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I know customers are counting on me.

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Together, together.

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With support from viewers like you and more likely, this is going to be a off.

An open seat has five candidates contending to become Louisiana's next attorney general.

We have always have an underfunded retirement system, and that's true of almost every retirement system that's ever created.

Can Louisiana keep the retirement system debt from growing?

So we are seeing that delayed progression of from the sill.

More updates on the saltwater wedge this time, some good news around September, October, when LSU plays Auburn, it's always, you know, Can you tell us about this Auburn game, the 35th anniversary of the earthquake game.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kara St. Cyr.

And I'm Karen LeBlanc.

Voters head to the polls on Saturday, October 14th.

Louisiana's primary election to cast ballots for Louisiana's next governor and several statewide offices.

The ballot also includes four constitutional amendments, initiatives up for a vote that tend to fly under the radar during the campaign season.

Here's a look at the four appearing on Saturday's ballot.

The first proposed constitutional amendment prohibits the use of donated money from either non-governmental institutions or foreign governments to assist in running state elections.

Amendment number two would mandate in the Constitution the right to worship in a church or similar setting.

Amendment number three increases from 10% to 25%.

The amount of surplus or nonrecurring revenue to pay down Louisiana's retirement debt and Amendment number four proposes that a nonprofit housing entity would lose its property tax exemption for code violations.

The amendment aims to reduce blight by giving each governing authority the right to pull the property tax exemption from the nonprofit on a case by case basis.

Of the four amendments, the one that impacts Louisiana's budget is number three, which aims to pay down more of the state's multibillion dollar retirement debt.

Have about $17 billion in state retirement debt.

And so that the we can pay it off quickly.

I mean, this is money that essentially we're borrowing at about seven and a half percent interest.

So the quicker we can pay it down, the quicker we essentially we get to save money that we can use toward other things.

Louisiana's pension system is facing an ever growing debt complicated by financial decisions from decades prior.

At the state doesn't modernize its retirement system, soon, an increase burden will be shifted to younger generations.

I take a deep dive into those issues facing Louisiana's future tax base and solutions presented to ease that burden.

Louisiana's pension system is in need of an upgrade.

It's among the most poorly funded in the country.

As it stands, the state can only fund a portion of its two largest retirement systems, leaving a $17 billion debt or unfunded accrued liability.

But how did we get here?

We have always have an underfunded retirement system, and that's true of almost every retirement system that's ever created.

Because when you create it, you say, All right.

Hey.

Everyone now has a retirement benefit, but they haven't been putting money into it.

So you start off with you're already in debt.

What's different is how Louisiana handles its debt.

Dr. Stephen Procopio with the Public Affairs and Research Council says those financial decisions go back to the eighties.

Our top story tonight takes a look at some of Louisiana's troubled retirement systems.

Karen Nachman has been following that story.

Karen, what happened today?

This morning, bela stunned legislators with figures showing that there is $4.8 billion in unfunded accrued liability for the state's 13 retirement systems.

Lawmakers faced a similar pension dilemma back in the eighties.

We'll show to the people throughout the country and the world, people who rate our bonds, people who view us as fiscally unsound that we have decided to turn the corner on at least this one issue.

The solution was to pay off the entire liability up to 1988 by 2029, using an amortize payment schedule, which means the state has to pay a set amount on a set schedule annually.

But later on, that approach was changed.

Lawmakers adopted a back end payment approach, which means money was still being appropriated toward our retirement systems, but just not as much.

This decision increased the interest owed on future payments and helped balloon the debt to where it is now.

It really got shoved to really the last ten years.

We had to make our regular payments plus all the stuff we weren't making.

Louisiana is on track to pay off the initial debt from the eighties by 2029, but that's only part of the problem.

We're now facing an additional liability, largely from investments.

Everything they make at that rate is something that the state doesn't have to pay because that's less money they have to put in.

The retirement system is funded by four main sources State employers, state employees, investment returns, and occasionally a 10% surplus from state tax dollars.

Public officials and retirement system officials take all of this plus more into consideration.

Then they make investments based on how much money they estimate will need.

If they don't make that mark, then somebody has to make up the difference.

And it's the obligation of the employers or really the state to make up the difference.

In the past, if investments did do well, they're put aside for colas or cost of living adjustments, but not the debt itself.

One thing that just happened in the past year is they've changed how they do cost of living adjustments, which we had a truly terrible system of doing it.

It wasn't good for the retirees and it wasn't good for the state.

It cost a lot of money and didn't give a lot of benefit.

And so we are now on a trajectory to phase that system out, which should put us in a better footing for not creating more UAL in the future.

