Time to put teeth in car leasing ethics law

It seems a Shreveport television station has stumbled upon a well-known loophole in Louisiana’s campaign finance law. It’s a reminder that legislation needs to fix this.

Trawling through campaign finance reports of state legislators, a reporter discovered that four legislators use campaign finance funds to lease vehicles. One, House Speaker Taylor Barras, presents something of a surprise given his above-the-board reputation, but perhaps no other legislator has a greater claim on doing something like this given the duties of the speaker that require much far-flung automobile travel.

The other three should come as no surprise. Senate Pres. John Alario has a long history of playing fast and loose with this law. Despite his running an accounting firm and having sat in the Legislature almost a half-century and seeing every meaningful campaign finance law enacted in that period, Alario’s campaign has been plagued by at best shoddy, at worst illegal reporting of contributions and expenditures. In fact, his campaign finance habits have drawn Federal Bureau of Investigation scrutiny, although for reasons unknown that seems to have stalled.

Edwards to adopt 3 Wise Monkeys posture

Should Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards join some of his party’s counterparts in worrying about the far left policies trumpeted by its presidential candidates? Not if he adopts the Three Wise Monkeys posture.

Some Democrats in their state’s highest office do worry about how the extremist preferences on a multitude of issues including health care, immigration, abortion, and restructuring the American economy will reflect upon their own fates. Recently, New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, Rhode Island’s Gina Raimondo, and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer all voiced concern that campaigning for the party’s 2020 nomination, in the words of Grisham, “scares people.”

Raimondo is way underwater with the latest poll putting her at 38 percent approval. Grisham may join her, as at 44 percent that approval barely outdistances disapproval of her. Whitman has a bit more peace of mind, for while at 44 percent approval as well her disapproval is ten points lower. For his part, Edwards enjoys 47 percent approval compared to 34 percent disapproval – numbers indicating not a shoe-in for reelection, but with a decent chance. While almost no one who disapproves of a governor’s performance will vote for him, some who express approval will defect to challengers who they see as potentially better.

NW LA taxpayers set to lose more

One northwest Louisiana entertainment institution faces another threat to its continued existence despite taxpayer assistance. Another seems poised to magnify its drain on taxpayers unless wiser heads prevail.

The summer hasn’t been kind to Shreveport’s Independence Bowl or Bossier City’s (for now called) CenturyLink Center. In June, the former received news that the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conferences would drop their affiliations with it starting after this year. In July, the latter found out that its arena’s eponymous corporation would cancel the deal for naming rights next year (which means, if past practice applies, the city will have to change the name of the street it’s on.)

The SEC tie-in was crucial to the game’s health, now the eleventh longest-running such postseason matchup. The closer a participating school’s fan base, the better ticket sales will be. The ACC’s closest campus was farther away that he majority of SEC schools, but at least it fulfilled its quota every year for the past several which the SEC couldn’t always do.

Blueprint LA 3.0, or doomed to failure?

Blueprint Louisiana 3.0? Or back on the ash heap?

Last week, three interest groups that focus on state government policy – the Committee for a Better Louisiana, the Committee of One Hundred, and the Public Affairs Research Council – introduced an initiative called Reset Louisiana. This agenda addresses four general areas – criminal justice/public safety, education, state finances, and transportation/infrastructure – concluding with recommendations for state policy-makers to follow when they enter or return to office next year after this fall’s elections.

In a way, this echoes the effort of the now largely moribund group Blueprint Louisiana. In 2007 it concocted a cocktail of policy preferences that it asked state office candidates to endorse. As always, candidates want their candidacies to live or die on their own issues, so few prominent and/or ultimately successful candidates did so, and not much of what the agenda advocated came up for policy-maker discussion, much less was adopted.

Desperation heaves won't cut judicial mustard

So, how many failed desperation heaves will it take for some those who see racism everywhere to get the message that it isn’t?

Not as many as have happened to date in Louisiana concerning its judicial system. The latest court case involves a challenge filed this week to the way the state drew Supreme Court districts. A national interest group hooked up with the state’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter in alleging that the seven districts containing just one majority-minority district exists in a state with a third of its voters non-white is unconstitutional.

The state very likely wins this case on the basis of the very latest jurisprudence concerning drawing district boundaries. A state may use partisanship as a criteria for drawing these, as long as the districts produced remain reasonably compact and contiguous, so that party may not become a proxy for race. Partisan questions like that remain beyond the reach of the judiciary, and Louisiana’s districts appear reasonably compact and are contiguous. As judicial oversight of the state’s districts – in this case congressional – in the past has shown, just because much of Louisiana’s black population doesn’t congregate geographically doesn’t mean you must constitutionally draw districts using districts of low compactness and barely contiguous to account for that.

