Blanco needs to fix Foster's divot with creative thinking

I know I was dreaming big in the previous post when I hoped Gov. Kathleen Blanco could drive New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson back to the bargaining table with a huge income tax increase on his employees. I don’t think Blanco has the nerve to threaten such a special session and I’m unsure whether she could get the two-thirds votes necessary to do it.

Perhaps more realistic is today’s suggestion, to address the problem the state has with another deal negotiated by the Mike Foster Administration (which, unlike the Saints deal, he has failed to defend so far), the guaranteed payment for golf rounds played at the Tournament Players Club in Avondale. If local hotels can’t sell them, then the state must reimburse the course in the first year for unplayed rounds.

The contract seems pretty strict. The state can’t resell them and it can’t give them away. With these parameters, it would seem the state’s only option is to use them in-house, if they get used at all.

So, here are some suggestions for the state to use up these several thousand rounds:

For starters, round up all the juveniles from the correctional institutions in Special School District #1, house them near Avondale, and tell the 75 or so of them they can play as many rounds on the state’s tab as they want for as long as they want (this would make Caddy Day at Bushwood seem like a Sunday school class)

Next, Blanco should tell Agriculture Secretary Bob Odom that his managers/construction workers need a break from their hard labor building useless sugar mills, and that he needs to fly the lot of them to Avondale several times for some golf. Threaten some line item vetoes if, as usual, he wants to do things his way.

Finally, Blanco should make a deal before the end of the session that every legislator gets a free round for every $100 million they vote to cut from the state budget (although, more realistically, she’ll probably dangle them out to entice them to pass her cigarette tax).

Among all of these, that either will use up all the rounds and greatly inconvenience the club or it will provide incentive for the club to renegotiate. Except when referring to tobacco companies, Blanco’s too nice; she needs to start cracking the whip instead of throwing up her hands and having her surrogates agree “it’s a horrible contract.”