New Orleans clowns invite tough love punishment

You mess with the bull, you get the horns, politicians in New Orleans as the city comes to potential reckoning through tough love.

The saga started at the beginning of the month when a grand jury out of thin air lodged an indictment against Republican Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill. It charged her with multiple counts of malfeasance and public intimidation, whereupon a special prosecutor was appointed. The basis for that came weeks earlier when the city attempted to contravene new statute that abolished one of the clerks of court by merging it into another, but was shot down by the judiciary. Murrill had warned city officials that those actions violated state law and threatened legal action to remove officials from office if they proceeded.

That indictment was halted almost immediately by the state Supreme Court, citing perverse legal logic, conflicts of interest, and procedural errors. It said the case essentially was dead in the water on the basis that Murrill’s actions amounted to her discharging legally her duties.

Stats don't back Stewart getting tougher on crime

The “Seabaugh effect” keeps progressing on Democrat First District Attorney James Stewart, a recent review of data reveals.

Stewart will face off against Republican state Sen. Alan Seabaugh this fall to try to win reelection. Demographics slightly favor Stewart, but Seabaugh has shown a terrific campaigning ability in his runs for the state Legislature.

In his challenge, Seabaugh, picking up on some disgruntlement within the parish, has emphasized an approach that will lead to more charges filed and more cases going to trial. Stewart has come under criticism for being too much in the mold of a “progressive prosecutor,” or one who tends to dismiss lower-level charges or pleads down too aggressively because supposedly prosecutorial resources should go to more serious crimes and lower-level offenses are allegedly an offshoot of a disadvantaged background that are committed disproportionately by racial minorities.

Property tax amendments could shake govt finances

In light of what happened this spring and what’s going on in other states, it’s not too soon to talk about Louisiana’s property tax amendments placed in front of voters in fall elections.

Four came as a consequence of the last regular session. Act 274 would add to the homestead exemption for the special assessment level as applied to owners 65 and older up to $30,000, Act 272 would put an exemption in place for rehabilitation of blighted properties, and Act 39 would transfer the special exemption for surviving spouses of veterans one time. These would decrease non-municipal (and including New Orleans) local governments’ property revenues. Potentially raising it, however, is Act 273 which removes a quirk in adjusting millage rates that would allow them to increase within the four-year assessment period after a decrease, so long as the maximum authorized rate isn’t exceeded.

But perhaps the greatest impact would come from Act 220 of 2025, which bumps up the income eligibility level for special assessments (mostly owners 65 and older which freezes their aggregate taxes paid) from $100,000 to $150,000 (which in the case of the Act 274 amendment would add even more leakage). Given the large numbers of unknown such as qualifiers, there is not an estimate of the total cost to local governments, other than it’s assuredly fewer tax dollars rolling in.

Govts must not forfeit NE LA economic surge

It's a new world in northeast Louisiana with Meta plopping down in rural Richland Parish what now may become the world’s largest data center, pumping in $50 billion in economic activity over the next decade, it was announced recently. I experienced a symptom of that with this traffic jam at rush hour with vehicles returning from the construction site over a road that never used to see anything close to that volume.

Anecdotal evidence like this now has empirical confirmation. The economic development group Grow NELA has inaugurated a web site displaying data it collected on general sales taxation across the 10-parish region. In some cases, the numbers are astonishing.

Every parish showed sales tax growth from when Meta first announced the Hyperion project at the end of 2024. Only a couple have a pre-Meta quarter that was higher than any of the quarters in their Meta era. Ouachita from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of this year was up 17 percent, compared to only 14 percent from the first of 2021 to the same in 2024. For all of 2026, sales tax growth in on track to increase 19 percent.

Ill-timed tax votes waste bucks, disserve public

The Bossier Parish Police Jury is pursuing one of the most hackneyed dodges that a Louisiana local government can do, wasting, and maybe collecting too many, tax dollars in the process.

Last week, the Jury voted to send a couple of property taxes out for renewal. One is a 1.99 mill dedicated to roads and bridges, currently with only 1.95 being collected, and the other is a 0.82 mill dedicated to running the parish health unit as established by statute which the parish must maintain with only 0.81 being collected.

It’s difficult to argue against the presence of either. Infrastructure is a constant concern, and the health unit is a legal obligation on behalf of the state. But the manner of renewal is craven, if not cowardly or even duplicitous.