'Working Tour' here

Gov. Bobby Jindal highlighted job creation efforts of many kinds in a speech to about 250 local Kiwanis Club, Optimist Club of New Iberia and Rotary Club members Wednesday.

The stop was part of Jindal’s “Louisiana Working Tour” in which the governor plans to visit all 64 parishes within the next several months.

One problem he said the state is in the process of overcoming is the nationwide impression there is an unethical “Louisiana way” of doing business.

“As long as people think there’s a Louisiana way of doing business, they don’t want to invest here,” Jindal said.

Ethics reform has helped change that, he said.

Jindal recounted a story in which the company Gardner Denver Thomas Inc. recently made the decision not only to stay in Monroe, but to expand there, after an aggressive state campaign highlighted ways in which Louisiana is attractive for business.

Jindal said after that campaign, the company’s CEO told him the reality of doing business in Louisiana is “much better than our perception.”

“That’s exactly what it means to create a new Louisiana,” Jindal said. “We want people to take a second look at us because we know we can win on a level playing field if people give us a chance.”

Jindal refuted the claim that Louisiana is a poor state.

“We should be running circles around every other state,” he said. “We used to compete based on our resources. Now we must compete based on having the most skilled workforce.”

One of the ways in which the state is trying to create that is with the recent controversial “career diploma” bill, which aims to help prepare students for a career, or entry into a technical or community college, said Jindal, who signed the bill into law. It also allows for lower standards in certain subjects.

Jindal also pointed to a specific local example of job creation in Jeanerette resident John Albert, who attended the luncheon.

Albert, a marine electrician, found a job at Gravois Aluminum Boats LLC just two weeks after the company he worked for previously shut down unexpectedly.

Albert’s new employer, which is expanding, has “definitely seen an uptick in quality and volume of job applications,” said Chris Allard, president of Gravois.

Allard said the reason for the uptick is because of yards downsizing and people like Albert losing jobs.

Jindal said the company took advantage of the Industrial Tax Exemption Program in its expansion.

The Republican governor also said since January 2008 there has been $4.3 billion of private capital investment and there have been 33,000 new jobs created in Louisiana, and pointed to numerous favorable rankings in his talk, among them a change from 44th place to first in the Center for Public Integrity’s legislative disclosure requirement rankings, a move to the top five in the Better Government Association’s BGA-Alper Integrity Index rankings, and a ranking of third in the country for making movies, after New York and California.

Jindal also made a ceremonial presentation of $15 million to Iberia Parish in hurricane recovery and hazard mitigation efforts. About $11 million of that came from federal Community Development Block Grants, and $4 million came from FEMA’s    Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, with a 25 percent required state or local match.

Jindal said he wanted to give the money directly to local governments in order to cut down on bureaucracy.