Bin unserious proposed NIL tax break bill

A bill contemplated by Republican state Rep. Dixon McMakin makes no fiscal sense and only subverts the purpose of higher education in Louisiana.

The bill in concept would exempt from state income tax earnings that college students receive from Name, Image, and Likeness deals in athletics. Individuals may negotiate these or another organization, such as a school, may do so on behalf of all its eligible students.

Dollar figures for these are generally not public, and they can be substantial. Publicized have been deals by Louisiana State University gymnast Livvy Dunne who, despite modest athletic credentials, has one of the most lucrative set of NIL deals due to her superior marketing skills, estimated in the neighborhood of at least $4 million annually. Regardless, given the state’s income tax rates, such an exemption may not even cost the state eight figures annually.

GOP Medicaid reform to benefit LA disabled

Rather than trepidation, the most health-vulnerable Louisianans should feel elation that the Republican Congress is talking about changing Medicaid reimbursement rules for states.

As part of federal government right-sizing discussions, the House of Representatives GOP majority has set as a goal a reduction of $880 billion over the next decades in costs that include Medicaid. Even factoring out non-Medicaid expenditures and well as waste reduction – and anybody who has worked through the Medicaid-financed system knows there is a formidable amount of it – the total dollar amount the federal government would have to spend on Medicaid would have to decrease to meet this goal.

In tandem, the majority has discussed making Medicaid subject to block grants. This would give states greater latitude over how funds designated for Medicaid could be spent in fulfilling its purposes, allowing them to better target highly-needy individuals rather than disproportionate spending on those less so or in no real need.

Bill could help discourage scofflaw landlords

Insofar as the upcoming 2025 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature and dealing with scofflaw apartment complex owners (and somewhat stealing from the “Mad Max” franchise), two bills enter, one bill leaves.

An issue that primarily has popped up in Shreveport involves apartment complex owners not paying water bills to the city and no real means to force them to do so. This leaves the city with the Hobson’s choice of tolerating it or cutting it off that then puts residents in a bind. Residents supposedly have an approximation of their water bills rolled into rent, as the complexes have a single line paid wholly which then splits off into individual units. But even though most occupants pay their rent, owners at several complexes haven’t remitted their due to the city for months.

The city has trouble collecting as ownership arrangements under law don’t present a responsible entity from which the city readily can collect. The complexes in question are older, lower-income residential in nature where the owners, because the properties aren’t worth much, bleed them as much as they can. Also some such properties the city has had declared derelict, with others otherwise habitable it has tolerated leaving water on a few hours a day so as not to make the situation of the residents paying in good faith untenable.

Just say no, in triplicate, to BC amendments

The best reason for Bossier Citians to vote down all three charter amendments on Mar. 29 is not so much what they do but what they don’t do.

Two of the three introduce relaxed term limit proposals, that only would permit three consecutive terms for city councilors and the mayor but leave open the chance that an elected official could return to a previous office after at least one term out. Products of a Charter Review Commission whose final membership was comprised of appointees of city councilors hostile to term limits and their appointees, in isolation these offerings are unobjectionable, but they don’t exist in isolation.

Because on May 3, another, more stringent, term limits amendment hits the ballot. This one is three terms lifetime and retroactive, product of a citizen-led petition process and the superior version if the goal is to prevent citizen-politicians from being captured by government.

Monroe school district unable to get it together

As if City of Monroe Schools didn’t have enough problems, apparent thievery at the top is being complemented it would seem from the bottom as well, all the while with the district saddled with minimal, even deteriorating, academic progress.

In the past year, the District has been rocked by allegations that former Superintendent Brent Vidrine on two occasions defrauded it. As part of his contract, he was allowed to buy more service time for retirement, but allegedly he forged documents to show he paid more than he did to receive the benefit. He has been indicted for this, but has paid back some, $20,000, and retired from the District last year even as he seemed to have shorted the district over $48,000 more. Still unresolved is annual extra but unauthorized payments according to his contracts totaling over $141,000 during his decade-long employment.

Possibly this activity was so under the radar that the Monroe City School Board couldn’t discover it during normal due diligence. In last year’s audit, the Board promised closer attention to superintendent reimbursement as a response. But how it has handled reports of spending concerning student activity accounts doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the current Board can get it right.