BC rottenness becoming harder to hide

As the Bossier City political insider world continues to crumble, what once could be sidestepped in darkness and silence increasing becomes blatant revealing the rottenness of the entire structure.

The legal ramifications of this worldview and attitude were on full display at the City Council meeting this week. The first hint came with an agenda item telling the world the Council would head into executive session to discuss what was called potential litigation. This is permissible under state public meetings law that shields content about a limited range of topics including legal and personnel actions.

The matters included city money spent on rehabilitation of parking lots supposedly damaged by construction on the nearby Walter O. Bigby Carriageway, but under questionable circumstances that reek of favoritism and cutting corners. More specifically, Republican Councilor David Montgomery had advocated publicly and vociferously for expensive roads work that could increase access to a single business – one owned by a longstanding friend of his who also has a close friendship with an employee in the city’s Public Works Department. Refurbishing and connecting the parking lot of that business, Scot’s Audio, to another, Bossier Power Equipment’s also rehabilitated, would accomplish that objective. Whether related, City Attorney Charles Jacobs, his assistant Richard Ray, and with the approval of Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler but without proper due diligence, authorized the work and in a way that may have violated public bid law.

Ganja, hemp bills to do little to kill LA's buzz

If you can’t keep Louisianans from getting high legally, maybe you can discourage them by taxing one form more, somelegislators hope.

Ever since the institution of medical marijuana in Louisiana almost a decade ago, and a few years later legalizing sale of consumable hemp products, it’s been easier than ever to go around in a haze without legal repercussions. In the case of medical marijuana, what started as a tightly-controlled regime somewhat based upon science that shows marijuana provides almost no genuine medical benefits of any kind has become a free-for-all where just about anybody can get as much as they want for whatever reason they want. The trend continued last year where a couple of new laws extended the program to 2030 and eased some administrative burdens, although at least lawmakers didn’t go for complete legalization.

Complete legalization, limited only in respect as being termed a “pilot program,” is back on the table this term from HB 627 by Democrat state Rep. Candice Newell, who brought the legalization effort last year. Should that succeed, Democrat state Rep. Edmond Jordan has HB 636 all cued up and ready to go to tax it, although applied not to the sellers but producers of the constituent parts.

Hopefully, these will go nowhere but for another hallucinogenic product it’s gone way beyond the camel poking its nose into the tent. After hemp production and sales legalization, lawmakers realized the way the law was written it could deliver products that deliver quite a buzz as well. Legislation passed last year tapped brakes onto the industry, forcing a toning down of potencies and restricting sales to fewer potential outlets and not to people under 21.

But the problem remained in that even if “servings” were quantified at a lower size and psychotropic level, with impunity adults can run out and buy as much as they want to bring about a high, although with more difficulty. Even though the state tax receipts from these items consist of only a few million bucks annually, the nascent industry’s lobbying arm has proven adept at keeping the enterprise legal (Louisiana’s level of regulation falls about in the middle of states; a few make it illegal while about half have it legal with little restriction, with the rest in between).

Thus, a couple of bills have been prefiled for the upcoming regular session that would jack up taxes on hemp-based sales as a disincentive for use. One, HB 235 by Republican state Rep. Mike Echols, would tack on an extra 17 percent excise tax with collected monies distributed to education, criminal justice, drug education, and hemp testing uses. The other, HB 187 by GOP state Rep. Bryan Fontenot, raises the existing three percent levy only 12 percent.

If legislators want to walk back hemp legalization while assuaging any guilt they might feel about allowing adults to walk into almost any kind of stores and grab enough products to buzz yet mouthing pieties about not hampering business but secretly looking for more revenue for general purposes, they might latch onto Fontenot’s bill. They also could approve a pair of bills by Republican state Rep. Laurie Schlegel that apply punitive measures to illegal sales.

But neither genie appears to be put back into the bottle, or at least realistically restricted in any way. Just not enough of the spirit of Daniel Schneider to go around the Capitol, it would seem.

TOPS bill must jettison lowest standards

More than just retain more higher education students in state, the Louisiana Legislature should expand on a bill to make the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students a true merit-based award.

TOPS guarantees that if a graduating high school senior in Louisiana achieves certain mediocre standards that the state will pay a substantial portion of higher education tuition. Until about a decade ago all tuition was covered, leaving only fees unsubsidized (although higher achievement above the lowest standards merited an additional stipend), but then the level was decoupled from tuition increases and a gap began to grow. For example, the present reimbursement of in-state non-accelerated program tuition at my institution leaves a gap of $283.68 or just over 5 percent for the annual 30 hours, not including $1,712.64 in other fees (this is for the basic Opportunity qualifier; higher ACT scores could push a qualifier into the Performance or Honors category where stipends of $400 or $800, respectively, are given).

The gaps, it is claimed, are part of the reason why a slow by sure decline in number of Louisiana graduates accepting TOPS awards. In response, Republican state Rep. Chris Turner has filed HB 77 that would increase the minimum award for each TOPS level that in many cases exceeds the highest tuition and fees now charged (there would be a few exceptions, such as those Louisiana State University makes to admit certain students that otherwise wouldn’t meet Board of Regents-defined standards, but many of the exceptions come in under other scholarship programs). It also would create a fourth category for the highest achievers, Excellence, with a larger bonus (keep in mind, however, that Honors winners wouldn’t even meet the admission standards at some flagship universities in other states, while Excellence winners would).

Make leftists pay for opposing fiscal reform

The irony is that at the precise time that Louisiana’s teachers have most demonstrated they deserve a pay raise they now are least likely to receive one, courtesy of the political left which in the past often backed that cause.

Leftists in the electorate did opposite of what they once preached when last month they voted down a constitutional amendment which would have made school districts grant the hike in perpetuity. Going against the wishes of teacher unions, leftist special interests managed to turn out enough electoral support to do this, although some distracted conservatives who lost sight of the forest for the trees aided them.

This happened even though more than ever teachers deserved a reward for the progress their students have made. In the past few years, Louisiana schools have sprinted up state educational rankings, which surely can be credited to improved teaching thus meriting higher future pay.