LA SNAP changes to help most poor, taxpayers

Louisiana may have whiffed on one kind of food stamp policy, but starting next month as a consolation prize it looks to emulate the rest of the south on another kind that will save taxpayer dollars and stimulate economic growth.

 This spring, state executive branch officials wisely planned to opt out of an expansion of school meals program hawked by the federal government to include cash payments during the summer. Unfortunately, the Legislature blinked and mandated it, costing the state several million dollars to add already to generous Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits for families with children.

But, fortunately, legislators (in practice, Republicans) came through with Act 308. The law, which takes effect at the beginning of next month, disallows the state from seeking exceptions from SNAP waivers in regards to able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs), where the program requires some hours of work, volunteering, or studying in order to draw, depending upon income level for a single individual, as much as about $10 a day for unprepared food.

Lawfare impeding beneficial LA LNG project

Believers in the faith-based, evidence-free theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming continue to try to make life worse especially for the poor and threatens national security through sitzkrieg tactics, picking up a judicial ally for an agenda that generally harms Louisianans even more.

It all began several years ago when political, technological, and economic conditions made the time right for America to export liquified natural gas. This started a process that led to construction and operation of LNG terminals that helped to send a lower-cost energy source to places around the world to help particularly people in poorer parts of the world, to assist allies in accessing energy instead of buying from more hostile states, and to provide economic expansion for Americans.

Louisiana ended up a big beneficiary of this, with construction of facilities on the state’s southwestern coast that provided jobs there and upstream where the gas is collected and piped south. In just a few short years now with America becoming the world’s largest LNG exporter, markets continue to favor expansion of this.

BC councilors channel their inner George Wallace

In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this Council, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of the people, and I say no term limits now, no term limits tomorrow, no term limits forever.

That’s the message that Bossier City Councilors Republicans David Montgomery and Vince Maggio and Democrat Jeff Darby sent when they voted – again – to violate the city’s Charter by failing to permit consideration of a measure to place on the Dec. 7 ballot two term limits measures. This was nothing new, as over and over again they had violated the charter and their oaths of office in the process on the matter of calling such an election several times over the past year or so, as the Charter mandates the Council do so upon certification of a petition to amend the Charter. The petition forwards a pair of propositions that places a retroactive lifetime three-term limit on holding the mayor’s office and city councilor spots.

But something new this time, in emulating Democrat Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s efforts to resist court orders regarding desegregation over six decades ago that featured an inaugural address attacking it and months later briefly physically blocking integration at the University of Alabama, was that Montgomery, Maggio, and Darby deliberately defied a court order issued last week mandating that the Council follow the Charter and pass a resolution permitting the State Bond Commission to move forward. The SBC approves of the items and then sends them to the Secretary of State for ballot inclusion.

Competing Monroe agendas call for compromising

Monrovians can look forward to an awkward dance between independent Mayor Friday Ellis and the Democrat-majority City Council over the next four years, if the current state of their relationship holds.

To say it’s been a rocky beginning isn’t an understatement. Since old hands in elected office but new councilors Democrats Rodney McFarland and Verbon Muhammad have taken office, joining with holdover Democrat Juanita Woods they have shifted the Council into a more combative posture than what Ellis experienced in his initial term in office. That last term, Ellis succeeded in swaying what then also was a Democrat-run council to support him on a number of big-ticket items.

Not so in the opening weeks of this term with an increasing roll call of dustups, where on a number of issues the new members were like Jacks-in-Boxes popping up to oppose whatever the Ellis Administration proposed – bond election, new purchasing rules, appointments, capital outlay spending – sometimes instituting delays, other times attempting to overrule. They constantly have complained that they aren’t consulted with enough and/or southside Monroe, where theirs and Woods’ districts are, doesn’t receive enough attention, especially in the form of dollars. Even when they go along with an administration-backed request, it has been like pulling teeth to get it to happen, as in the case of opening bids on an emergency project in Republican Councilor Doug Harvey’s district that Muhammad held up as an example of Ellis disregarding the southside.

Caddo again mulls destructive minimum wage hike

Economic dunderheads all, Caddo Parish commissioners look to compound a mistake that will set back hopes of parish economic development.

In August, the Commission followed the lead of some Louisiana governments, including Shreveport, that have raised their minimum wages above the state level to pass an ordinance doing the same, in this case $15 an hour which is more than double the state’s. It applies at present only to what the parish pays its employees, to take effect at the start of next year.

Discussion on the matter actually began in February in a committee. Rookie Democrat Commissioner Greg Young spearheaded the move, which he characterized as one that addressed economic and crime concerns, in that by taking more tax dollars and/or reducing services in other areas to meet the increased personnel costs employees below the $15 level brought them closer to a “living wage” and that would reduce poverty and therefore the temptation to commit crime.