Landry plan roars in, now facing strangulation

While Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s fiscal reform agenda may have come in roaring like a lion, as the Louisiana Legislature’s special session to vet it comes around the backstretch it may not be going out with whimper, but more like emitting the sounds of strangulation.

Special interests – not a new story when it comes to the history of dealing with the state’s convoluted fiscal structure that instills higher income and sales tax rates than necessary then tries to offset these with far too many carveouts exempting discrete industries who win lobbying battles – have done their best to pervert Landry’s plan of broadening tax bases in exchange for extending sales taxes to activities commonly subject to it in other states and eliminating income tax breaks. Enough Republican legislators have responded to these blandishments to deny the narrow two-thirds majorities each chamber would need to pass changes that reduce tax breaks or increase rates, while almost all Democrats have opposed them from the start since the reforms increase overall sales tax collection at the expense of income tax collections, and as income tax receipts grow faster than sales tax receipts the change would put a natural brake on the growth of government that arouses Democrats.

Snapping at the heels of legislators caused deletion of many activities that would have become taxable at sale, even as that bill continues hung up in the House. The Senate also ratcheted back severely some income tax exceptions that also detracted from revenue. In essence, that caused three major changes to the plan to make up for this, one of these indifferent in impact but the others not so good.

Career-threatening problems mount for Arceneaux

Over the past couple of months, Shreveport Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux’s margin for reelection error has become quite a bit smaller.

Arceneaux attained office in the majority black, plurality Democrat city almost two years ago largely because he emanated an air of competence after the previous amateurish and detached rule of his predecessor Democrat Adrian Perkins and because he maneuvered his candidacy into a runoff with Democrat former state Sen. Greg Tarver who brought a controversial past and baggage of old political rivalries within the black community to a contest he would lose. With several black Democrats building power bases for 2026 that could challenge Arceneaux successfully, in order to win reelection he would have to govern well with as little drama as possible.

Not unexpectedly, when opportunity arises Democrat councilors oppose Arceneaux. Saddled with a consent decree on water and sewerage that forced higher property taxes in bond sales and higher rates (incrementally increasing over several years), Democrat councilors dragged their feet on the rate hikes and decried it all until (inevitable, given the decree) their approval, using that as a way to cast blame on Arceneaux and deflect it from themselves for the hikes.

More conflict ahead in Monroe govt, over DBE

Looks like heads needlessly will butt again in the future between Monroe independent Mayor Friday Ellis and rookie members of the Monroe City Council, this time over what proportion of contracts should go to disadvantaged business enterprises.

A DBE is a firm owned in the majority by individuals with a presumptive characteristic such as race or sex or any individual found to be socially and economically disadvantaged on a case-by-case basis. Federal law dictates for projects of a certain size eligible for federal funds in transportation they must set an approved goal, and Louisiana requires this as well for state money going to a local project.

New councilors Democrats Rodney McFarland and Verbon Muhammad at the start of their terms complained about DBE goals for work at Monroe Regional Airport. Using the standard methodology, that was computed at 8.31 percent, but they wanted it much higher. As the contract had been let, that could not be changed. This amount was higher than the aspirational goal set in Louisiana for aviation projects of 5.5 percent.

GOP's best plan at risk by greasing squeaky wheels

The same dynamic that sunk Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s fiscal reforms of nearly a dozen years ago now threatens GOP Gov. Jeff Landry’s related measure.

In 2013, Jindal proposed sweeping but basically revenue neutral changes to the state’s fiscal structure that eliminated income taxes, increased business sales taxes, added services to taxation, got rid of some exemptions connected to mineral resources, and increasing the cigarette tax. In 2024, Landry has proposed an essentially revenue neutral plan that creates a low flat income tax with an increased filer deduction that eliminates income taxation for lower-income individuals, increases sales taxes, adds services to taxation, gets rid of some exemptions, and makes permanent a business utilities tax.

Jindal’s plan, which also included some attempt to rebate higher sales taxes passed through to individuals, foundered because it was complex in its attempt to make sure as few people’s taxes increased overall as possible. Only a bit less intensely does Landry’s plan try to do the same thing, and like Jindal’s has run into opposition from those most likely to suffer financially from the changes.

Education reform bonus for LA with Trump win

Republican former and Pres.-elect Donald Trump’s stated intentions concerning the federal government’s role in education, if at least partially pursued, would give a huge shot in the arm to Louisiana’s education reform efforts.

In recent decades, Louisiana hasn’t provided much in the way of policy leadership among the states, with the notable exception of education. First under GOP former Gov. Mike Foster, then under one of his implementers (at the level of higher education) then eventual successor Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal, the state was at the forefront of expanding educational accountability and choice, acting as a pioneer with such things as charter schools, state intervention with failing schools, evaluations of schools and teachers, beefing up curricula, and increasing student expectations. Even as the momentum slowed considerably under Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards, who backed the government monopoly model of education with as little accountability as possible, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education narrow majorities typically counter to that and leadership especially from former Superintendent of Education John White and current Superintendent Cade Brumley kept reversal away and growth occurring at the margins. This culminated in recent years with the state escaping the bottom of state rankings in pre-K12 education to its reaching its highest placement ever this year – largely because while Louisiana children held the line in achievement during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic era, other states’ learners fell back.

And in this year’s legislative session, despite a small reverse at the margins, lawmakers returned to bolder reforms by creating a mild version of education savings accounts. It would provide, in stages, creation of these vehicles that give families control over state dollars designed to educate their children, starting with lower-income households. However, program operation and expansion are dependent upon separate appropriations in a budget environment in the near term that looks very uncertain whether the money would become available.

Landry shows skill with reforms easily advancing

So far, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has shown he has what it takes to advance historic and needed fiscal reform for Louisiana government, perhaps even if here and there pops up a disgruntled Republican over it.

A basket of bills Landry championed to remake the state’s fiscal structure has met with almost no resistance during an ongoing special session largely called to deal with the issue. His plan reduces income taxes but retains almost all of a temporary sales tax hike and expanding significantly the number of services subject to this tax while excising credits and exemptions from both, rejiggers state funding mechanisms to lower unfunded accrued liabilities of teacher pension plans and converts that into pay raises for them, forces local governments to accept the few sales tax exemptions left but lets them tax the new added services and optionally allows them to exit collecting subsidization from the state for the inventory tax credit by making them a large one-time payment, and moves certain items out of the Constitution to statute.

