Rogue GOP senators aid nonsense insurance bill

In Democrat state Sen. Jay Luneau’s world, ideology is more important than people, to which his sponsorship of SB 81 attests. Why a pair of Republicans would sign onto that is anybody’s guess.

The bill would add the word “gender” to prohibited classification in the setting of vehicle insurance rates in Louisiana, as is the case in only seven others. It’s all that’s left from a string of demagogic bills Luneau kept proposing in past sessions that have tried to circumscribe rate-setting tools for insurers that, in every case, legitimately price risk, which deservedly bit the dust.

As is typical, the argument for this particular attenuation was intellectual mishmash. Luneau presented a single study as proof alleged discrimination occurred against women merely for gender, but then he and Senate Insurance Committee supporters also argued that nobody really knew what goes into pricing – a sentiment also shared by other on the committee against it. In regards to the fact brought out in testimony that most studies showed men nationally paid more and so this change likely would cause the same in Louisiana, Luneau replied that the (tepid) tort reform measures passed (over his objections) three years ago actually saw increases in rates in years following, implying this wouldn’t happen.

Bossier appointee gigged; police jurors next?

It looks as if it will have taken three years to get the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District to follow the law. In a similar situation, it will take at least over twice that time to get the Bossier Parish Police Jury to do the same.

This week, the Louisiana Supreme Court added another, and likely penultimate stop, to the saga involving CBB Executive Director Robert Berry, who problematically also serves as one of the five commissioners with power over the executive director. He was appointed by the Bossier Parish Police Jury with his five-year term expiring at the end of June.

It’s a long and convoluted story, but basically in 2020 Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry’s office got wind of Berry’s dual service and notified CBB that needed to change for it to stay legally compliant. That didn’t happen, but GOP 26^th District Atty. Schuyler Marvin did bring a suit to remove Berry. However, some suspicions arose that Marvin, as part of the Benton courthouse gang wanting to protect one of their own, did so in order to draw a ruling to absolve Berry, so Landry’s office intervened and filed a parallel motion.

Biden CAGW faith aiding LA GOP candidates

Just as the previous president of one party helped to keep as Louisiana governor someone of the other party, the current president of one party looks to be giving a leg up to someone of the other party winning the state’s governor’s race later this year.

Without someone like Republican former Pres. Donald Trump in office, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards never would have stood a chance to win reelection. Trump’s championing tax cuts through Congress and his easing of regulatory burdens put the nation’s economy into another gear from the historically-worst recovery under his predecessor Democrat Pres. Barack Obama. Despite Edwards doing the opposite and inflating the size of government, which resulted in a shrinking population, job loss, and rising proportion of able-bodied adults choosing not to work while almost every other state saw more people, more jobs, and higher personal income increases, he squeaked back into the Governor’s Mansion on the strength of Trump’s economy that blunted his policy mistakes.

Four years later, the same dynamic but in a different way has come into play. With inflation ravaging the savings and retirement nest eggs of Americans, triggered by the massive borrowing and hyper-spending of Democrat Pres. Joe Biden and (until this start of this year) a compliant Congress, Biden has ignored rectifying this and he and his administration continue to lob campaign slow softballs to Republicans seeking to succeed Edwards, in the form of executive actions that promise only to drive the cost-of-living even higher for no good reason.

Pull DEI out by roots to protect LA colleges

The Louisiana Legislature needs to take a broader approach than the Republican State Central Committee to ensure that sex, ethnic or national characteristics, or political or religious beliefs or affiliations stay out of decisions regarding its students and employees.

Earlier this month, the RSCC passed a resolution asking the legislature to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) departments and offices within all colleges and universities in the state, both public and private. It declares such expenditures of tax dollars at state schools promote a particular political orthodoxy in institutions that by definition are to serve as repositories of robust inquiry and implies that money is spent needlessly on that proselytizing.

This request overlaps to a small degree with HR 13 by Republican state Rep. Valarie Hodges. The resolution, which actually can’t compel as a law could, would have all state education institutions in the state, from elementary through high schools and colleges, submit reports on programs and activities related to DEI, critical race theory and social emotional learning. The reports would identify whether dedicated DEI infrastructures exist at higher education institutions.