Trump preparing to fix Edwards' mistakes

Looks as if Republican Pres. Donald Trump will perform a double rescue of Louisianans trying to overcome the folly of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards.

This week, the Trump Administration proposed rules that would bring greater integrity to enforcement of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It would disallow automatic enrollment into SNAP, known colloquially as food stamps, if the applicant already receives assistance through the myriad of programs attached to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Instead, applicants would have to meet minimal, verifiable standards: ongoing and substantial benefits and inlcuding only non-cash TANF benefits to use in conferring automatic eligibility that focus on subsidized employment, work supports and childcare.

Automatic acceptance has become a problem. In some states, qualifying TANF benefits may be as minimal as simply providing a household with an informational brochure describing social services or access to hotline numbers. As a result, eligibility checks might occur as infrequently as every two years. These nominal benefits are often given without conducting a robust eligibility determination. Instead, automatic conferral now will come if a household receives TANF-funded cash or non-cash benefits valued at a minimum of $50 per month for at least 6 months.

Edwards' policies make U.S. vulnerable

As America’s allies, both eastern and western, find themselves dealing with Iranian intransigence that threatens their stability, Americans can thank the policies of Republican Pres. Donald Trump that they avoid this – while Louisianans can feel grateful that their Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards and his fellow travelers have had limited impact in propagating policies that would have made America more vulnerable.

Last week, Iran began detaining tankers travelling the Straits of Hormuz. Over a fifth of the world’s oil output makes its way along this narrow path adjacent to Iran, which currently endures crippling sanctions imposed by the U.S. over its nuclearization policies. Trump spearheaded this when he revoked an agreement that put the U.S. at a disadvantage in halting this nuclearization pledged by Democrat former Pres. Barack Obama (whom Edwards supported as a delegate at the party’s national convention).

In protest, Iran has seized these ships of other western and local countries, which depend upon oil importation and exportation to make their economies run. Not long ago, that oil could have been bound for the U.S., which at one time imported large quantities of oil.

Jindal's economy beats Edwards', redux

Welcome to the party popping the overinflated balloon that is the campaign narrative of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Last week, appearing here was a comparative analysis of Louisiana’s economic performance from July of 2008 to May of this year, neatly segmented into three periods. The first essentially occurred during the first term of Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal, which featured early tax relief and throughout a significant reduction of government spending of dollars from state revenue sources. The second, roughly analogous to Jindal’s second term, saw tax increases late in it and incrementally higher spending during it. The third comports basically to Edwards’ time in office, marked by substantial tax increases and significantly higher spending.

Using data showing the state’s absolute performance and ranking among the states in each period, the first Jindal term produced much better economic performance than his second, which in turn did little better than Edwards’ reign. In short, Jindal’s initial policies, the exact opposite of Edwards’, demonstrably made Louisianans better off than they have been under Edwards’ watch.

NW LA govts must avoid developer handouts

It’s a good sales pitch. But it’s doomed to failure unless it undergoes a necessary alteration.

Last week, Shreveport Democrat Mayor Adrian Perkins issued a public plea for the City Council first, then voters to approve a $220 million package of bond proceeds pledged to go to a couple of dozen projects. Funding for this would come from renewal of a pair of expiring property taxes from 1996 and 1999 totaling 6.2 mills (rolled back).

The list, compiled by a citizens committee cobbled together by Perkins, as he pointed out has a number of worthy projects. Some address essential needs, such as aging public safety and water and sewerage infrastructure. Others don’t seem that necessary but merit serious consideration by voters, such as constructing conduits for broadband transmission that could invite future provider competition that encourage innovation and better pricing for customers.

Edwards, left show their intellectual dishonesty

You know Louisiana’s political left hasn’t emerged from intellectual bankruptcy by reading its vacuous reaction to Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s social media comments and those added by some of its Congressional delegation.

Trump certainly provoked a reaction when days ago through social media he advised “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” who came from dysfunctional developing countries to return and solve those places’ woes that then would give them the moral credibility to make policy choices for the U.S. He guessed that Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had drawn criticism from four females of her party who express radical leftist policies – Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ihan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib – gladly would pay the airfare for such individuals.

Probably not, but Louisiana’s GOP Rep. Ralph Abraham, who is running for governor against incumbent Democrat John Bel Edwards, seemed amenable to the notion. On social media, like Trump not mentioning any particular names, he broadened the idea by observing “There’s no question that the members of Congress that @realDonaldTrump called out have absolutely said anti-American and anti-Semitic things. I’ll pay for their tickets out of this country if they just tell me where they’d rather be.”