Everything made it out of House committees almost unchanged, and several have passed the chamber and head to the Senate. To date, GOP unanimity on these items has been nearly complete, with only Republican state Rep. Joe Stagni against measures as often than not, and on only one, extending the sales tax to some digital purposes, joined by any other Republican. Even bills which featured perhaps the heaviest lift of the session, eliminating the Motion Picture Production tax credit, passed easily.

BC graybeards seek votes via imprudent budget

Fearful that the public has caught on to their misrule of the past quarter-century, the longest in the tooth of the Bossier City Council graybeards now seek to complete the destruction as a method to save their political careers and legacies.

Last week, the Council took up the 2025 budget. In its introduced form, it would have given pay raises adhering to a compensation study recently completed for the city, meaning equity raises for some city employees, parity pay raises for police, and one-time bonuses for fire personnel up to a minimum of a five percent increase. But this plan would require taking back holding the line on property taxes decided this year by instead increasing rates back to pre-assessment levels that would hike property taxes paid by just about every land owner in the city as well as blow a $2 million deficit hole from greater spending tied to the city’s general fund.

Bossier City currently doesn’t have the means to give out pay raises, which the study confirmed was needed in a number of cases to keep up with peer cities, without raising taxes and engaging in deficit spending because of the enormous amount of debt it carries. At the end of 2023, the city had $392 million in debt, but adding in interest means (minus premiums and deferrals) actually the city is on the hook for $514 million. In the past quarter-century, approximately $200 million was spent on low-priority items that tended to benefit private interests: a money-losing arena, a high-tech office building (with the parish and state), a parking garage for a developer, and, most recently, a road mostly to nowhere that hardly diminishes traffic or travel times, which features a statue that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars on which is emblazoned the names of the Bossier City establishment over the decades – including graybeards Republican councilors David Montgomery and Jeff Free, Democrat Bubba Williams, and independent Jeff Darby.

Veterans Day, 2024

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 Sunday through Thursday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Easter, 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 Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Monday, Nov. 11 being Veterans' Day, I invite you to explore the links connected to this page.

Session also to vet important judicial bills

Although fiscal reform is getting all of the attention in Louisiana’s third special session of the year, a couple of very consequential bills dealing with legislative and judicial behavior also have received vetting.

One deals with the topic of legislative continuances, or the ability of legislators and legislature employees to delay trials when they are parties to a case. Until recently, state law essentially allowed these individuals (or their opponents to finesse against them) with impunity to delay cases in the most extreme cases for years. Perhaps the most notorious involves Democrat state Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews who had received $40,000 from the family of an accused murderer for his defense, but who has used a series of continuances to keep him from coming to trial while he awaits, jailed for five years.

But last month the Supreme Court decided a case involving another defendant frustrated that his day in court has been delayed years, involving Republican state Sen. Alan Seabaugh and most recently GOP state Rep. Michael Melerine (who has been part of the case but only became a legislator this year). It its ruling it struck down the law as intruding upon the separation of powers, in that the Legislature interfered with the judiciary’s basic constitutional operations.

GOP retaining House majority gets Landry off hook

As Republican Gov. Jeff Landry tries to shepherd home far-reaching reforms in Louisiana’s fiscal structure that would enhance his political stature, it looks as if he avoided a major hit to that with his party retaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

While the solid victory of GOP former Pres. Donald Trump will return him to office next Jan. 20 and appeared to aid in a pickup of four U.S. Senate seats, it’s looking largely stasis for the House. With about a dozen races still not definitively decided at this writing but several leaning the party’s way, it seems the House will remain in Republican hands and, in fact, projected to have the same number of seats, 220.

That, of course, is good news for the state’s Republican majority delegation, but really good news for GOP Reps. Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise. Johnson serves as the speaker and Scalise the majority leader, the top two positions in the chamber. The unprecedented tenure of the pair coming from the same state in those positions can continue only if Republicans retain control of the House.

Shreveport pollster goes big, goes home big

If you think Democrats with Vice Pres. Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket just suffered a disastrous showing, wait until you hear about the launch of the Shreveport-based polling firm that went all in and then some predicting the opposite for her campaign.

Vantage Data House operates on a subscription-based model. Rather than a one-shot picture in time of a particular race or a few, subscribers have access to an entire database and can pick from many contests nationally. It claims a proprietary method that relies upon information about a respondent’s residence, party registration, race, age, and gender. The firm appears to have been running in background for perhaps a year or more, apparently gathering a national panel of voters up to 40,000 a state through the web. It claims it called correctly 29 of 30 Louisiana contests last year in a test run, and so recently rolled out the entire operation focusing on national contests this year.

It announced itself about 10 days prior to the election with a lengthy web document predicting not only that Harris would defeat Republican former Pres. Donald Trump in the so-called “swing states” minus Wisconsin plus Florida, but that nationally it would be a “blowout” in her favor. It went to length justifying its conclusions, along the way stating “Many [independent polls] prefer to be wrong with the crowd rather than risk standing as outliers, so they adjust their numbers and reinforce the faulty averages,” “Republicans are in serious trouble, though few are willing to acknowledge it,” and “A significant widening of the gender gap and Harris’ growing support among independents … is propelling her toward a potential 300+ electoral college victory.”

Except EBR, LA wraps up unexciting elections

Louisiana’s unexciting 2024 election season ended mostly with a wimper, discouraging political consultants and media outlets that endured races with little competition and controversy that stimulated less spending for their services and an early end to almost all further opportunities.

That’s because any national or state race of consequence ended this election day with little suspense. With the Supreme Court contest already decided through litigation, Republican state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan rolled over the competition to secure the Public Service Commission District 2 post (and a good thing he won’t take office until next year, as GOP Gov. Jeff Landry can use every vote from the political right in the Legislature to help his fiscal reform package into being during the special session beginning this week). That reinforces the PSC’s Republican majority of 3-2.

This was the biennial interval without a Senate race, and all congressional incumbents won back their seats handily. In the one race not featuring any the only question was whether black Democrat state Sen. Cleo Fields would win outright without a runoff in a majority-minority district built for him (for now) when he headed the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. He did – barely over black Republican former state Sen. Elbert Guillory.

LA case set to redefine reapportionment law

Louisiana will find itself at the epicenter of reapportionment jurisprudence, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled this week.

The Court essentially scheduled hearing Robinson v. Callais, consolidating two cases. Two years the Court decided a case, the Milligan decision, that elevated race as a primary consideration over others in reapportionment, relying on past interpretations that didn’t explicitly do so. That framework was used in the Louisiana Robinson case to justify enjoining, without a full trial, reapportionment of congressional districts that didn’t include two majority-minority districts of the state’s six on the basis that black population proportion roughly be reflected in district demographics.

