House sides with governor, LSU in rejecting bill
by Bill Barrow - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

It took Gov. Bobby Jindal four tries in the legislative process to beat back Sen. Edwin Murray's proposal to require Senate confirmation of the governing board for the planned University Medical Center in Mid-City. But the Republican governor, joined in this case by the Louisiana State University System, found enough allies in the House to amass a 33-54 vote in opposition to the bill. The lopsided tally came without debate, a sure sign that representatives on both sides of the question knew the outcome well in advance. Murray previously won comfortable margins at each stage of the process, including a 15-0 count in a House committee, despite objections from Jindal and LSU officials involved in the hospital's planning. Murray, D-New Orleans, had argued that Senate Bill 18 was necessary to give proper legislative oversight of a hospital that will receive a quarter of its $1.2 billion construction cost from the state and is projected to require as much as $100 million in state general fund support annually once it opens.