville sits empty, but some Abbeville citizens want to bring it back to life.
The school opened in 1955 and closed as a high school around 1970 with consolidation. In the 1970s and 1980s, the school was used for students in elementary and middle school.
In 2014, Abbeville Pastor B.K. Stevens had plans to buy it from the police jury for an appraised value of $60,000. However, the Vermilion Parish School Board had to give the OK to the police jury to sell the building. The school board wanted to look into possibly doing something with the old Herod school. After waiting on the school board to say what it wanted to do with the former Herod High, Pastor Stephens decided to back off the deal and build a brand new building by his church.
For the last couple of years, the building has been sitting empty and is falling apart.
At last week’s police jury meeting, Kathy Walker, an Abbeville native, approached the Police Jury about possibly buying the old Herod High School.
Walker said she would like to get members of the Abbeville City Council, school board and police jury in one building and hear plans from Abbeville citizens for the old Herod High School.
Walker said she talked to the school board about the building, and the school board did not make a decision one way or another.
The police jury said the final decision falls on the school board on what to do with the building. If the school board does not want it and the police jury does not want the building, then the police jury can sell the building for its appraised value.
Police Juror Ron Darby said the building is a hazard because the roof caved in one part of the building. The building is locked up.
Darby said the last he heard the school board was making plans to do something with the building, but he was unsure what the plans were.
“Everyone wants the school, but they want the police jury to give them the school,” said Darby. “They have to have the money to fix the building. The school board wants someone to repair the building, but they have to have a plan and the finances to repair the building.”
Darby said the building is in the school board’s hands. He said if the school board does not want it, the school board must tell the police jury. Once that happens, the public can bid on the building, Darby added.
“We can not just give it away,” said Darby.

Braxton “B.I.” Moody III was inducted to the Louisiana Press Association’s 50-Year Club at the association’s annual stockholders meeting June 22.
LPA’s 50-Year Club honors and recognizes men and women who have 50 years or more cumulative professional affiliation with newspapers and news websites, including ties to Louisiana.
Affiliation can include time other than as a full-time employee. Work as a carrier or delivery person, as a stringer, or free-lance writer, for the college paper, or full or part-time work in any aspect of a newspaper or news website’s operation can count towards the 50 years.
Moody’s newspaper career began 57 years ago when he acquired the Rayne Acadian-Tribune and Church Point News in 1963.
He later launched the Crowley Post Herald which eventually merged with the competing Crowley Daily Signal, resulting in the Crowley Post-Signal in 1974. During the next three decades Moody’s newspaper group, Louisiana State Newspapers, acquired several other newspapers around Louisiana and today owns and publishes 22 newspapers.
Moody believes that every community should have a voice and that voice should be a local newspaper.
Currently, Moody is chairman of The Moody Company and of Louisiana State Newspapers, Inc., both headquartered in Lafayette.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette renamed its College of Business Administration after Moody in recognition of his service to the business industry in Acadiana as well as his community involvement.
He graduated from Rayne High School and attended Auburn University. His college career was interrupted by service in the United States Navy during World War II. After the war, Moody returned and entered then-SLI where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting.
Following graduation, Moody was the founding partner in the CPA firm of Moody, Broussard, Poché & Guidry. He also served as president and chief executive officer of Chart House, Inc., in Lafayette and chairman of the board for First National Bank of Lafayette.
His services on boards include Rayne State Bank & Trust Company, First National Bank of Crowley, Acadia Savings and Loan Administration, First Commerce of New Orleans, Coastal Chemical Company of Abbeville, Lastarmco, Inc., of Abbeville, Riviana Foods, Inc., of Houston, Celeron Oil Company, Inc., of Lafayette and Quantum Restaurants, Inc., of New York.
Moody was married to the former Thelma Hebert of Rayne for 70 years prior to her death in 2017. They are the parents of nine children, grandparents to 48 grandchildren and have numerous great-grandchildren.
To date, LPA has the following as members of the 50-Year Club:

2020
B.I. Moody III
Louisiana State Newspapers

2019
Henri Bienvenu
Teche News
Tom Kelly
Ruston Daily Leader/
Natchitoches Times

2017
Pam Mitchell
Louisiana Press Association

2016
Lou Gehrig Burnett
Political Columnist &
Fax-Net Update
Paul Kedinger
Rayne Acadian-Tribune

2014
Melba West
West Carroll Gazette (Oak Grove)

2012
David B Petty
The News-Star (Monroe)
Jerry Pierce
Northwestern State University,
Natchitoches

2011
Charles N. Lenox
University of Louisiana
at Lafayette

2010
Diana Daigle
Church Point News

2008
Ray Forman
The Bunkie Record

2007
Edwin Roy
St. Bernard Voice (Arabi)

2006
Jerry Byrd
Bossier Press-Tribune
(Bossier City)
Allen J. Lottinger
St. Charles Herald-Guide (Boutte)
Ted Uhall
The Daily Iberian (New Iberia)

2005
William J. Holliday
The Baker Observer
Sammy J. Franklin
The Jena Times
Olla-Tullos-Urania Signal
Porteous “Dickie” Broussard
The Daily Iberian (New Iberia)

2004
Jerry & Joy Wise
DeQuincy News
Raymond P. “Doc” Jeffress
Jackson Independent (Jonesboro)
Robert Gentry
The Sabine Index (Many)
Sam A. Hanna Sr.
Concordia Sentinel (Ferriday)

2002
John Blanchard
The Enterprise and
Interstate Progress (Mansfield)
Lovan Thomas
Natchitoches Times

2001
Annabelle McGuire Armstrong
South Baton Rouge Journal

2000
Fred “Pat” Achor
The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans)
Vera Hardman
St. Tammany Farmer (Covington)

1999
Sue Eakin
The Bunkie Record (Bunkie)

1998
Vincent Marino
The Advertiser (Lafayette)
Adolph C. Renaud
The Times (Shreveport)

1997
Bernard Curet
Pointe Coupee Banner
(New Roads)

1996
Robert H. Fackelman
Jennings Daily News
Peter Finney
The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans)
Douglas L. Manship, Sr.
The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
Clyde S. Miller
Madison Journal (Tallulah)
Anne K. Price
The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
Evelyn Short
The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
Joe D. Smith Jr.
Alexandria Daily Town Talk
Erbon and Marie Wise
Southwest Daily News (Sulphur)

1995
Bill Irwin
Amite Digest, Kentwood News

1994
Joseph Bosley
Madison Journal (Tallulah)
Lou Major Sr.
The Daily News (Bogalusa)
Willis Reed
Baton Rouge Post

1993
Fred Bandy
The Daily Iberian (New Iberia)
Frank J. Budde
The Times (Shreveport)
Earl Cobb
The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans)

1992
Ansley H. Colvin, Jr.
The Jackson Independent
(Jonesboro)
Lester G. Colvin
The Jackson Independent
(Jonesboro)
T.L. Colvin, Sr.
The Jackson Independent
(Jonesboro)
Bill Chapman
Bastrop Daily Enterprise

1991
Ray F. Dill
Houma Daily Courier
Ivy J. Smith
Houma Daily Courier
L.D. Young, Jr.
West Side Journal (Port Allen)
A.N. Dawson, Jr.
Alexandria Daily Town Talk

1990
Ralph Bienvenu,
Abbeville Meridional
Jo Cart
Rayne Independent
Myrta Fair Craig
Rayne Acadian-Tribune
Charles P. Manship, Jr.
State Times-Morning
Advocate (Baton Rouge)
William C. Risinger
Alexandria Daily Town Talk