The state responded by drawing a new map, but creating a congressional district that made race the obviously dominant criterion, in violation of the law and past Court decisions. A special three-judge panel ruled as such in the Callais case. The new combined case, where the Robinson plaintiffs and the state, which claims all it wants is clarity in how to proceed, have sued the Callais defendants, allows the Court to evaluate the decision throwing out the two M/M map.

Left tries to reverse LA retreat surreptitiously

As Louisiana’s political left fights to halt a retreat that has accelerated over the past year with the election of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and the most conservative Legislature ever, its tactics have begun to rely more heavily on subterfuge and “useful idiots.”

Although thought to have originated from Soviet strongman Vladimir Lenin to describe non-communist sympathizers to communism, the term seems to have come from Western European communists referring to other leftist political parties. It has evolved these days into a term more closely associated with economist Ludwig von Mises’ “useful innocents,” or people generally unaware or uncaring of the implications of a radical political agenda but who agree with its propagation for their own reasons unrelated to the underlying ideology.

Where the left understands it cannot control majoritarian political institutions or public opinion, it seeks out indirect ways, using nondemocratic agents if necessary, to try to advance its policy agenda. Some recent examples in Louisiana demonstrate the left’s willingness to find more ways to skin a cat to force its unloved agenda into policy.

Bossier schools myths prevent real tax cuts

A little more in desperation mode, the Bossier Parish School Board followed the Bossier Police Jury’s formula regarding property tax rates, relying upon an old mythology undoubtedly implicitly adhered to by all if not eagerly propagated by at least one board member willing to display his ignorance in public.

This week, the Board met in special session to establish rates on five millages for 2024. It had been levying 65.10 mills, behind only Zachary Community, Grant Parish, and Caddo Parish schools (2022-23 data). This meeting had been postponed from last month, when the Board seemed poised to roll forward rates. Every quadrennial reassessment levied rates automatically roll back to a point where those times total value of all properties not improved and under the same ownership equals that value from four years ago times previous rates; to roll forward and go above the rolled-back rates requires a two-thirds or better votes by the taxing entity.

Bossier Parish had sent the same signal, only to back down by raising four of their five but reducing its library rate more than the total rolled forward, in essence lowering overall rates. The Board played follow-the-leader and did something similar. Of its five, only four were subject to rollback, as the debt service one at 14.50 mills is exempt, and of those four the 10.31 mills salary and benefits and 10.31 mills operations and maintenance were ineligible to roll forward because they were just recently renewed, leaving just the constitutionally-set millage of 3.41 mills (due to roll back to 3.07) and the other 26.57 mills salary and benefits (due to roll back to 23.92) available to roll forward.

Big GOP early vote gains may flip EBR leader

The uptick in early voting by Republicans nationally matters even in Louisiana, where Republican former Pres. Donald Trump should win handily.

Reflecting the trend nationally, more Republicans voted in Louisiana during the early voting period (plus absentee ballots received through its end) with overall turnout number a bit down from 2020, where voting outside of election day was encouraged in light of the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, over 986,000 registrants had voted a week prior to the election, of which almost 436,000 were Democrats and almost 368,000 were Republicans, while this year turnout was off to over 961,000 or a drop of about 2.5 percent, of which almost 345,000 were Democrats and nearly 431,000 were Republicans.

The near-reversal in these figures might send some uncomfortable signals to Democrats. With early voting, it’s never known until after the fact whether it reflects fairly faithfully the proportions of the electorate that turn out on election day or if some kind of substitution effect is occurring where for one demographic group as compared to another its members who would have voted on election day instead turn out early, or delay turning out, with the overall proportions when all votes are counted following historical norms.

But there’s reason to believe the higher GOP trend presages something like the same on election day, in that it is occurring broadly coast to coast. That also for Louisiana specifically weakens the notion that the partisan difference is as a result of party-switching from Democrat to Republican that has been a steady feature in Louisiana for decades, as back in 2020 there were about 124,000 more Democrats and around 87,000 fewer Republicans than seen in 2024. Indeed, the drop in early voting number is barely more proportionally than the drop in the overall electorate, down around 72,000 as a result of population losses accelerating in the second term of Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Another sign that it’s likely more trend and less substitution is turnout by race. 49,000 fewer blacks showed up as opposed to 28,000 more whites. Typically, blacks have been more likely to vote early.

If in fact these numbers denote disproportionate Republican turnout – they were 25 percent higher than Democrat numbers in an overall electorate where Democrats are 8.5 percent higher – and we reasonably can expect few will defect from GOP candidates (indeed, Democrats will have a higher defection rate because the blanket primary system doesn’t penalize, at least until 2026, keeping the same registration even if years ago someone began voting consistently for the other major party candidates, as a greater proportion of Democrats have done), this should impact the two major contests on the ballot this fall parts of the state: the Public Service Commission District 2 and East Baton Rouge Parish mayor-president contests.

The fantasy for this fall among Democrats at least to slow the long and steady decline in election victories in the state is for the EBR chief executive’s office to be retained by the party, either in the form of incumbent Sharon Weston Broome or by former state Rep. Ted James, and to pull off a major upset in the PSC race by having rookie Nick Laborde somehow defeat GOP state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan and Republican former state Sen. Julie Quinn. These results bank upon turnout in a fashion that eliminates Republican educator Sid Edwards, the GOP frontrunner, in the EBR contest and puts Laborde into the PSC runoff, and then for the runoff internecine battling in EBR, a major component of District 2, stimulates Democrats into turning out while Republicans sit it out disproportionately and somehow this resonates to vault Laborde past a Republican.

It's quite the dream, but the early voting statistics threaten to turn it into a nightmare. If Republicans turn out disproportionately, Edwards likely would make a runoff against Broome or James with a real chance of winning in December. And the same dynamic might mean even as the default Democrat in the PSC race, Laborde gets aced out by both Republicans, and that internecine battle spills over into helping Edwards win.

The numbers in key parishes show this may happen. Most of EBR lies in District 2, and other large parishes in it are Lafayette, Lafourche, and Terrebonne. In 2020, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in early voting was 1.6 in EBR, 0.9 in Lafayette, 0.7 in Lafourche, and 0.6 in Terrebonne. In 2024, they were, respectively, 1.2, 0.5, 0.4, and 0.4. In EBR, about a thousand fewer whites showed up early, but about 4,000 fewer blacks did as well.

If replicated on Nov. 5, Democrats certainly will find themselves continuing to look in from the outside for the PSC seat but also in big trouble in holding on to the EBR top spot. In a few days, we’ll know whether the early voting results were this canary in a coal mine.

