Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely. This publishes five days weekly with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).
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9.5.17
Establishment politicians take hit in NW LA elections
Dissatisfaction at the ruling class was apparent.
How deep it ran was the surprise.
Last month, Caddo
Parish voters rejected all five ballot propositions presented to them after
high-profile campaigns for and against the four Caddo parish-wide property measures.
These that attempted to renew taxes at higher millage rates than at the initial
approval levels all narrowly lost.
Evidently the opponents’
arguments hit home. They noted that the increases came on top of reserves
that equaled about double the parish’s budget, a level approximately 20 times
higher than the typical local government’s. Further, the taxes would not expire
soon, but from 2019-22. They critiqued whether the parish needed more money
than ever, and why ask for it prematurely.
The results reflected voter anger at the Parish
Commission for the early, higher renewals given the reserve amount not so much
in turnout, which at around 8 percent didn’t tick much above historical norms,
but in the patterns of early voting. Just over a fifth cast ballot prior to
election day, and across all four roughly 70 percent voted for the taxes.
Parish employees and the courthouse gang who does much business and/or
interacts frequently with the parish historically disproportionately comprise
these individuals for such votes.
But of the remainder who participated on election
day, across the quartet 56 percent rejected these. The parish, which saw an
attempt in 2013 to renew a tax supporting a fund for discretionary capital
spending barely lose and then get crushed
in 2014, probably suspected something similar would happen and therefore
will make multiple attempts to force these back into reality, hence the
extremely early first try. Given the election calendar, the next possible
attempt could occur only late this year.
However, the big shock came in the huge defeat of
a combination of two existing sales tax levies affecting only voters outside of
Shreveport or Vivian. The pair total 1.5 percent to fund capital items,
petitioned in the vote to send these into perpetuity. That permanence likely
turned off voters, but given the nearly two-to-one drubbing the proposition
took, even a retry with a reasonable lifespan to it may not succeed.
It remains an open question whether commissioners
get it, after the public has shot down most of its measures in the past four
years, and will scale back the charges. That ought to work for the property
taxes, which generate money for continuing operations, but as the sales taxes
go to capital outlay, voters may prefer first tapping reserves. They also may
see that as an indirect way, by forcing the parish to use reserves for genuine
needs, to get it to stop blowing their bucks on things like financing
production of three-wheeled vehicles.
Across the river, the political establishment
suffered another setback with the large loss by Republican Robbie Gatti in the special
election for Louisiana House of Representatives District 8. The brother of GOP state
Sen. Ryan Gatti, Robbie Gatti had
local governing elites’ backing but carried
significant personal baggage into the contest, while conservative elites
and interest groups rallied behind the winner, Republican Raymond Crews. In
fact, Robbie Gatti received a smaller proportion of the vote than he did in the
general election.
Emerging as the larger question is whether the
results served as a repudiation of Ryan Gatti. His brother could not replicate
the strategy that elected him, a decrying tax increases and education reform
while pitching himself as a social conservative.
For the future, Ryan Gatti the blank slate no
longer exists, especially after producing a 2016 legislative record largely
mimicking the liberal tax-and-spend economic agenda of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards,
his friend from law school. According to the Louisiana Association of Business
and Industry’s voting scorecard, Gatti
not only favored big spending and higher taxes more than any Republican from
the area, he did so more often
than any Republican in the entire Legislature and more often than any area
senator, including the two Democrats. Statewide, only nine Democrats supported big
government more than did Gatti.
That disappointing record to the coalition that
elected Crews, having flexed its muscles in this instance, in 2019 has every
incentive to reassemble in backing a replacement for Gatti and in working
against his reelection. Unless Gatti transforms into a genuine conservative in
the next couple of years, the tally from his brother’s attempt for office
signals he will not succeed in winning again.
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