Glover campaign finance travails show need for reform

The gamey smell one might have detected around Shreveport mayoral politics came from the campaign finance reports of Mayor Cedric Glover, as revealed in a Shreveport Times article. It just provides more evidence about why the system needs drastic reform, as in getting rid of most of it.

The Times piece highlighted a number of questionable entries in Glover’s reports – missing information, changed names, limits being exceeded, large donations coming from individuals that don’t seem to be in much position to make them or would seem to have any interest in the contest. Glover maintains that his campaign tries not to accept illegal donations but if they look legitimate he’s not going to question them, and he said it tries to be as accurate as possible in record-keeping.

While some of these appear very questionable, Glover does have a point. Unless there seems something very obviously wrong, campaigns are under no obligation to refuse a donation and have little incentive to do anything but this legal minimum in ascertaining the legitimacy of a donation. Further, checking in detail all reports not only is not a required function of the state’s Ethics Administration Program, but also it would have just a tiny fraction of the resources to do this in any effective way. Instead, historically all campaign finance regulations everywhere have relied upon a political solution; that watchdog interests like the media and political adversaries such as opponent’s campaigns or political parties police disclosure forms.

LA bribery strategy suffers another predictable failure

It’s probably too much to hope for, but perhaps the failure of Louisiana’s long-standing “bribe them and they will come” theory of economic development will merit some re-examination after the flop of one of its most high-profile attempts.

It turns out that the corporation that landed millions of dollars in state incentives to run a call center in a state-owned building now has all of 10 employees using it. At this time last year, Accent Marketing announced it would lay off almost all its employees at its Monroe headquarters, at the high-profile former State Farm building. State Farm, when it left the area, donated the building in 2004 to a quasi-public entity known as the Ouachita Economic Development Corporation.

This group, funded by local governments and business, in turn donated it to a private entity run by people connected to it until in 2007 it sold it to the state for $3.25 million. During that time, the entity collected almost a million dollars more from the state for various activities.

Already in over $4 million, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco had the decent idea of razing it and building a new Delta Community College campus into it. But then the huckster Michael Olivier, then her secretary of Economic Development, sang the siren song that those of his ilk use to justify their enormous salaries on taxpayers’ backs, to use it as an incentive with generous state subsidies to lure a private concern there. Half a year later, Accent Marketing showed up and for part of its now 42-month presence employed more than its promised 400 jobs to qualify for as much as $3.2 million in state subsidies on rent. Henceforth it must pay market rates for rent and claims it will stay; for that loss of money, we’ll see how long that lasts and soon the state will have an empty hulk on its hands again.

LA needs to join effort to end birthright citizenship

Last year controversy erupted over Arizona’s refashioning of immigration laws that provided for more state assistance in enforcement. That matter is pending in the courts, even as Louisiana has a similar law that goes farther than Arizona’s in most respects and is much like existing federal law.

As this gets hashed out in courts that may last well into the 2012 election cycle, another issue is gaining prominence: proposing the end of birthright citizenship, or the interpretation that anybody born on U.S. soil not under the actual jurisdiction of another country is a U.S. citizen. Opponents of ending this interpretation argue this is divisive and makes children of illegal immigrants suffer consequences of their parents’ actions, while proponents of the change point out the current situation rewards lawbreaking, encourages illegal immigration, and violates the spirit of current immigration laws (through the creation of “anchor babies,” by birth American citizen children who then years later may use that to bring into the country an unlimited number of relatives who otherwise never would qualify for residency).

States cannot constitutionally write their own policies on defining citizenship. However, they can lobby the Members of Congress either to make legal changes and/or press for a constitutional amendment to do so. Louisiana should join the fray as changing the current interpretation would produce more policy options in how to deal with the problems of illegal immigration. For example, European states do not follow this policy but instead offer paths to citizenship for the children (and their parents) which could be part of a broader overhaul of current U.S. policy. That option remains unavailable under the current interpretation.

Exemption reform must not index but broaden base

With the single most vociferous advocate of raising Louisiana’s homestead exemption on property taxes retired and his legislator counterpart deferring future activism on the issue, the issue itself deserves another vetting.

Louisiana has the most generous exemption in the nation, on a primary residence of what turns out as the first $75,000 in value on property taxes except for municipalities except in Orleans Parish. Other exceptions exist such as disability and veteran status and may apply to any jurisdiction (such as established by Amendment 3 from the last election). Proponents of the high rate, including those who wish it to go higher, argue it helps those on fixed and/or limited incomes afford home ownership. Opponents of any higher rate, including those who would want it reduced, assert that this shifts the major part of the tax burden onto those owning more expensive homes, business and renters, city residents, and shortchanges jurisdictions other than municipalities (except in Orleans Parish).

This extant rate last changed in 1982, providing fuel to those who wish to raise it. This prompted the likes of former Jefferson Parish assessor Lawrence Chehardy and current state Sen. John Alario to consistently agitate for its increase in the past couple of decades. But its high level means, even with consumer inflation worked in from it latest compuation in Nov., 2010, that today’s equivalent has sunk only to $32,324, well above many states such as neighboring Texas with its $10,000 exemption.

Given that the most efficient form of taxation in terms of revenue collection comes in the form of the lowest aggregate rate spread over the largest pool of payers, state Rep. Kevin Pearson has suggested through legislation in the past two sessions the excellent idea that owners pay on the first $10,000 (meaning practically every homeowner) and then the exemption applies in the $10,000.01 to $85,000 range. Under this arrangement, even the most strapped owners would pay a pittance; as an example in a jurisdiction where the combined millage equals 100 this would be a bill of $100 for the year.

Advantageously, it would achieve the optimal by spreading the burden and increasing revenues by bringing more payers into the system. After implementation, it might also create slower increases in tax rates as a broader range of voters would be affected by these, thereby making them less likely to vote for them, and it would make governing authorities less likely to allow millage levels to remain the same as property values increase, as more constituents would be affected and might disapprove. As Pearson’s past efforts have been rebuffed, hopefully he’ll try again this session.

Another reform attempt, indexation, should not be implemented. Not only would it lock in the artificially high level in Louisiana, it would not address the ability of authorities to roll forward millages as noted above. That is, they may become more likely to vote to allow the millage to go higher, above the level where, applied to reassessed values, the same total collections would remain the same for those properties not transferred in ownership, as a way to beat indexing.

Finally, while the best theoretical idea would be to have no exemptions written into the law or Constitution and instead to allow assessors to make case-by-case exemptions on the basis of numerous factors like income, disability, age, veteran status, etc., that assessors are elected officials threatens too much to bring political considerations into play. Thus, Pearson’s idea without indexing has the best chance for enactment that is fair and improves efficiency.

As for the level of the exemption, its relatively high level warrants no increase for some time, perhaps decades. With ardor for its argumentation cooled, perhaps more attention will shift to Pearson’s better solution.