Last
week, the four contenders for the most insignificant statewide office met at a
forum to answer a variety of questions. At it, we learned that in order to
combat crime against tourists that Jefferson Parish President John
Young wanted an anti-crime unit placed in New Orleans’ Vieux Carré, that Baton
Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden
suggested stationing plainclothes policemen there, and that state Sen. Elbert Guillory desired more police
presence there. Former Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser went a step further
by leaving out the executive branch entirely and instead blamed judges for
going too easy on too many criminals.
Yes,
the lieutenant governor oversees the Department
of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, and the current occupant, in a
cost-saving move, even dispensed with appointing a commissioner to run the
thing and does so himself. But he has no power over crime enforcement, much
less the judiciary.
Young,
a Republican, said he would keep that up. The other two Republicans Guillory
and Nungesser and Democrat Holden weren’t sure. At least that had something to
do with the job, where its budget has fallen from the fiscal year 2012 Macondo
oil spill peak funding of $90 million
to its present budgeted $78.5 million.
Other things they mentioned did not.Guillory
offered his interest in education, saying he’d use the position as a “bully
pulpit” to promote that. He
also mentioned that the state has too many baccalaureate-and-above
institutions of higher learning. While
that’s indisputable, these matters have nothing to do with job.
Holden
and Young said they wanted to insert themselves into economic development
efforts, which at least has a tenuous connection to their duties as it could be
that promoting culture, recreation, and tourism can stimulate the economy. Of
course, it must be done in a cost-effective fashion, with neither of this pair
nor the other indicating they would support something like that given their
comments about the state’s notorious Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit.
This
past session, the Legislature and Gov. Bobby
Jindal finally made a small
amount of progress in reining in perhaps the most wasteful program in the
state. Costing taxpayers over four bucks for every one it brings in, the change
instituted a cap of $180 million annually spent to induce movies being made
in the state for the next three years, in contrast to the estimated $250
million that may go out the door for films when finishing the accounting for last
fiscal year. Still, given its high level and that the cap disappears beginning
FY 2019, the savings will be minor and administrative rule-making will make the
law close to inconsequential. Yet all four candidates expressed a desire essentially
to neuter the little progress made to date by jacking up the cap.
As
for the real issue, efficiency in running departmental affairs, no discussion
of any significance took place. Where were propositions on continuing to make
the State Library more efficient, or privatizing
more operations regarding state parks, or rooting
out inefficiencies through oversight? Unfortunately, voters rarely are
treated to debate over these kinds of controversies because, even if these all
do fall under the lieutenant governor’s purview, at the same time they don’t
grab voters’ limited attention. What do are broad proclamations about
hot-button issues over which the office has no control and therefore that’s
what we get
So
that’s the poverty of discourse the electorate typically endures from
candidates for this office. And from what little relevant chatter we’ve gotten
from them to date, none have related anything to earn anybody’s vote.
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