On May 27th, LSU President John V. Lombardi gave a much-discussed talk to the LSU Foundation and said, amongst other things, the following: 

"Well LSU's presented about five business plans but the current business plan has been validated by every smart consultant in the Western World. It shows this deal will work. It shows that the way we're doing this will be capable of generating revenue, capable of providing the capital that will make this work."

Then two weeks later, in testimony to the Senate Education Committee against House Bill 780, Director of the Office of Facility Planning and Control Jerry Jones alleged that the bill was a bad idea because it would halt progress on the proposed LSU medical complex in Lower Mid-City. Addressing the Committee on June 11th, Jones said:

"To say that there isn't a business plan is just not the truth. We have had three business plans.

Of course all of those purported plans were put together before the credit crisis and financial collapse.

Yesterday's press release by Jones' boss, Division of Administration Commissioner Angele Davis seems to confirm that neither Director Jones nor President Lombardi have been entirely forthright with the Committee, in other recent testimony to the Legislature, nor in various public statements stressing the same point.

Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis today announced the suspension of land acquisition activities for the proposed new University Medical Center in New Orleans, pending a resolution of the MOU concerning the governance structure for the proposed medical center.  The governance structure is a critical step toward developing a financing model for the new facility.
 
Commissioner Davis said, “There remains no agreement on the proposed governing structure and it is critical that we make an intensified effort to reach an agreement before the state acts to purchase the property. The proposed agreement called for a non-profit corporation to operate the hospital, with the corporation being responsible for obtaining debt financing.  Without this corporation, or an agreement by the stakeholders to form the corporation, financing the project becomes a bigger challenge.

(Emphasis added)

Thus, the Division of Administration is saying, in no uncertain terms, that there is no financing structure in place to ensure the construction of the proposed LSU medical center. This would appear to be a direct repudiation of the testimony Director Jerry Jones has been providing to legislators.

It also represents the exact impetus behind Rep. Nowlin's House Bill 780 which would have prohibited land acquisition and expropriation in the proposed footprint until a financing structure can be approved by the Joint Budget Committee. HB 780 explicitly does not prohibit routine acts in preparation for sale including appraisals, surveys, etc - only the irreversible transfer of property title.

Over the last month have we just gone from five business plans to three business plans to none?

Isn't it time we took a look at the faster and less expensive alternatives for the restoration of healthcare institutions to New Orleans?