Greene case especially lacking political justice

The final act of the Ronald Greene incident, now drawn out to almost five-and-a-half in the making, appears nigh and increasingly obvious that the higher up the chain of command, the less justice will be done.

Throughout the years, involving federal investigations, state investigations, media investigations, and attempted prosecutions, of five Louisiana State Police troopers and Union Parish sheriff deputies, only two will face charges and one, retired trooper Kory York, just accepted a plea deal that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist.

The deal was opposed by Greene’s family. Black motorist Greene led law enforcement officers through a high-speed chase in May, 2019 that ended with a stop where officers corralled him, restrained him, stunned him, and struck some blows, even as he resisted but didn’t use any force against them. After the intervention of questionable physical tactics lasting nearly an hour, he was transported to a hospital but died.

Bossier Jury dodges bullet; problems remain

The Bossier Parish Police Jury made it over one obstacle in its doubling up as the parish’s Library Board of Control, but by no means is it out of the legal and political woods over that.

The Jury, unlike any other parish governing authority in the state, has inserted itself directly into Board affairs since 2016 by appointing its own to that. It grew increasingly bold in that regard and by 2023 all Board members were jurors. In public, at least one member has justified the complete takeover as necessary to safeguard children from unsupervised access to books with explicit sexual themes and descriptions.

A new statute aided in that task, which requires library systems to install a system that flags such material and gives parents the option of prohibiting their children from accessing that. That started as an initiative from the Attorney General’s office, then headed by Republican now-Gov. Jeff Landry, at present backed by GOP current Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill.

Good tax reform plan has small margin for error

For his tax reform by cutting a thousand things to pass into being, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry must avoid its death by a thousand cuts.

Months ago, Landry began stumping for large-scale tax reform to ensconce a more rationale and efficient fiscal structure in Louisiana that will encourage economic growth. The current system’s complexity, favoritism to certain entities, and inflexibility that encourages outsized government has for decades dampened economic development prospects.

Apparently satisfied he has something effective that can become law or part of the Constitution, he has signaled early next month he will call the Legislature into special session for a couple of weeks or so, which means he must issue the call this week. His Department of Revenue with an assist from the Legislative Fiscal Office has produced eight pieces of model legislation and fiscal analyses of each, totaling 385 pages of changes that forecasts overall state government revenues won’t change materially but likely positively in the short term.

LA campaign spending rules need more limits

Even as Louisiana legislators reduced the impact of the inherent flaw of limits to campaign contributions this year, more work is needed on the expenditure side that reduces the uncertainty involved induced by the unelected state Board of Ethics.

Over the past year, elected officials have complained they have less certainty about what are allowable expenditures from political action committees in particular. This is because the legal standard is extremely open-ended on the campaign side, and on the PAC side there hasn’t been definition at all with the assumption that it matched that of the campaign side. PACs are allowed to spend on behalf of a candidate but must do so independently of a principal campaign committee for that candidate.

This summer, the Board, which oversees campaign disclosure, initiated a rules process that would limit PAC expenditures to exclude “expenditures for the purpose of supporting an elected official’s holding of public office or party position” or “expenditures for the benefit of a candidate that would be a personal use if made from a candidate’s campaign funds,” both of which can be done from a campaign account. However, the rule has yet to be made final with legislative leaders indicating they would exercise their veto power over it if made final.

Trump win ensures more bucks for LA coastal aid

If Republican former Pres. Donald Trump doesn’t win back the presidency in just under two weeks, Louisiana could face some real headwinds in coastal protection and restoration.

Not attracting the attention that it should, this summer a Maryland Democrat Pres. Joe Biden-appointed judge threatened to shut down oil and gas exploration and extraction in the Gulf of Mexico, giving as a reason the federal National Marine Fisheries Service insufficiently took into account the endangered species designation of Rice’s whales in rules promulgated for transit around the area. Basically, her ruling said, despite the extreme unlikelihood of a repeat of the Macondo well blowout in 2010, that this had to be worked into the rules. If the rules weren’t made by December, oil and gas-related activities could have been ordered to cease.

But this week the deadline was extended to May, 2025, as the agency said it didn’t have the resources to redo the process so quickly. Notably, this puts the final product months into the next presidential administration, which could influence the final rules.

New ploy but same infirmity to film tax credit

Prepare to hear a lot of squawking from grifters enjoying, directly or indirectly, taxpayer largesse from the Motion Picture Production tax credit as it rests on the chopping block in Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s tax reform agenda. Much of it is recycled drivel, but there’s something new under the sun worth ridiculing.

The facts about the program’s wastefulness to taxpayers are indisputable. Even under the most optimistic assumptions, at best it returns 40 cents on the dollar, and subsidizes each job “created” (regardless of whether full time) to the tune of $13,300 each. Given recent data pointing to $500 million worth of credits issued since 2018, that’s a loss to taxpayers of at least $300 million (if all are redeemed, and typically within a few years are).

Supporters will spout off that, regardless of huge taxpayer costs, economic activity is created, such as an estimate that a buck of incentives induces $1.60 in economic activity. However, in isolation this is a meaningless figure because it doesn’t compare to alternate uses of funds, inside or outside of government. As compared to other tax credits, for example, the Digital Interactive Media and Software Tax Credit does better, so why not shut down the film one and transfer it all to the media and software one? More to the point, in the private sector if these dollars stayed in the hands of individuals, they almost certainly would invest differently and in enterprises that create far more jobs and wealth than making a bunch of movies and television episodes.

School group keeps shilling for adults, not kids

Having already taken a chink out of Louisiana’s elementary and secondary education standards, let’s hope the Legislature reins in whatever might come of the Greek chorus it established that advocates doing more of the same.

At the tail end of the 2024 session, the Legislature established the Louisiana House K-12 Education Study Group, ostensibly to study regulations on public schools, testing requirements, curriculum in particular as it pertains to local input and decision making, requirements of teachers that includes but not limited to training and general workload, and federal funding. Instead, it largely has honed in on how to change things to meet the needs of adults, rather than of children.

The major tactic to implement this strategy has been to go after student testing, which is built around two purposes: as a marker to identify areas of excellence and improvement among students and also to evaluate teacher and school performance. The state-mandated testing regime chafes administrators and teachers because it shines sometimes an uncomfortable spotlight on their product. The state’s student body has experienced slow but steady improvement in nationally-normed achievement in large part because of this rigor, at the expense of exposing weaknesses while aggravating school boards, because their members feel politically vulnerable in instances when accountability measures reveal their district’s schools aren’t doing so well, and administrators and teachers feel professionally pressured at schools whose students don’t show adequate achievement, growth, or progression.

