Special Session Action Sought on Bond Issue for Med School

              TUESDAY, NOV. 22, 1966
For Shreveport Branch—
Special Session Action Sought
On Bond Issue for Med School
By HARRY TAYLOR
Journal Staff Writer
Legislation to accelerate the
bond issue for the Shreveport
branch of the Louisiana State
University Medical School has
been proposed for inclusion in
the call for the special session
of the Legislature this week.
Caddo Parish Rep. J. Bennett
Johnston Jr. of Shreveport said
yesterday he has asked Gov.
John J. McKeithen to include
the medical school bond issue
legislation in the call for the
special session.
Gov. McKeithen is expected
to issue a call for special
session to begin on Monday,
Nov. 28, for the Legislature to
consider reapportionment of
both the House and the Senate.
A THREE-JUDGE federal
court at New Orleans has
ordered the Louisiana Legisla-ture
to reapportion both houses
before Jan. 1, 1967. If reappor-tionment
is not accomplished,
the court has stated members
of the Legislature will face
at-large election.
Rep. Johnston, one of Gov.
McKeithen's floor leaders dur-ing
this year's regular session
of the Legislature, said today
he has "high hopes the gover-nor
will include the medical
school bond issue legislation in
the special session call."
For legislation to be intro-duced
and considered during a
special or extraordinary session
of the Legislature, such as the
one planned this month, it must
be included in the call for the
session.
REP. JOHNSTON SAID his
p r o p o s e d legislation would
remove time limitations on the
issue of the bonds for establish-ment
of the medical school
branch at Shreveport.
The medical school bond
issue legislation, passed during
the regular session this year,
provides for the issuance of $5
million in bonds during the first
five years following passage of
the act, and for issuance of an
additional $5 million of bonds
during the second five-year
period.
The new legislation proposed
by Rep. Johnston would provide
for floating the entire $10
million bond issue at one time,
making the entire amount of
state funds for the medical
school available at one time.
ACCELERATION OF THE
state bond issue would enable
medical school officials to
apply for all of the available
federal matching funds at one
time, rather than over a
10-year period, Rep. Johnston
said.
In addition to the elimina-tion
of possible problems in
getting the federal funds, acce-leration
of the state bond issue
would enable the state to
contract for construction and
other work "all at once rather
than in stages," he said.
While the proposed legisla-tion,
if passed, would acceler-ate
the issue of bonds and the
accumulation of funds, both
state and federal, it would not
necessarily speed up comple-tion
of the facilities for the
medical school here.
"I DOUBT IF THIS would
speed up completion of the
buildings or move up the
opening date for the medical
school," Rep. Johnston said.
"Work under contracts proba-bly
won't move any faster than
it would under the original
bill."
However, Rep. Johnston said
speeding up the issuance of the
bonds would ease any possible
problems that could develop in
getting federal funds over the
longer period provided in the
original legislation.
The ability to contract for all
work at once under the pro-posed
new legislation also
might serve as a stop-gap
against inflationary price in-creases
which cou Id affect
construction over the longer
period under the original legis-lation,
he said.
REP. JOHNSTON ALSO
said he has asked for inclusion
in the call for the special
session of the legislation pro-posing
to change the name of
the Shreveport Trade School to
the Shreveport-Bossier Voca-tional-
Technical Institute.
Other legislation o fa local
nature which might be included
in the call, Rep. Johnston, said,
is a proposal to allow the
Shreveport City Council, the
Caddo Parish School Board,
and the Caddo Parish Police
Jury to jointly submit a one-cent
sales tax proposal to
Caddo Parish voters.
While each of the three local
public agencies individually has
the authority to call a sales tax
election, special legislation is
required for a joint sales tax
proposal under which each
would share in a common tax.