Trump and Landry defuse Luddites on data centers

It’s not as important that another Republican Gov. Jeff Landry win tamped down discord among some over data center spillover costs, but that it deflated the rearguard action conducted by climate alarmists.

Already having set the stage with his recent executive order that said costs passed on to power and water consumers as a result of data center creation and expansion had to be matched by benefits conveyed to consumers in other ways, Landry received an assist from his ally Pres. Donald Trump upon the latter’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge  recently drawing the signatures of heavy hitters in the data center universe. Governors also were invited to sign off, and Landry assuredly did that which crept a bit more forward than his executive order.

Essentially, the pledge says entities involved will not pass along exclusive data center added costs to the general public. All major Louisiana power utilities have signed it as well as a number of entities building, overseeing, and operating, or planning to do so, data centers in the state. A framework to restrict this already exists with the Public Service Commission, although a dissident Democrat on it claims this should occur more specifically.

Suit may make BC Marshal Whitman next victim

The Bossier City political establishment’s worst nightmare is back and, even if tangentially and somewhat accidentally, about to threaten another of its member’s political careers.

Last month, in Merriott v. Bossier City, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals thoroughly embarrassed former city councilors Republicans Jeff Free and David Montgomery and no party Jeff Darby, along with current City Attorney Charles Jacobs with a ruling handing an almost total victory to SOBO.live website operator Wes Merriott. He sued the city after what the panel described as a series of egregious abuses of power by the majority then on the City Council, goaded by Jacobs, in its violating Merriott’s free expression and due process constitutional rights.

Although a district court initially dismissed much of the case, the panel revived almost all of it with instructions that will make it all but impossible not to rule in his favor and potentially invoke damages against the city (the individual defendants will escape penalties on the basis of a technicality). The city failed to appeal by its deadline to do so this week, so the case will resume in Judge Terry Doughty’s Western District Court at some point in the future.

Obamacare disenrollment benefits Louisianans

More good news continues to come Louisiana’s way as policies to improve verification for taxpayer subsidization of government-backed health insurance take hold now aided by the expiration of bonus dollars for it.

Disguised as a Wuhan coronavirus pandemic palliative but in reality a mechanism to encourage more dependency on government and to acquire a greater taste for getting free stuff from government, until starting this year the federal government subsidized on average almost 90 percent of the premium paid for health insurance purchase under a state or federal government market, known as Obamacare. Cooler heads prevailed to remove the extra gift so now the typical exchange user pays closer to 30 percent.

This partly is responsible for a decline in exchange enrollment, although the stepped-up verification also contributes as it catches out disingenuous or inattentive people to prevent them from qualifying for subsidies (roughly a quarter, estimated at around 6 million) which have income means tests. Louisiana so far has seen enrollment numbers drop by more than a quarter, and also has experienced fewer annual enrollees maintaining coverage since signing up at the start of the year. Both the decline in aggregate enrollees and enrollment drop off are among the highest of states.

Promoting marriage would bring benefits to LA

Louisiana has made stellar progress in education. But what may temper these gains more than anything else something almost entirely out of the control of educators.

Soon to be published is an analysis of the impact that marriage has on children’s academic achievement. Researchers note an enormous gulf in achievement between children in married households with both parents present as opposed to, at the most extreme, single parent-led households. They caution this can be confused with other associated indicators such as race, leading to incorrect policy prescriptions that too enthusiastically declare that racial considerations are at fault for poor outcomes when in reality something else is at work.

It long has been observed that children from higher socioeconomic statuses achieve educationally at significantly higher levels than do low SES children, and marriage plays a part in that as it denotes a future orientation of a life planned together that includes measures to earn better incomes that typically come later, allowing devotion to children of greater resources and for greater homelife stability. Unmarried couples tend to have children at younger ages and in a more cursorily, if at all, planned fashion more oriented to present gratification than in striving for more economic and emotional security for offspring. Staying married usually, although not exclusively, reinforces the same future-oriented attitudes into children that spawn academic success.

Cassidy unfitness reinforced by voting views

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy gave us another reason why it’s a good thing he’ll be out of a job soon: he doesn’t understand the basics of one of the most crucial policy aspects of it.

Recently, Cassidy was quoted musing about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and, even though he sponsors the one and only version of it, would like to see changes to it. Basically, insofar as the act of voting it requires official government-issued identification in order to vote, and it restricts the use of mail-in ballots to certain special cases that prevents mass-mailing.

However, Cassidy isn’t on board with control that tight. Moreover, he wants to encourage participation, which he imagines would come from not restricting mail ballots but expanding their use such as Oregon’s practice of mailing ballots to all who were registered to vote with that vast bulk coming from driver’s license interactions. Indeed, he claims having closed primary elections constitute an impediment to voting, even as the majority of states restrict voter choices when selecting a particular political party’s nominee for offices, and tried to back this sentiment by noting that voting turnout for the GOP closed primary in May that announced his defeat had significantly lower turnout than his 2020 general election victory.