LA brain drain fault of higher education

It’s called singing for your supper, but it shouldn’t be a flight from reality for Louisiana higher education.

Data reveal not only that the number of recipients of Taylor Opportunity Program for Students senior college awards has declined significantly in the last few years but also those eligible for the highest award level, Honors, disproportionately are turning down the free taxpayer-aided gift. Honors eligibility requires a 3.5 grade point average for a set of required courses and an ACT standardized test score of 27, making them eligible for the award of tuition mostly paid plus $800. The regular award requires a 2.5 GPA and 20 on the ACT for all but the $800 lagniappe.

The blame for this, according to one Board of Regents official, is unenlightened legislators and their greedy taxpaying constituents, with many of the student cohort opting for out-of-state schools offering better financial aid packages because of the inability for TOPS to cover the full cost of attendance. Starting in academic year 2016-17, the Legislature stopped indexing TOPS but would have to approve annually increases in the award to match tuition increases (fees aren’t included, and these have risen as well), which it has done infrequently since.

BC debt behind call for tax, fee increases

What Bossier City gave to taxpayers with one hand in 2024 the Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler Administration lobbies to take with the other in 2025, creating an election-year problem for graybeard city councilors.

Lost in all the excitement last week over the eventually-thwarted term limits power play instigated by those graybeards – Republican David Montgomery and Jeff Free plus Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby – with their rookie lackey Republican Vince Maggio was the budget workshop presented by the Council, hearing from city Chief Administrative Officer Amanda Nottingham about what the 2025 budget will look like that the Council will have to grapple with over the next two months, starting next week. It ended up as an object lesson as to the wages of the profligacy practiced by the graybeards over the past decade and more.

Nottingham painted a discouraging picture. Under current assumptions, she foresaw a $3 million deficit because expenses would increase faster than revenues. The main culprit she fingered was escalating insurance costs although the lingering problem of the state trying to shore up underfunded retirement systems, by passing costs onto local governments, also contributed.

Don't let up in reshaping LA higher education

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and legislative majorities must not let the Louisiana State University System, or any of the state’s higher education boards, off the hook because, for now, they appear to be kowtowing.

Last week at the LSU Board of Supervisors’ meeting the panel, fresh off putting on board some Landry appointments that included Chairman Jimmie Woods, Sr. who Landry named to lead it under a new law granting him that authority, passed a resolution to review all programs in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision that banned preferential treatment by race in higher education admissions. Even though the decision addressed only admissions, the Board used it as a justification, as well as the Legislature’s Act 641 of 2024 that requires reporting on the existence of programs based upon racial or other preferences, that to comply with the act and the decision it would shut down any such programs or bureaucracies. The same resolution implemented the Kalven Principle in the system (the LSU Faculty Senate recently advocated for that), or that institutions remain officially neutral in commenting upon political issues, something that system Pres. William Tate IV had pursued as a matter of policy previously after some years of silence on the subject.

With that, the Board also ratified something long advocated in the space: a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion statement requirements for hiring faculty members, which serve no useful purpose in educating and requires (at least lip service to) a mindset antithetical to true scholarly inquiry. This echoed a bill that received a committee hearing in the last legislative regular session that was held in abeyance for Louisiana’s four higher education systems to address issues it raised, including this one.

Rejection sends BC to historic city elections

With its strategy blown up earlier this week, the Bossier political establishment finds itself on the back foot as perhaps the most consequential set of elections in Bossier City’s history looms next spring.

It’s hard to know what has delivered more whiplash – contradictory pronouncements of what is the law made by Bossier City’s Legal Department or the saga of term limits – but for sure is that events at the State Bond Commission upended again the tussle over term limits on city councilors and the mayor. That’s as a result on Oct. 14 of the SBC taking the rare step of deferring to send to the Secretary of State (with a deadline to receive that day) the city’s request for voters to vet on Dec. 7 three items.

What first began as a forced march, which turned into a death march, but which finally became a quick march, Bossier City’s politically-motivated Charter Review Commission spat out three “amendments” for review which the SBC must perform by law for administrative rectitude, two of which unambiguously met the definition of a discrete and specific change in the city’s Charter: one placing a relaxed three-term non-lifetime prospective limit on the mayor, and another on city councilors. The political establishment behind the Commission with its members and allies on the panel pulled out all the stops to try to make the Dec. 7 ballot in an effort to derail a citizen petition that presented to voters strict three-term lifetime and retroactive limits on the mayor and councilors.

Thumbs up on all LA amendments this cycle

In a state election cycle that looks to end up as a yawner, so do the constitutional amendments voters in Louisiana will be asked to decide on Nov. 5 and Dec. 7.

The earlier date has just an Amendment 1, which would sequester from federal government offshore areas funds from alternative energy royalties to the Coastal Restoration and Protection Fund and therefore used for reclamation and flood control purposes. That’s the arrangement dealing with these one-time dollars for fossil fuel extraction in that region, and it makes sense. YES

The other four appear on the Dec. 7 ballot, and are as equally undramatic, if not also as arcane:

Flawed BC charter review invites litigation

The freak show finally concluded that was the Bossier City political establishment’s drive to stave off strict term limits on its mayor and city councilors, but it appears that by no means has this story reached its end

The Council emitted a last-minute gasp to keep alive the chance of deflecting a citizen petition that places on the ballot three-term retroactive and lifetime limits when at a hastily-called Oct. 10 special meeting it passed a resolution to attempt to put on the Dec. 7 ballot votes on three amendments to the charter from its politically-connected Charter Review Commission: a relaxed three-term limit, not lifetime nor retroactive, for councilors, a similar one for the mayor, and an omnibus amendment trying to roll about 160 changes into one. Its tardiness in not having this ready for the regular Oct. 8 meeting agenda meant it had to have unanimous Council approval for consideration, which was not forthcoming then.

If successfully placed on that ballot, the term limits measures would exist alongside the ones in the petition due to be placed on a future ballot, which is subject at present to a spurious appeal by Republican Councilors David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio plus Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby to an order forcing them to resolve to put it on the ballot. They have used lawfare to evade their oath-bound Charter duty that makes it unlikely the petition measures would be on the Dec. 7 ballot. That means voters could vote into existence the relaxed term limits measure, then months later up the ante with the stricter version.

Lawmakers turn up tort reform heat on Landry

In perhaps the only major rift that has developed between legislative Republicans and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry in their first year in this term of office, party lawmakers have turned up the heat on Landry over tort reform that influences vehicle insurance rates.

