LA may need to counter further progressive DAs

Louisiana state senators performed a valuable service by public vetting of a rogue prosecutor’s action where he substituted his own agenda in place of the state’s Constitution and criminal code.

This week, the Senate Judiciary C Committee held a hearing concerning post-conviction relief. This is a legal procedure where a convict can have a sentence reduced or even a conviction overturned by a claim of factual innocence combined with corroborating evidence, or by verification of some kind of legal impairment in the case. Time constraints apply except under circumstances such as new or review of old evidence or DNA testing results and the like.

The issue didn’t raise much attention until three years ago. Until then, such cases occasionally cropped up, but then two things happened. First, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional non-unanimous jury results and ordered the two states allowing these, one being Louisiana, to set up a review process for all people convicted this way which created 1,500 or so potential reviews. The state did so and set a one-year time limit on petitioning.

Reject excessive Bossier JP, constable request

This month’s first meeting of the Bossier Parish Police Jury featured a remarkable role reversal concerning the issue of justice of the peace and constable pay, with a longtime advocate of smaller government arguing for the opposite and a more recent advocate of expansive government hinting at a tapping of the brakes on that – and rightly so.

The Jury allows for general comments from the public on any subject prior to tackling its business, and availing himself of that was Republican Justice of the Peace Bill Shelton, who serves District 1 (there are five districts total, 1 and 3-6 where two serve 3 and 6 to make for seven officials; 2 is Bossier City with its own city court and marshal). He said he spoke on behalf of all seven JPs and constables (each JP, which is elective, also has a constable elected who carries out the JPs orders), who collectively wanted a pay raise. Shelton observed that the parish paid out $300 a month to each, implying a total taxpayer expense of $50,400 annually, and said these officers had to pay for office, patrol, and enforcement expenses and didn’t want to “go broke” over performing their duties.

Thus, he argued (there was some confusion over the exact amount) for salaries to double, pointing to other jurisdictions that paid much higher and noting that this amount hadn’t increased in at least two decades. This he mentioned in the context of upcoming budgetary discussions by the Jury.

Policy changes enough to forestall LDH cuts

A recent meeting of a legislative panel to review potential belt-tightening in state government, focusing on health care spending, skimmed the surface of how spending priorities need to change to reduce an area that spends nearly after of the state’s budget.

The House Appropriations Committee heard from the Department of Health on its progress identifying areas of reductions. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry asked state agencies to develop plans for an anticipated budget cut from this fiscal year to next, spurred by the expiration of two temporary taxes, by November.

The figure LDH came up with at the state level was $105 million, which, given the menu of choices for cuts, involved $332 million of federal dollars. Much Medicaid spending is compulsory, so only $821 million of state spending can be considered. Of that, around $400 million is for Medicaid expansion.

LA child welfare recovery can't replicate MN

After years of neglect by Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards, Louisiana is picking up the pieces of its child welfare system, but can’t make the mistake of Edwards’ Minnesota doppelganger.

In budgeting, Edwards pursued a strategy of growing government as much as possible and then baking it in by directing the increased spending towards wealth redistribution that targeted leftist priorities and presumed constituencies. Perhaps the foremost example of this was Medicaid expansion, now costing the state $400 million annually with much of that gong to individuals previously insured or who had the resources to do it themselves, while health indicators in the state are no better. Worse, people with disabilities suffered as even a fraction of those dollars could have ameliorated a growing abuse problem in congregate settings and another relatively small portion could have staved off a growing crisis in inability to provide home- and community-based services because of low reimbursement rates and reactive rather than proactive oversight.

But these clients don’t provide much in the way of votes for Democrats or gain plaudits from leftist interest groups and media, unlike with expansion, explaining Edwards’ priorities. But even he took a hit from the left when the Department of Children and Family Services continued to have failure after failure in preventing child abuse that came down to insufficient attention to and funds for child welfare – shortcomings well known to the Edwards Administration over the years but allowed to linger as dollars went to more politicized priorities rather than protecting children from abuse, who of course can’t vote.

Ouachita govts plan on taking more from citizens

Governments across Ouachita Parish seem eager to take more of what their citizens earn, without having made compelling cases to do so.

On the way is a sales tax hike imposed upon several businesses along the West Monroe waterfront – which of course, they must pass on to their patrons that largely comprise city but particularly parish residents. But all West Monrovians will suffer a sewerage rate increase as well starting this week, as a precondition to nabbing a state loan to address long-needed upgrades.

That may be necessary for future maintenance as the city historically had relatively low rates for both water and sewerage. But that led to chronic deficits in running this enterprise that taxpayers had to subsidize within the last few years which to ameliorate turned into rate hikes, as well prompting last year’s  creation of an escalator clause that started this year designed annually to increase rates further by price inflation. And the latest jump that started Sep. 1 will repeat over the next two years. It’s a problem that should have been addressed long ago.