George W. Bush speaks during a ceremony held to honor the gift of a new firetruck for the city of New York on the South Lawn in 2001 Foster was widely seen as having favored business to a greater degree than had previous governors. He retained the secretary of economic development, former legislator
Kevin P. Reilly Sr. of Baton Rouge, the former CEO of
Lamar Advertising Company of
Baton Rouge. He ended state
affirmative action and set-aside programs, which earned him the support of the business community but prompted protests from civil rights groups. Foster also targeted
tort reform and ended the practice by which trial lawyers could seek punitive damages from businesses. Foster had close relations with the statewide pro-business
lobbying group
Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) for most of his tenure, though there were short-lived tensions in 2000 over Foster's attempt to raise business taxes in an effort to secure funding for higher education. By the end of his second term, Foster was receiving criticism for his reluctance to take business trips in order to attract businesses and jobs to Louisiana, and for enrolling in part-time law school classes while still in office. He also appointed then 24-year-old
Bobby Jindal, later a two-term Republican governor, as head of the
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. As his executive counsel, Foster appointed the Democrat Cheney Joseph Jr. (1942–2015), a member of the LSU Law School faculty and a former
district attorney for
East Baton Rouge Parish. Foster worked to re-organize the state's
community college system by creating the
Louisiana Community and Technical College System, and expanded the
Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS). Foster instituted mandatory standardized testing for grade advancement in a move described by his administration as an effort to make public schools more accountable. He made increasing teacher salaries a major priority, at one point promising to stop cashing his paychecks until teachers' salaries reached the Southern average. Andy Kopplin served as Governor Foster's chief of staff. In 1997, Foster named former state budget director
Ralph Perlman as secretary of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, a position that Perlman held for five years while in his eighties. Despite having run on an anti-gambling platform, in office Foster became a quiet supporter of the gambling industry. His advocacy of a bailout bill for the
Harrah's casino in
New Orleans helped ensure the passage of the measure.
Atchafalaya Basin Program In November 1996 the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested that Foster appoint a lead agency to coordinate state participation in the
Atchafalaya Basin Project. Foster chose the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources as the lead agency. In December 1996, the Atchafalaya Basin Advisory Committee was created, members appointed, and planning initiated that resulted in the Atchafalaya Basin Master Plan, as authorized by the U.S. Congress. A result of this plan was the creation of the
Sherburne Complex Wildlife Management Area (Section 4.41-B) that includes the partnership of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The area consists of , and is managed by the
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Foster and David Duke In his 1995 campaign, Foster paid more than $150,000 for former
Ku Klux Klansman
David Duke's mailing list of supporters. After failing to report the purchase as a campaign expenditure, Foster became the first Louisiana governor to admit and pay a fine for a violation of the state's ethics code. Foster insisted that he did not need to report the expenditure because he paid Duke with his personal funds and did not utilize the list in his campaign. Duke also endorsed Foster in the 1995 campaign. ==Post-governorship==