Backed by a good deal of trial lawyer money, Landry has appeared lukewarm on the issue of reform away from a legal structure weighed in favor of plaintiffs and the legal community that backs them. His most defiant move came in vetoing HB 423 by Republican state Rep. Mike Melerine this past session. That bill would have limited payouts by defendants to the actual amount of costs, plus up to 30 percent of the difference between the amount billed and the amount paid to plaintiff’s medical providers calculated from actual billing for insurance premiums and attorney fees, unless the defendant proves it to be unreasonable. Present law authorizes a flat 40 percent.

That bill actually represented a compromise. GOP state Sen. Alan Seabaugh had one which wasn’t heard that did away with paying out any difference at all, something neighboring Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas do, which is termed the collateral source rule. In his veto message of HB 423, Landry defended its presence on what he called its fairness in reimbursing foresight and advocacy, although the note didn’t address whether the current law created a fair framework for determining that amount possibly improved by the bill.

Police HQ controversy eroding Arceneaux image

It’s taken a couple of years, but Shreveport Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux finally has started encountering some drama that served as a hallmark of his predecessor that impedes his low margin for error in reelection.

Even before he took office and throughout his term, Democrat former Mayor Adrian Perkins embarked upon a string of controversies involving questionable deals, questionable personnel moves, personal behavior that conveyed a disinterest in the job, and neglect of pressing city needs in favor of quixotic policy pursuits. Often this meandering brought him to clashes with the City Council, even though his party held a majority on it throughout his term.

In part, the electorate’s counterreaction to Perkins’ accidental mayoral reign thrust Arceneaux into the job, a white Republican in a majority black city, most of whom register as and vote for Democrats. This has the city’s Democrats in power, all black, licking their chops for 2026 hoping to ride these voter demographics to make Arceneaux a one-term mayor, and from time to time the Council, now with a 5-2 black Democrat majority, has played these electoral politics to cast aspersions on Arceneaux’s governance.

BC oath violators' hypocrisy reaches new heights

The Bossier City Council Oathbreakers are a persistent bunch when it comes to thwarting citizen rule, but even that won’t pay off with their latest ploy.

The Oathbreakers – Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio plus Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby – earned that sobriquet as they on multiple occasions violated their oaths of office by refusing to uphold the city charter’s mandate that they must forward to voters a charter amendment that creates lifetime retroactive three-term limits for city councilors and the mayor, as by a successful citizen petition. As this would disqualify all but Maggio from among them for reelection next year, they have fought tooth and nail to sabotage in any way the amendment, which came about when the registrar of voters duly certified the document in July,

It began when the petition began circulating again last year at this time, after the Oathbreakers initially had rendered another inoperative for a technicality in the courts. The strategy involved invoking a charter review commission a majority of its members they appointed, mostly political insiders and allies. Initially, it was supposed that it would take the wind out of the sails of the citizen petitioners.

Bold rate policy can determine LPSC winner

While it’s a foregone conclusion that a climate realist will join the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 2025, why not start with some wind behind the sails?

The realists are Republican state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan and GOP former state Sen. Julie Quinn. Both have described themselves as advocates of an all-of-the-above, let-the-lowest-priced-reliable-energy-source-win model for rate determination. By contrast, political newcomer Democrat Nick Laborde takes a climate alarmist approach favoring renewable sources.

Disturbingly, he vouches for returning to a net metering framework that essentially has almost every ratepayer subsidize the lifestyle choice of a few as a method to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the produced portfolio. This would lead to much higher costs for consumers because then the utility forced to buy renewable power from a customer at retail has to build reliable redundancy into the system, such as adding a peak combined-cycle natural gas plant, and charge consumers for it (or, impossibly both physically and financially, building out battery capacity).

Bossier Jury asks victim taxpayers to thank it

The Bossier Parish Police Jury blinked as well, but did so as part of what appears to be a plan to boost its image while deflecting from the fact for years it overtaxed parish property owners.

Bossier Parish property owners were looking at some hefty tax increases this year. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington as well as a fire district foisted some onto their constituent by refusing to roll back entirely tax rates as instigated in the Constitution. Every four years after reassessment, the total amount collected by a government on properties not improved and held by the same owners is not in the aggregate to change if assessments went higher unless a taxing authority by a supermajority (in the case of a single executive like the sheriff, by his decision) refuses to allow a roll back in tax rates to compensate, which then means it can boost tax rates from that level all the way up to the one authorized by law.

Even with a roll back, unless assessed and sale values have decreased, with the property improvements and higher uses that have occurred in the previous four years within their boundaries entities will see more money coming into their coffers than previously. The intent behind the automatic roll back unless overridden is to prevent the vast majority of property owners who don’t use their property in and of itself for income generation through its lease or rental from having to pay more on a long-term asset for which they receive at present no capital gain, if any.

If real, LA crime drop unlikely policy related

Presidential candidates clash over who will do best to reduce rising crime, Louisiana’s governor joined with the Legislature to make a raft of changes to combat this, while local leaders as in New Orleans preen over a measured drop in it as well as those in Shreveport. This begs the question: as some indicators show crime rates falling nationally with most jurisdictions reflecting that, can politicians in Louisiana or elsewhere take credit for that – if it even exists?

Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released final statistics through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program that showed nationally violent crime declined an estimated 3 percent in 2023 from the year before, while murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12 percent. The overall rate now stands just above the 2019 level prior to the spike observed during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and is close to returning to reflecting the long-term secular decline in violent crime over the past three decades, although it basically has been flat since 2012. Perhaps better, preliminary numbers for 2024 show a continued decline.

While good news, it may not be all that it’s cracked up to be, beginning with that the FBI’s system (which underwent a major change as the pandemic took hold) is a measure of crime reported or discovered by law enforcement, while different measures tell the opposite story. The Bureau of Justice Statistics compiles the National Crime Victimization Survey which measures crime not reported to law enforcement as well, with the exception of homicides and manslaughter because the dead tell no tales although these generally comprise about a percentage point of total violent crime. NCVS numbers typically differ, sometimes significantly, from the UCR, and it reported a small proportional increase for 2023 after double-digit spikes in 2021 and 2022 but a big dip in 2020. In fact, for these years the absolute differences were for the NCVS starting in 2020 29.31 percentage points lower, 20.18 higher, 24.81 higher, and 7.63 higher.

Landry tax reform clears fence, if not bases

All in all, the fiscal reform package Republican Gov. Jeff Landry will present to the Louisiana Legislature, at least in its broad outline, charts an improved course towards economic development but falls short in restraining big government.

