GOP-led Bossier Jury endorses dumb leftist issue

The yokels who populate the Bossier Parish Police Jury got sucked in, and maybe more of Louisiana’s local government will follow their lead in endorsing a deal that’s good for politicians but bad for taxpayers.

Last week, the Jury resolved, unanimously with one juror absent, to urge creation of a national infrastructure bank by Congress. The idea can trace its roots to the controversial Bank of the United States nearly two centuries ago, and the idea has kicked around Congress in earnest since the start of the century.

This institution, following recent legislation and as pitched by its leading interest group backer, would be a creation of Congress with directors appointed by it and $5 trillion to lend. Its capital would involve swapping $500 billion in Treasury debt with the private sector for equity in the bank, the proceeds from then would be loaned to state and local governments at low interest rates. Interest payments would pay off the equity dividends and create a reserve for bad loans, plus administrative expenses. The principal would be loaned again and again.

Taxpayers, ratepayers save with solar program end

Denying Louisiana grifters of $156 million in federal taxpayer funds wasted on cost-ineffective energy tactics leaves everybody else in the state better off.

The Environmental Protection Agency, as part of its continuing reorientation away from politicized decisions about the environment, under Republican Pres. Donald Trump recently halted a federal spending program known as Solar for All. The move came when the recently passed budget reconciliation bill yanked its $7 billion authorization.

Louisiana, with its version known as “Solar for Y’all, had its $156 million allotment cancelled. The program was to provide solar energy panels and batteries for lower-income households and an opportunity for renters in multi-unit residential complexes to subscribe to a share of a solar farm. In both instances a net metering regime would be established that would allow a credit on power bills for the solar power fed back into the grid. The Democrat Pres. Joe Biden-era program alleged that participants would save 20 percent on their bills and increase the resiliency of the grid by having in the wings a power source for the grid when outages occurred. It was part of a larger program costing $27 billion supposed to reduce carbon emissions.

Some district teaching results strain credulity

Stupid kids or adult gamesmanship? Only one of these two explanations can answer why Bossier Parish students score decently but not all that well on normed exams while nearly three-quarters of their teachers score highest on state evaluations -- with a similar relationship observed in other parish and community school systems in Louisiana as well.

Recently, the Louisiana Department of Education released the latest evaluation scores by local education agency of their teachers, following up last month’s release of LEAP 2025 scores. LEAP test passage is required for advancement and ultimately graduation of students. Earlier this year, the ACT organization made public statewide results of its exam and the College Board released Advanced Placement test numbers; these are tests taken by high school students for admission and college credit purposes.

Within the state, Bossier Parish students performed above average, often just in or close to the top ten districts on the various LEAP measurements for 4^th, 8^th, and 12^th grade, as well as on the ACT and various AP exams. While LEAP exams are specific to the state, the others are national and when stacking up Bossier students with their national peers, they underperformed by the numbers. (The National Assessment of Education Progress test for 4^th and 8^th grades is national in scope, but NAEP doesn’t publicly have figures broken down by LEA although by state which shows that Louisiana, while improving recently to some of its best results ever, still ranks below average overall).

Aced Monroe councilors plan tantrum with tax bucks

Monroe independent Mayor Friday Ellis showed the Democrat majority on the City Council there was more than one way to skin a cat, and its members are not amused to the point they’ll waste taxpayer dollars to vent their frustration.

For months the two majoritarian branches of city government have been locked in a stalemate over appointment of a fire chief. Ellis has sent up one in-house nominee popular with the rank-and-file, only to have the Democrats reject him as nit scoring highly enough on the civil service exam. Then Ellis forwarded the highest scorer, who the Democrats then rejected as only having been a chief in a smaller department.

So, Republican state Sen. Stewart Cathey stepped into the frame, with Ellis’ blessing. He sponsored SB 220, now Act 452, this past legislative session that adjusted local government powers relative to operating their business enterprises. At the session neared it end, having sailed to passage with only one vote against (oddly, the House speaker’s on initial passage), he signaled rejection of the slightly-altered Senate version and the bill went to conference.