Fixing the COLA system is just one of the solutions that can reduce the unfunded accrued liability in the future.

The recent initiative recommends reforming the state pension systems to reduce the risk of more debt, adopting a more portable hybrid system for new employees, combining a traditional defined benefit plan with a defined contribution plan.

And lastly, making more conservative investment assumptions.

As a voter, you too can influence our retirement system when you visit the polls.

Pay attention to Constitutional amendment number three.

It would increase the contribution when there's a surplus or non-recurring growth from 10% to 25%.

So that puts more money into the retirement system, which means then there'll be less need to make additional debt payments, which means there's more money to pay on recurring costs like teacher salaries or employee salaries or really any sort of recurring cost.

It would also spread the surplus money to other retirement systems and extend surplus payments past the original 2029 deadline.

But there is a catch.

On the other hand, that money, instead of going to retirement systems, could be going toward infrastructure because that's another use.

Or coastal because that's another use of nonrecurring funds.

So you really have to weigh out.

You know, we have a heavily burdened retirement system.

It would be great if we could free up more money by paying this down.

But we also have needs on the coast and we also have needs for bridges.

In the end, it's up to you to decide what you think is most important.

Five candidates are running to serve as Louisiana's next attorney general.

The open seat is left by incumbent Jeff Landry, who is running for Louisiana governor.

All the candidates agree that reducing crime is a top priority.

However, there are limits to what the state's chief legal officer can do to fight crime at the street level.

Here's what the candidates have to say about making the state safer.

And expert insight on the politics of the race.

The Louisiana attorney general is third in line of secession to the Louisiana governor, which makes it a prime political office to tee up future gubernatorial aspirations.

The current attorney general is running for governor.

So that means you've got to have an open seat.

And so politicians love an open seat.

You know, in the same way, same way that a bull loves the color red.

So a politician loves an open seat.

And also, some of these politicians themselves are probably term limited themselves.

So they're facing political mortality in a sense.

So a statewide position looks very attractive.

All five candidates running for the job of Louisiana attorney general are practicing lawyers, a requirement for the elected position.

They are in alphabetical order.

Lindsey Cheek running as a Democrat from New Orleans with the endorsement of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.

I stand before you as a fierce advocate for women in Louisiana, including the women's right to choose life for themselves.

Candidate Marty Maley of Baton Rouge is running as a Republican.

He is the district attorney who helped successfully prosecute serial killers Derrick Todd Lee and Sean Gillis.

28 year career prosecutor during that time with the DA's Association, tried all sorts of stuff, handled RICO cases, handled money laundering cases, handled complex drug cases, handled asset forfeiture, handled DWI cases, moved on to the DA's office across the river over here, got to participate in two serial killer cases.

Solicitor General Liz Murril of Baton Rouge is running as a Republican.

Liz works with the current attorney general, Jeff Landry, as the second in command in his office.

I have personally led over the DA's and assisted the D.A.

in over 200 cases in state and federal courts, criminal cases.

And that's through the post-conviction process.

State Representative John Stefanski of Crowley is running as a Republican, served in the legislature.

That's definitely something I feel separates myself as well.

Understand what it takes to craft budgets, understand what it takes to actually effectuate change, and how a bill gets moved through the process.

Candidate Perry Walker Terrebonne, An attorney since 1994, lives and practices in Plaquemines Parish.

He is a lifelong Democrat.

I think attorney general should not politicize the office.

I believe the current attorney general has done that to some extent.

Many voters want to know about the state's chief legal officers plan of attack to reduce crime.

However, the state attorney general has limited power to fight crime at the street level.

Each has pledged to do their part within the powers of the office.

There's a mental health crisis in Louisiana that we need to address from childhood to adulthood.

The laws that are in place or the AG is required to enforce them and to work with DA's across the state.

Our ideas are very competent.

Law enforcement needs help.

We need to be able to encourage and foster and bring in more law enforcement personnel.

The legislature is beginning to understand there's going to be a crime session right out the box.

Whoever the governor is and the rules may change, the juvenile justice system is going to be torn down brick by brick and rebuilt in a way that makes sense.

Our investigators have statewide criminal jurisdiction to investigate crime all over the state.

We provide assistance to law enforcement upon request and upon initiation of our own investigations.

Someone, after they are convicted, has at least nine chances to overturn their convictions after they leave the original conviction process.

And we just simply don't have the resources in all our rural offices to be able to to manage all of that appellate work.

And so it is extremely important work.

Louisiana is in a crisis mode from a detention standpoint.

We cannot house the amount of juvenile offenders we have currently.