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.

LA must stop subsidizing viewpoint discrimination

In recent years, Louisiana has taken the lead in protesting viewpoint discrimination by government proxy through the private sector. Its policy-makers should do so again and expand those efforts in covering when the private sector does business with state government.

In the Murthy v. Missouri case, Louisiana played a major role taking up the cause of one of its then-citizens whose viewpoints on health decision-making were discriminated against by social media companies, which in isolation was uncontroversial except that government actively steered the companies in that direction. The judiciary held this to be state-sponsored speech suppression, but it also determined that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. A narrower case, without the state’s involvement, then filed brought a settlement where certain federal government agencies could not engage in that discrimination.

There are other ways in which Louisiana has fought viewpoint discrimination. A few years ago, the State Bond Commission, then led by then-Treas. John Schroder, declared it would not do business with entities that discriminated by viewpoint, specifically with those that refused to do business with gun manufacturers. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry the year he took office issued an executive order covering higher education institutions, which prohibits state agencies and public institutions from discriminating against students, faculty, or staff based on their political ideas and aims to foster a culture where individuals do not face retribution for their speech or political beliefs.

BC district can't treat big boys preferentially

Creating an economic development district that could help to revive the flagging fortunes of Bossier City’s Boardwalk might have merit, but it depends very much on execution that doesn’t have one set of private businesses subsidizing another.

In recent months, meetings have occurred attended by a number of business owners located from the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway north bounded by Hamilton Road, East Texas Street, and Traffic Street and inclusive of businesses along these routes. The proposed boundaries would include all casinos, the East Bank District, and the Boardwalk. General conversations have been held discussing the areas to include, revenue collection methods with an additional sales tax charged as the leading option, and uses of these proceeds such as using them to back debt issuance to pursue projects.

EDDs under statute may be created by a local governing authority, so the City Council would have to pass an ordinance doing this and would establish itself as the district’s governing authority, with, among other powers, has the power to tax. These could collect revenues by property (5 mill maximum) or sales taxation (2 percent maximum) or hotel occupancy taxes (2 percent maximum) and engage in a number of economic development projects, or even establish cooperative endeavor agreements to run the district with public or private entities.

GIGO-hampered lists misinform on state of LA

Louisiana policy-makers, businesses, and citizens are laughing all the way to the economic development and social livability banks even as a leftist news organization misreads the room.

Last week, cable business channel CNBC peddled two indices of where states rank. One overall index, alleging to capture state economic performance, put the state 46^th, citing its heavy reliance on federal dollars that may shrink – partly a consequence of the stupefying decision to expand Medicaid a decade ago at the behest of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards – tariffs, and slow economic growth.

The other was a subset of the first, supposedly capturing quality of life that factors in about a ninth of the overall. Here, the state ranked a place worse, with Vermont on top and Tennessee on bottom.

BC bad past spending choices hamper development

When peeling back the layers, the Bossier City Council’s recent decision to deny a rezoning request isn’t about accommodating a commercial enterprise at the edge of a residential neighborhood but illuminates a consequence of poor spending choices made in the city’s past.

Last week, the Council, contrary to the recommendation of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, voted 6-1 to deny the request – for a second time – to open a chiropractor clinic at the corner of Douglas Drive and Benton Road. South along the east side of Benton Road up to that point are a string of commercial establishments, but behind these are the older neighborhoods. The west side of Benton from just south of Douglas is all large-lot residences almost to Viking Drive.

Councilors introduced multiple reasons to deny the request again. One questioned why the owner, who lives nearby, wouldn’t buy a more suitable commercial property as the location to transfer his business, with speculation that he was trying to get a price break and then count on changing the zoning. Another noted that the city was in the process of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new master plan and any zoning decision should wait until after its completion rather than carving out what could be a last-second exception.

Landry tries again to thread needle, on centers

Just as he has found himself trying to thread a needle concerning carbon capture and sequestration, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has tried to do the same regarding data center presence in the state.

Last year, under growing popular pressure, Landry issued an executive order that had the effect of slowing down CCS projects in the state. It allowed only a few to go forward, rendered when increasing public and legislative opposition advised that the impact particularly of the sequestration process had not had sufficient study for the application of appropriate safeguards.

This issue has caught Landry between its two aspects of capture and sequestration. With federal tax credits (and, for now, carbon credits paid by foreign concerns) for capture enabling a profitable industry, Louisiana has a competitive advantage only because of its abundance of sequestration options. It has no leverage over capture policy, just sequestration policy, but it precisely is sequestration around which major opposition has coalesced.