Data show Jindal's economy beats Edwards'

If Louisiana’s Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards has any hope of winning reelection, he’ll need a lazy and incurious mainstream media to parrot his misleading campaign theme.

That theme, as disgorged through campaign advertising, tries to resonate on two related points: (1) Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal wreaked havoc on the state economically and (2) Edwards saved Louisiana from that, So, (3) keep him in office because otherwise the likes of the GOP’s Rep. Ralph Abraham or Eddie Rispone will be the second coming of Jindal.

How much either challenger would repeat local, stock, and barrel Jindal’s agenda is questionable, but undoubtedly they would advocate for different policies than Edwards. In particular, they look askance at tax increases that have fueled policies leading to a massive expansion in state government spending.

Reform, politics shape LA education progress

The initial round of Louisiana’s LEAP test score revelation for last academic year demonstrates the limits of educational reform and political will.

As a whole, the state’s students improved marginally. More substantial improvement, however, came at historically low-performing schools provided with more autonomy, resources, and demanding expectations, known as Transformation Zone schools. Each implemented a Tier 1 curriculum, recognized by the state as best aligned with and able to achieve state-mandated learning objectives. These also received additional funding from their districts (often grant money) and faced fewer constraints in administration, with many being charter schools.

By contrast, the original cockpit of state educational reform, Orleans Parish, suffered a small decline in scores on the standardized exam. This meant that over the past four years essentially no progress occurred in a district that, in that time span, went from having a majority of schools chartered and outside the Orleans Parish School District to having all schools become charters and under OPSD jurisdiction.

Shreveport follies threaten bonding ability

While Tropical Storm Barry may have whimpered its way through Shreveport, a political storm has brewed there that threatens to take down the city’s bonding capacity.

Last month, news leaked that the city delayed production of its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report required by the state annually on Jun. 30. Discrepancies in the city-run pension plan for public safety employees as well as questions over whether the city was making its payroll tax payments appear to have prompted the request.

The payroll problems predated the Democrat Mayor Adrian Perkins Administration, but it has not confirmed that the problems didn’t continue into 2019. Regardless, this piqued the interest of the three Republican members of the city council – Grayson Boucher, James Flurry, and John Nickelson – plus Democrat LeVette Fuller into having the body vote the city into launching an investigation of the matter.

N.O. Luddites put ideology over people

You have to admire ruefully the Luddites in New Orleans for their ideological fervor: they’d rather be right than save themselves and the people they allege to represent in the neighborhood of $100 million.

They’ve had their panties in a wad ever since the City Council reaffirmed a decision to have Entergy New Orleans construct a gas “peaker” plant for use in times of stress on power provision and emergencies (such as a tropical storm slamming the area) for a city with no capacity to generate its own power. They argued for all sorts of alternatives to this relatively clean power, but none are practical or cost effective, or both.

Nonetheless, the faith in their case is such that they pursued multiple legal avenues to overturn the decision. With Louisiana’s weak tradition of rule by law – its political culture too tolerant of men on horseback who bend rules and norms to achieve their desired outcomes – they felt they could hit on an activist judge willing to read into the law their agenda.

Shreveport must scrap liquor law favoritism

If Louisiana ranks as the state with the most barriers to entry in business, Shreveport may be the state’s major city most restrictive in that category.

As recently demonstrated in a suit concerning useless requirements for braiding hair, the state has the most onerous occupational licensing regime among all. And local governments can pile on additional strictures that can be at least as needless.

That has come to the forefront as an issue concerning sales of unprepared food and high-content alcohol in Shreveport. A new business called Corks & Cuts located in the extreme southern portion of the city – an area recently annexed because of the high-end retail and commercial residences springing up there – wishes to sell spirits and steak cuts. But Ordinance 10-84 prohibits such sales unless a wall of at least 6 feet separates the area with alcohol from that where other goods are sold, and that separate entrances exist for each area. The owners complain that this would require renting the next-door retail space and make $60,000 in modifications.

More reason not to hike LA minimum wage

Need another good reason to understand the utter folly of attempts to make Louisiana raise its minimum wage? Just observe those touchscreen checkouts when you walk into a store selling groceries.

By now, informed individuals know full well how the minimum wage costs jobs and how, because almost no sole breadwinners of families work full-time at the minimum wage and even fewer of them are younger than 25, the modal category of such workers are young, recent job force entrants who have no dependents and live in a household with others who are employed (particularly when removing the 70 percent who technically earn below it but more than make up for that in tips). Single parents with older children working full-time at minimum wage are hardly more common than unicorns.