So what happens when you can't help them as they go immediately home?

And oftentimes the public is extremely frustrated because they immediately re-offend.

So first and foremost, the legislature and the governor, whoever our next governor has to get on board with building more regional detention facilities.

And I'm not talking about just locking them up.

I'm talking about recidivism efforts, education efforts in those as well.

And so it's a it's a multi-tiered approach.

But I tend to give the juvenile the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think throwing them in Angola is a good idea.

And it's something, you know, I think you have to try and we need better parenting support.

I think I would have a lenient approach towards juveniles.

I don't like throwing people in jail if they 16 or 17 for life.

That's not something I believe in.

So my approach would be lenient.

But to try to help figure the situation out, the state attorney general can prosecute or intervene in any civil legal proceeding and can advise or assist in a criminal prosecution if requested by a district attorney or the court.

He or she investigates public corruption overseas, consumer protection and antitrust matters, and can conduct investigations and prosecutions of Medicaid fraud.

Voters go to the polls October 14th to vote in the primary election.

Also on the ballot, candidates for Louisiana's next governor, the state attorney general and the governor don't have to be politically aligned because the attorney general is not the governor's legal counsel.

The governor has his own lawyers for legal advice.

More likely, there's going to be it's going to be a runoff in the in this race.

And so that will be one of the races that will probably will carry over into November.

The person who wins that office potentially could be there a while.

Very rarely do we defeat that for us in the next term.

So that person could actually be there for a while.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Saturday, October 14th.

And there is a lot competing for people's attention that day.

LSU football and of course, I mean, everything that's going on politically right now is going to be interesting to see the turnout.

The saltwater wedge is moving slower than expected, which means the intrusion may take longer to reach the drinking water supply in Orleans Parish and surrounding areas.

But despite that small dose of good luck, the Army Corps of Engineers is still preparing for the worst.

So the saltwater wedge has been making headlines for weeks now at this point.

But you've got some updates for us.

Yes, the forecast that was released late last week did show a shift at some of the water treatment intakes being delayed about a month while some of the the ones further upstream on the East Bank possibly seeing no impacts from the saltwater intrusion right now.

However, water treatment facilities down river closer to where the saltwater wedge actually is are still seeing anticipated impacts close to that original timeline.

So for the original timeline, when was that?

When was the saltwater wedge supposed to impact these areas?

In October, middle of October to late October, kind of depending on where you go on the river.

We're seeing impacts at locations south of the wedge location right now, Port, Sulfur and East Point a la Hatche further down in Plaquemines Parish.

But as the port, the wider is forecast to move upriver, we will see possible impacts in Belle Chasse and in St. Bernard as well.

Is there anything that can change the trajectory of the salt wedge?

We've had some rainy weather today.

Is that at all going to impact what's happening?

Unfortunately, local rain doesn't have that big of an impact on the Mississippi River.

If it falls in our area, it has many ways to kind of get into the Gulf of Mexico, especially New Orleans.

The city drains into Lake Pontchartrain and it just kind of goes out on that side.

What we really looking for is rain across the Mississippi River Valley from Montana, the western side of New York state, particularly in the Ohio River Valley watershed, the Missouri and the Red River.

But what we've seen here in the past week or so is a tremendous amount of rainfall in the Red River Valley.

And so that's raised levels on the Red River up.

So we're not having to divert as much through the old river control structure.

We're putting more down the rains down while maintaining that 70/30 split with is what the Old River control structure does.

And so we're seeing higher flows on the Mississippi River right now, which is one of the reasons we had the updated forecast is the flows were coming in higher than forecasted.

So about two weeks ago, the Army Corps of Engineers was working on updating a sill that was already put in place in and around mid-July.

So how is the sill?

Is it complete?

Is it working the way it's supposed to?

Is working better than initially anticipated?

We're seeing greater benefits in the results from the work done on the sill.

As of this week, it's about 90% complete.

It's built to the elevation that the dredge has to go in and fill on a few areas here and there.

But it's up to the elevation that we wanted to build it to.

And we are seeing this sill continue to slow down progression of saltwater upriver.

It's still a very dangerous river, and we want to discourage anybody from exploring any sandbars.

The riverbanks that are all those areas are unstable and the river is still very dangerous.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the earthquake.

Game.

It was a celebrated part of LSU lore when fans and Tiger Stadium cheered so loud that the energy produced an earth shaking event.

Now the story of the earthquake game lives on, retold to generations of LSU fans.

On Saturday, October 14, LSU and Auburn fans gather in Tiger Stadium for the matchup that set a seismic event in motion in 1988.