This week, Landry announced that he would call a special session around election day in November that could last until just before Thanksgiving Day to commit fiscal reform. The worldview behind it shifts revenue from income to sales taxation. It essentially wouldn’t levy any individual income tax to single filers below $12,500 and joint filers below $25,000, and above those levels impose a flat three percent rate, with the possibility of additional deductions. Plus, senior citizens receive double that level. But in exchange, it would keep the 0.45 percent sales tax hike from 2018 and would expand that to potentially many of the 223 sales tax exemptions currently in law – but not to the constitutional provision that exempts unprepared food, drugs, and utilities. A separate sales tax exemption on business utilities also would be retained, although perhaps not entirely.

Additionally, corporate income tax rates would be made a flat rate and the franchise tax eliminated, which overall likely would end up as a net tax decrease for most. The three percent rate would reduce one of the highest in the country at its top level, and of the few states that have a franchise tax, Louisiana’s is the highest.

Nothing compels LA tax bucks for CCUS research

Nice try, apologists for using taxpayer dollars to bankroll needless, if not pie-in-the-sky, carbon capture use and sequestration (CCUS) research that already has taken $25 million and more indirectly out of the hide of Louisianans.

Almost as if triggered by a recent post that critiqued this consortium of public and private interests overseen by the Greater New Orleans Development Foundation from sopping up more taxpayer largesse, H2theFuture made a case in a media article as part of a story about its CCUS efforts that would justify such reception. To date it has received part of that state allocation plus $50 million from the federal government designed to attack the nonexistent problem of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.

CCUS is considered the middle way between CAGW craziness. that demands near-immediate decarbonization no matter what the cost, and climate realism, backed by research, that human activities have a minor impact on climate and any such spillover that could increase global temperatures can be mitigated at relatively low cost and in a way that actually improves overall global wealth. As CAGW calls for a dramatic reduction, if not total elimination, of fossil fuel extraction and consumption, CCUS argues this approach could be scaled back dramatically if in extracting and processing fossil fuels and in some instances their use an apparatus could extract carbon from that. Once removed, the carbon can be stored or used for other purposes; indeed, for decades carbon has been employed in stretching oil recovery.

Speaking truth to power on Edwards virus policy

Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham spoke truth to power, and the mouthpieces of Louisiana’s political left were unhappy with him.

Last week, a state House select committee held hearings on the state’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, pursuing a comprehensive overview of the mechanics of the response as well as policies enacted. Against a backdrop of admittedly maladroit administration by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness – then under Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards – perhaps the headline revelation was a federal inquiry has been launched into the use of the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center as an overflow facility for hospitals in the early days of the pandemic. Rumors of sweetheart deals in its operations and supplies that could involve city and state officials have circulated for years, with it hardly being used at costs running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

But having a potentially higher human cost was the lockdown policy promulgated by Edwards under statutes granting the governor nearly unimpeachable emergency powers – fortunately with more checks added since – which lasted nearly two years although the most restrictive period was in the first 14 months. At its worst, all but the smallest indoor gatherings were banned and outdoor ones were restricted in size, face coverings were mandatory except in many but not all outdoor settings, vaccinations (really prophylactics) were required for a number of workplaces, and social distancing was enforced in certain situations and suggested in others.

Oath-violating BC councilors' tactic in peril

The new club that has formed as a subset of the Bossier City Council, the Oathbreakers, have kept true to their subversive and taxpayer-unfriendly strategy in the hopes for a political payoff – which may be thwarted because what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander (not just in Springfield, OH but everywhere).

The Oathbreakers – or Councilors Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio and Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby – resemble the namesake character of the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons who break their sacred oaths to pursue some dark ambition, in this instance to satisfy their cravings for power for them and for their allies by violating the city Charter in refusing on multiple occasions to resolve to put on the ballot language from a certified petition as required by the Charter, with the latest example coming last week. If voters approve the measure prior to 2025 city election qualification, this would amend the Charter to impose retroactively limits of three terms on councilors and the mayor that would disqualify all but Maggio from running for reelection.

Getting to this point has been long and convoluted, starting with a petition to accomplish this amending last year eventually invalidated over a legal technicality strictly interpreted but which prompted the first votes to subvert the Charter. That attack in all likelihood represented a chunk of over $480,000 spent on outside legal consulting from Jul. 1, 2023 to Jul. 31, 2024, which in 2024 was budgeted for only $10,000 within an entire Legal Department budget of about $536,000.

Automatic tax cuts help LA fiscal restructuring

So, now the latest salvo against right-sizing Louisiana state government comes as a result conditions behind R.S. 47:32.1 perhaps meeting fulfillment, yawps that policy-makers safely should ignore while instead they use the potential situation to their advantage

That statute, which kicked in this year, triggers automatic individual income and corporate franchise tax cuts when the rate of growth in those collections exceeds the rate of growth in personal income for the three calendar years preceding the fiscal year in question, if the prior fiscal year’s taxes, licenses, and fees exceed the FY 2019 baseline by more than that rate of growth in personal income and the Budget Stabilization Fund is at 2.5 percent of the total state revenue receipts.

Calendar years 2021-23 saw an average growth of over 4.9 percent, fueled by the false economy of supercharged Washington Democrat debt spending, although the highest component of that would roll off for the CY 2022-24 calculation. The BSF in May had about $975 million in it and could collect in earnings a little more or with a surplus declaration maybe a lot more before the end of the year. Total taxes, licenses, and fees for FY 2024 were then forecast at $16.124.2 billion, the actual total of which could go higher with a future forecast. These levels are such that state officials think the roughly $400 million forecast in franchise tax and $4.6 billion in individual income taxes could be pared $100-200 million for FY 2025 as the cut would happen on 2026 returns, accomplished by reducing rates much like with local property taxes having rates automatically rolled back if the value of continually-held and not improved property in the aggregate in a parish increased in assessment value.

Landry response to Regents flap encouraging

The encouraging sign given by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry concerning Louisiana higher education isn’t really who he just tabbed as chairman of the Board of Regents. It’s how he replied to criticism by a former Regent in light of the reaction of other Regents to the appointment.

So far, Landry has had the chance to appoint only one member to the board that oversees in policy terms state higher education. That was Misti Cordell, who in real life works in health care administration but outside of that with husband has been active in Republican Party affairs and donors to GOP campaigns, including Landry’s. All other members received their gigs from Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards.

After only a few months on the job, Landry appointed her chairwoman, falling back on Act 491 of 2024 that gave the governor the power to do so – if he so chose; otherwise, the boards affected can continue to pick their own – for bodies where he appoints at least the majority of members not otherwise specified in the Constitution. This perturbed then-Regent T. Jay Seale III so much that he resigned days later – and not gracefully.