LDH free condom giveaway strategy shift beneficial

If you’re a dude (or you’re a gal who’s about to have an assignation with such a guy) who can’t keep it in your pants, go grab yourself a free state-issue condom. And here’s a map to help you.

Yes, Louisiana participates in an HIV (and, more generally, sexually transmitted and infectious disease) prevention program that, among other things, tosses loads of free condoms to nonprofits and businesses to distribute. For example, feeling randy in Bossier City but concerned you’ll pick up a gift that keeps on giving? Check in to any of four motels on East Texas St. and not only can you get a room for the deed (maybe even by the hour), but a free state-issue wrapper as well.

According to the most recent numbers, the state spent $3 million of federal money on the broader program in the latest year available; how much of this went to condoms and if there were state taxpayer dollars at work is unknown. And, before accusations arise about how this is a looney leftist politicized waste of money, it is a Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration initiative.

Groups oppose rule that would uncover true selves

If you throw water on a dog and it yelps, the water must be scalding to the dog. The interesting question, as in the case of the hue and cry emanating from leftist special interests over a proposed Louisiana Public Service Commission transparency rule, is why what seems lukewarm to everybody else feels radioactive to them.

At its next meeting, the PSC is expected to approve a rule requiring intervenors in cases to reveal in broad terms whether they receive funding from entities outside of Louisiana including foreign governments and if so the proportion. Additionally, money from foreign governments or entities that they control received over the past five years would have to be specified, including whether domestic donors to organizations received money from these sources. The rule would apply to any entity that comments on a case, all the way from climate alarmist organizations to corporations, including regulated utilities, who have a potential monetary interest in an outcome, including lobby groups.

It's not like this information is hard to come by. Corporations or cooperatives have to file tax forms that draw upon this information, and nonprofits, even those designated as charitable, also have to collect information on donors to satisfy reporting requirements such as indicating sufficiently large donations or determining whether they meet a public support standard to qualify as tax exempt.

Media outlet falls for reporting flawed narrative

If you’re a special interest group basing your policy preferences on bad science that needs donor dollars, you must scare people, and a Louisiana media source bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

This year, the group Climate Central put out a report alleging that summers over the past 35 years have warmed in almost all of 243 U.S. cities and that anthropogenic climate change is the leading driver in nearly all of those. Then the group, which prides itself on fronting the fable that anthropogenic causes necessarily have triggered more extreme weather such as rising average temperatures and packages this for local media, snookered the Louisiana Radio Network into swallowing this line for a story about summer temperatures in Louisiana, blaming supposedly higher temperatures on increases in carbon emissions that eventually will lead to doom.

Chasing the story was defensible, given alarmist reporting about temperatures. However, swallowing the bilge whole proved a lapse in judgment.

Monroe unwise to change mayoral veto standard

A frustrated set of Monroe City Council Democrats are advocating the gutting of the intent and purpose of the city charter because the system works.

Last week, the Council addressed a pair of vetoes issued by no party Mayor Friday Ellis. He struck a measure that would have established a constitutionally problematic procedure for addressing allegedly discriminatory statements and actions among city employees, prompted when his chief operating officer Morgan McCallister hit back at baseless accusations of such alleged statements. Another denied ordinance would have had the city annex a neighborhood, against the decision of the city’s zoning board, with questionable liabilities involving a principal whose other project is stalled by the city, discussion of which in front of another government body was what prompted the accusation against McCallister.

Council Democrats complained that Ellis had the power to create an extra hurdle for things he didn’t support – in other words, carping about a venerable and basic check and balance in American government. Democrat Juanita Woods said she was bringing a reworded version of the investigatory ordinance one of which was introduced later, and she insinuated racism lay behind the annexation veto, while Democrat Rodney McFarland said the stated basis of the veto was “lies” and made the similar comparison that the largely-black southside area of Monroe was getting shortchanged; all Council Democrats are black while Ellis is white.

Registrant totals show continued GOP momentum

It’s official: for the first time in around 150 years, Louisiana has more registered Republicans than Democrats in the electorate, with implications.

Official beginning-of-month statistics give Republicans an over 2,000-registrant lead over Democrats. Compared to the year’s beginning, the GOP has added over 12,000 voters while Democrats have lost over 18,000. As the electorate increased by around 6,000, this means that all other voters gaining made up the 12,000 or so difference.

It’s hard to overstate the significance of the shift. Not even two decades ago when Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal became the first lifelong Republican to win the Governor’s Mansion, Democrats held a two-to-one advantage (and there were 134,000 fewer registrants then). That means the GOP has increased 52 percent since, while Democrats have dropped 41 percent. Even more dramatically, 65 years ago Democrats comprised 99 percent of the electorate.