Fourth down, ten yards to go, 1:47 to go in the game.

LSU wins or loses on this play.

It would appear HOLY COW!

If you are an LSU football fan, chances are you've heard about the legend of the earthquake game I was a relatively new faculty member at that time and felt that I had to be working in my office and I knew the game was going on.

But at the end of the game and I was listening to it, it all of a sudden became a big commotion and I thought, This is pretty amazing.

Where were you on the eve of LSU's legendary earthquake game?

If it was before your time, you've likely heard the story right here.

This is tradition.

You can█t go on the field without touching this first.

All right.

The year was 1988.

Tiger Stadium, the scene of the famous earthquake game.

And I'm with the two players that made the famous play quarterback, Tommy Hodson, running back Eddie Fuller.

So we're going to head out to the field and down memory lane.

On major game days, Tiger Stadium can pack the stands with more than 100,000 fans.

It's a concentration of human energy and enthusiasm.

On one fall night in the late eighties, that energy became a powerful force because it was one of those classic Southeastern Conference games, low scoring.

And it as 6-0 at the time and time is running out.

More than 79,000 fans were in the stands for the LSU Auburn game.

It wasn't looking good for LSU.

And pump fakes throws over the middle.

Holy cow, he had a touchdown.

A couple of incompletes on three incomplete.

First down in the first down and then in the ninth Hodson to throw over the middle and incomplete.

I was intricately involved in that whole sequence I mean from drops to short arms to everything else.

And then we were first, second or third.

That plays and you had nothing there.

Auburn stifled us.

So we get the fourth, fourth down and nine.

And then with the game on the line, LSU fans were on edge.

Tensions mounting in the stands as they watched and waited for a big play.

Well, remember, it's north over zip 40 snag.

It is in the slot.

We got a little motion coming.

Tony Moss coming in motion.

He's running the corner Alvin Lee is running the snag.

And Eddie's got the seam right here.

And then it's just make the play happen.

Touchdown.

So for him to come back to me, that was.

That was.

That was gratitude for me.

You know, I think a little bit of redemption, but then not realizing that there was still time left on the clock So they could have you know, they could have easily scored had it not been for our defense.

To my surprise, a little bit later, I found out it appeared on the seismometer that was on the ground floor.

And in our building is the old analog technology in which they had a drum of paper that was moving as you got a pen that would record the amount of motion up and down and obviously became a very important part of the LSU football as well as the overall history of the university.

It was a hard night, like Tom said, and we kind of kind of were able to put the icing on the cake.

But we were fortunate.

You know, we dialed up the right play on on that fourth down and and Eddie popped over and I was able to get it to him.

We protected.

Everything was great.

It fell into place and just, uh, just excited about being a part of LSU history.

I think all these years.

As for the LSU seismometer, today, it's much smaller, portable and works like a sonogram using energy waves to look into the earth.

It's an invaluable source of scientific data and fun facts, and it's registered other earth shaking events over the years, including the Garth Brooks concert in Tiger Stadium.

Saturday, April 30th, 2022, when Garth performed in the crowd favorite Callin█ Baton Rouge.

It basically the signal.

It started at the time of the beginning of the song and just continued until the song was done.

And recently you tracked some seismic event with the Dow plant explosion.

Yes.

What did you what did you what did you discover there?

In that case?

We heard an explosion around the LSU campus, but it was also felt in the ground and recorded by these seismometers.

Despite its nickname, the earthquake game didn't actually produce an earthquake.

However, scientists aren't asking for rewrites nor revisions to LSU lore.

When the earth breaks, it releases the energy.

That's an earthquake.

The events that were recorded in 1988 were basically the result of the fans jumping up and down, making lots of noise and generating waves that went into the earth that were then recorded with this seismometer.

So the legend of the earthquake game lives On, chronicled on this mural here in Tiger Stadium as thousands upon thousands of people pass through it and tell this story to the next generation being next to Garth Brooks.

I mean, what else can you ask for?

Right.

It's not a bad way to be immortalized around September, October, when LSU plays Auburn, it's always, you know, can you tell us about this Auburn game?

And it's great.

You know, it's it's really good.

Great, great to be part of such a big play in LSU history.

And speaking of great moments in Louisiana's sports history, we invite you to watch our new LPB special Behind the Glory, airing Thursday nights at 8:45 p.m. over the next four weeks.

Each episode features a personal conversation with members of Louisiana's latest Sports Hall of Fame class.

You can also watch online at lpb.org That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, be any time, wherever you are with our LPB app.

You can catch LPB News and public Affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook X and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen LeBlanc, and I'm Kara St. Cyr.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like y