LNG pause that hit LA hardest based on fraud

Americans, but particularly Louisianans, have been made victims of a baldfaced lie by Democrat Pres. Joe Biden and his administration, with damage done to labor markets, commerce, and local governments.

Early this year, Biden with Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris announced his Department of Energy would halt all vetting activity regarding exportation of liquified natural gas to countries without free trade agreements with the U.S. In practical terms, this meant that DOE wouldn’t advance permits to do this, on which new export terminal construction hinged. This caught up a number of proposed facilities already being slow-walked by DOE since Biden took office, including two major ones in Louisiana nearing the finish line.

Biden and Harris provided the rationale for the decision as DOE needed a new study of the matter to take into account what he asserted were higher costs based upon catastrophic anthropogenic global warming assumptions (summing these up as the country facing “the existential threat of our time”). He alleged since the last LNG export study occurred in 2018, four years after the previous, that none others had been conducted.

Landry signals no help for alarmist projects

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry needs to take the next step and ensure Louisiana doesn’t throw away good dollars after bad as an extension of his Governors’ Coalition for Energy Choice.

Last week, Landry as co-founder of the group announced its initial formation. Ten governors, all Republicans, pledges in their states’ policy-making to ensure continued energy choice, minimize permitting and other regulatory barriers, limit expensive energy mandates, focus on affordability and reliability of energy infrastructure, and coordinate to manage positively energy resources and the environment. It is a natural outgrowth of his articulated “all of the above” strategy to maximize energy availability at minimal cost, which other members also have enunciated.

Which, of course, brought apoplexy onto climate alarmists, who perceive this sentiment as empowering the production of fossil fuels, contrary to their faith in catastrophic anthropogenic global warming, and neglecting government assistance to ultra-expensive renewable energy consumption as well as to fund research to make it only overly-expensive. That would include the $25 million Louisiana taxpayers already sank into something called H2theFuture, which snapped up $50 million in federal taxpayer dollars to start up.

Bossier schools pull back from tax hike ledge

The Bossier Parish School Board seems to have, at least temporarily, discarded its tin ear, perhaps coming to understand a series of questionable policy decisions have led to its adding another to its undistinguished record might have electoral consequences.

Earlier this year, the Board advertised that it would entertain rolling forward millage property tax rates levied by the Bossier Parish School District. During presidential election years in Louisiana parish tax assessors reassess property, but the Constitution mandates that the difference in values for property held and not improved throughout the period not increase the total amount of taxes paid for that group, meaning millage rates would be adjusted automatically unless a two-thirds majority wished not to do so, effectively raising taxes since that aggregate value had increased over the time period.

As published, it would have been more than a $4.2 million increase, or nearly 6 percent. Despite declining enrollments, costs have escalated because unfunded pension demands and post-employment benefits have skyrocketed over the past few years. Worse, BPSD already has one of the highest property tax rates of local education agencies in the state, so Bossier property owners have been hit harder than almost any others in the state.

Salutary panel recommendations need implementing

An underappreciated reform agenda sought by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry continues to bear fruit reorganizing the way that Louisiana makes policy regarding it energy and natural resources.

Last week, a panel established by Landry intended to review the state’s natural resource management issued its preliminary report. It drew the conclusion that this function suffered both from compartmentalization and incoordination, and recommended establishment of a steering commission that would provide overall policy leadership over at present disparate agencies such as the Departments of Energy and Natural Resources and Transportation and Development and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Agency. This Commission would have as members the secretary of DENR; his deputy that heads the new Office of Land and Water that is to manage all of the state’s energy and state-owned resources, ostensibly another DENR employee representing both its new Natural Resources Trust Authority – designed to provide a modernized financial security system for energy, and natural resources-related projects – and planning; ostensibly someone sitting on the CPRA Board or Authority to represent coastal interests; and a commissioner dedicated to a broad portfolio of planning for energy, overseeing infrastructure as it relates to resource management, and coordinating outside grant and other funding opportunities.

Rules to follow for successful LA fiscal reform

As it appears Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is gearing up to call a special session of the Louisiana Legislature later this year to tackle fiscal reform, he needs to draw from lessons of the past to ensure its success.

This perennial topic has become more urgent with plans to allow tax increases under his predecessor to fade away at the end of the current fiscal year. Ideally, reform puts the state in the posture that increased efficiency/decreased distortion in its taxing and spending structure prompts greater economic growth that causes higher tax revenues without raising marginal rates and targets better expenditures towards genuine needs.

Most important and basic, reform must undertake goals realistic to the political resources at hand. This doomed reform efforts in the Republican former Gov. Buddy Roemer era, where he aimed too high and missed.

Bossier tax hike looms funding anti-family agenda

Bossier Parish property owner tax hikes were led off by Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington, and waiting in the wings are Bossier Parish and the Port of Caddo-Bossier. But most consequentially of all, now stepping to the plate later this week is the Bossier Parish School District, ready to fuel an anti-family agenda by taking more from families.

Quadrennial property tax reassessments occur this year, and according to the Louisiana Constitution for continuous owners of unimproved property through the previous assessment the taxes derived from the aggregate value of their property parish-wide by default cannot change, although for some individuals their property values may rise and for others it may fall. This means the millage rates levied must change, going lower if in the aggregate values for these owners rose and going higher if these fell. (This doesn’t apply to new owners from the last assessment or if improvements were made to the property.)

However, a taxing entity may choose to “roll forward” millage rates to maintain their present level by a two-thirds or better vote for a plenary governing authority, increasing taxes on every property owner except those whose assessments for whatever reason in percentage terms decreased more than the percentage increase possible in the rate when rolled forward. Legally, an entity must hold a hearing prior to a meeting to do that, and the Bossier Parish School Board has scheduled that for Sep. 19.

Scrap over new Monroe bid law counterproductive

Picking a needless fight over a salutary public bid law isn’t something on which the Monroe City Council should waste its time.

Earlier this month, the Council put up for consideration essentially a repeal of Ordinance 12,225 enacted only three months ago. This changed the city public works contracting process by raising the dollar amount for Council approval of these to $250,000 and for associated materials and supplies to $60,000, in line with Louisiana’s Public Bid Law.

Less than a month later, two new Democrats joined the Council, with one replacing a defeated incumbent who had voted with the Council’s two Republicans to pass the ordinance favored by independent Mayor Friday Ellis. Both with the holdover Democrat last month passed an ordinance to reverse the ordinance, but Ellis vetoed that and with the two Republicans could sustain that.