The minimum wage by nature serves as a job training tool, to acclimate new workers to certain desirable traits such as punctuality and dependability, while imparting certain skills and motivating individuals to work better so as to deserve a raise – remember that wages vary directly with productivity – or to move into a job that pays more. In fact, its artificiality in setting a floor on pay induces economic inefficiency by overpaying for the actual productive value of the work, denying a more efficient use of that capital.

Schroder sequester bedevils ironic Edwards

Irony stares Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards right in the face as Republican Treasurer John Schroder hoists him on his own petard.

Last week, Schroder announced that he would not authorize a move of $25 million from the unclaimed property account to the general fund as budgeted. The fund keeps monies owed to the public by state government, which in its balance floats between $850 million and $900 million. Around $88 million comes in every year, and until this year creditor entities typically claimed only around $30 million annually.

However, the balance doesn’t go higher because the Legislature siphons off tens of millions annually. R.S. 9:165.1 allows $15 million yearly to go towards completion of Interstate 49, but the rest goes into the general fund. Further, in the past year repayment efforts have improved considerably, meaning in the future the gap between retained and claimed will shrink and leave fewer dollars theoretically available for immediate use. In fact, the gap’s magnitude shrunk so much that Schroder reported difficulty in paying off successful claims in a timely fashion.

Arrests often arrest NW LA political ambition

History would suggest that Shreveport City Councilor Levette Fuller just put a cap on a  promising political career.

The first-term Democrat was arrested last week on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and texting while driving. Specifically, police found her vehicle stopped in the middle of the road in the wee hours of the morning, where she informed them that while texting she may have hit another car and had drank two to three glasses of wine. A later social media post on a site advertising itself as connected to her Council position seemed to come off as an admission and apology.

Although on the Council just a few months, Fuller already had made an impression that suggested she might aspire to higher office. She won in her district that has a small black majority and in her short period in office developed a reputation for fiscal restraint, opposing intrusive regulation and laws, and promoting transparency, bucking controversial decisions made by another black Democrat elected rookie, Mayor Adrian Perkins.

Edwards displays vindictiveness again

Legislators ideologically opposed to Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards, if this turns out to be his last round of line-item vetoes, won’t miss his vindictiveness.

That trait he put on clear display with decisions concerning HB 2, Louisiana’s capital outlay budget. Often, governors will use this power as a weapon to punish legislators who champion measures not only contrary to his worldview about politics, but also which have the potential to make him look bad.

Edwards used the power sparsely in this election year, excising only six items out of over $4 billion worth (although a distinct portion represents only a pledge, not the actual disbursement of cash or intention to issue bonds). But each sent a message.

Independence Day, 2019

This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday around noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Thursday, Jul. 4 being Independence Day, I invite you to explore the links connected to this page.

Bad sampling boosts Edwards poll support

It’s a relatively bad sample.

That explains why results from a mid-April poll by Market Research Insight, directed by Verne Kennedy, varied significantly from a late April survey conducted by JMC Analytics’ John Couvillion. The former, among other things, called the reelection without a runoff by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards likely, while the latter concluded Edwards would be unlikely to avoid a runoff with one of two major Republican candidates.

Since other earlier polling generally had backed the JMC interpretation, observers questioned the MRI conclusion. That poll continued a series stretching back years, commissioned by business and political elites of whom now one is the owner of the Baton Rouge Advocate, John Georges, where the results appeared.

Worried Edwards campaign aims to distract

Its recent media activity shows the Louisiana Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards reelection campaign is very worried.

Edwards has a lot of headwinds in his quest to stay in office past the end of this year, with polling for the most part reflecting his waning chance at returning to office. A record of one of the worst, if not the worst, performing state economies in the country during his term, caused by sales tax increases he continues to champion and state-sourced spending that grew around twice the rate of inflation triggered by this will hobble any chance he has at another four years.

Faced with that lackluster record to defend, the Edwards campaign has responded with a time-honored strategy: distract from that by making personal attacks on the opposition. And, in this case, not very compelling ones.

Tone deaf eulogy explains T-P demise

And this is why she no longer works in the print journalism industry.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune ceased to exist independently last weekend, which a few of its departing employees acknowledged in print. The blood bath was more than I predicted, with only a handful of staffers picked up by new the parent the Baton Rouge Advocate.

One, who moved on to a radio gig in St. Louis, was former state legislative reporter Julia O’Donoghue. She wrote a piece revealing how she had loved her job, along with a couple of comments about politics and the press. (See how history disappears so quickly – it’s now available only in cached form.)