May 9, 2011 by Melinda Deslatte
Opponents raised a series of financial questions Monday in hopes of derailing a proposal to merge Southern University Southern at New Orleans with the University of New Orleans University, but lost their bid to stall the consolidation bill that is headed next to the full House for debate.
The House Appropriations Committee backed the merger bill in a 17-4 vote, the last step before House floor consideration of the controversial proposal to combine historically black SUNO with the largely white UNO campus.
An analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Office estimates the merger could cost the state more than $3 million over the next two years, as the new University of Louisiana at New Orleans is created and shifted into the UL System of colleges.
The review says the financial impact by the 2013-14 budget year should be "cost neutral" or could possibly lower spending, but it also adds that the office can't predict some areas of impact in any merger, such as those involving staffing or legal obligations.
House Speaker Jim Tucker, the sponsor of the merger bill, said the fiscal office cost estimates might be too large, but he said the public policy benefit of consolidating the campuses trumps the price tag. He said attrition would minimize the impact on existing employees at both schools, and he said the legislation covers how contracts and other legal entanglements would be handled.
"We think the fiscal note is high, but reasonable," Tucker said.
Merger opponents said the estimates don't properly take into account the costs of layoffs of tenured professors, changes to computer systems and lawyers needed to work out complicated issues such as bonded indebtedness and contract arrangements.
Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge, said supporters of the consolidation were keeping the cost estimates artificially low to smooth passage of a divisive proposal that requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to pass.
"In low-balling it, you are trying to make sure it is palatable to the people you're trying to get to vote for this," Smith said. "There is a cost to this."
The bill would create a single university with shared accreditation and leadership, but made up of two colleges with different admission standards, missions and program offerings.
Supporters, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, say it would give students better educational opportunities at schools that aren't fully using their facilities and have low graduation rates. Opponents say a consolidation would take away a nurturing environment provided at SUNO for minority and poorer students who need more attention to get a college degree.
Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said the UL System would have to absorb the costs of the merger if no additional dollars were provided by lawmakers to cover its costs.
"The fiscal note's not large, according to our accountants. Certainly, if it were $10 million or $15 million or $20 million, then it couldn't be absorbed," said Fannin, one of several Democrats who joined with Republicans to support the measure Monday.
Voting for the merger were Fannin and Reps. Simone Champagne, R-Jeanerette; Charles "Bubba" Chaney, R-Rayville; Page Cortez, R-Lafayette; Noble Ellington, R-Winnsboro; Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles; Mickey Guillory, D-Eunice; Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville; Chris Hazel, R-Pineville; Bernard LeBas, D-Ville Platte; Tony Ligi, R-Metairie; Tom McVea, R-Jackson; Jim Morris, R-Oil City; Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs; Mert Smiley, R-Port Vincent; Gary Smith, D-Norco; and Bodi White, R-Denham Springs.
Voting against the merger were Reps. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans; Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge; Charmaine Marchand Stiaes, D-New Orleans; and Patrick Williams, D-Shreveport.
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