Raceland physician Dr. Mike Robichaux, D-Matthews, will resign his seat in the state Senate effective Mar. 1.The District 20 senator, who has been recognized for his passion for education, said he must resign for financial reasons.

“I’m not quitting. I’m resigning. A couple of people called me and said, ‘Aw, I don’t like that word quitting,'” he said.

“I have a business with a significant amount of overhead.

“When I go to Baton Rouge, I don’t make a nickel, but my expenses go on. The last couple of years, my expenses just skyrocketed to the point that I have actually gotten in the hole,” he said.

In addition to being assistant dean of Freshman Division, Warren Triche is also a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and can sympathize with Robichaux’s decision.

“I think that anyone who serves in either the House or Senate soon realizes that it’s not a part-time job,” Triche said.

“Serving in this capacity as a state legislator is a job that never ends.”

Robichaux spoke of his efforts to eliminate school millage tax exemptions for big businesses.

“Louisiana is the only state that provides an exemption for school taxes. Other states can collect from these businesses that portion of their taxes which go to the schools. We’ve got terrible schools in Louisiana — worst schools in the nation,” he said.

Robichaux also discussed his opposition to the failed Stelly Amendments. Representative Vic Stelly of Louisiana’s 35th Congressional district was the proponent of two amendments designed to alter the state tax system to benefit education.

Stelly visited Nicholls Sept. 27 to promote his plan which was designed to raise up to $200 million for education.

“We’re a poor state. We’re already overtaxed in many ways. I did not support the Stelly amendment. We were taxing the wrong people,” Robichaux said.

“Personal income tax collection has gone up 600 percent in the last 18 years. Corporate income collections have gone down. Corporations are doing better and better than they ever have in the history of this country,” Robichaux said.

“In 1999, in the session before the election, I stood on the floor of the Senate and said, `Do not go home and brag about what a good job we’re doing.’

“We just had to steal $180 million from the first installment of the tobacco money to balance this year’s budget and we were still going to be several hundred billion dollars in the red. We’re giving away tax breaks like they’re popcorn and we’re not doing a credible job,” he said.

Robichaux said the Stelly Amendments were going to increase taxes for most people, but Stelly said the amendments would have been a tax break for lower income people.

“It might have been, but it would not have been an appreciable amount of money that we’re talking about. But why should we be going to the individuals to tax them when we’ve got this huge hemorrhage in our tax base from these big corporations?” Robichaux said.

“Understand, these big corporations are not your local ones, Bollinger’s, Chouest’s and so forth — and they get out of paying tons of taxes — but forget about them for a moment. I’m talking about the big dogs that aren’t even locally owned.

“They don’t even pay income taxes to the state,” he said.

“Now listen to this,” Robichaux said with a laugh.

“If we raised corporate income taxes at the same rate as personal income taxes, we would have had $1.8 billion. We would have had surplus money,” he said

“Why should we be going back to the poor citizens of the state with more taxes when these corporations are not putting up at all? They’re here for one reason and one reason only: so they can exploit what we’ve got.

“Big business and lobbying cry all the time about `education, education, education.’ That’s bulls–t. You can quote me on that, okay. Purely unadulterated bulls–t. They’re worried about money. They are no more worried about education than the man on the moon.

“They talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk. If they would, they would not be fighting so adamantly these taxes for school millages,” he said.

Robichaux said small locally owned businesses and individual taxpayers have to compensate for the taxes not paid because of the exemptions.

He also spoke of the Tuition Opportunity Program for Students and the recent tuition increase.

“The tobacco settlement money, I thought, was handled magnificently. We dedicated it to TOPS and to classroom purposes,” he said.

Robichaux, however, was against raising tuition.

“If you want to see real politics being practiced you don’t go watch the Senate or the House. You go watch what happens with these goddamned university presidents and the politics that goes on. It is unbelievable,” he said.

“I think about 70 percent of the people in the system are not on TOPS. We’re creating a subsidy for 30 percent of the population and then screwing the other 70 percent,” he said.

The rationale behind the tuition increase was to raise faculty salaries to the Southern average.

“I don’t say that that’s not a noble endeavor, but don’t come over here and tell me TOPS is the greatest thing in the world and then come back and tell me that we have to raise tuition on everybody else,” he said.

Robichaux said he would consider running for office again.

“I’m a pathological populist. I went to Baton Rouge thinking I was just a little bit to the right of Atilla the Hun, and I found myself voting out of sync with all the conservatives.

“I hadn’t changed. The pendulum has swung so far to the right in state government. When you’re a centrist and a guy that tries to be fair to both sides you don’t really please either side,” Robichaux said.

Triche spoke of Robichaux’s compotence.

“He was a very intelligent person. He was aggressive in everything that he wanted to accomplish,” Triche said.

“He did a great deal of research. He knew his material well and he also came up with positions that he could defend very well.”