PSC must rule to attract centers, help ratepayers

Economic prosperity through data centers is being thrown into Louisiana’s lap. But it’s not enough just to solve the puzzle of economic incentives; political necessities all need attending to.

It turns out that a number of states, run by Democrats, are throwing up roadblocks if not banning outright data centers, on claims that they hog too much water and raise electrical rates. Certainly, the Monroe area, while seeing a surge in business and tax receipts as a result of siting the Hyperion project in Richland Parish, also has witnessed negative externalities that could sour people on the idea.

However, such assertions ignore how other states, many farther along in the game, have engaged in policies that sidestep bothersome spillover effects. After all, they don’t have guns pointed at them, forcing them to hand out no-strings massive incentives.

LA children to benefit from new Head Start rules

Impending rules changes by the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration to running the Head Start programs for pre-kindergarten education will be a boon to Louisiana.

The program is designed provide free child care, allegedly with part of that provision of basic instruction to children from infants up to about five years old, to families who are at the 130 percent poverty level (about the same level as those qualifying for free or heavily discounted health care for states with expanded Medicaid), or in foster care, or who are homeless. It exists in parallel to monies spent by states on similar services to nonqualifying families.

It is, however, typically more expensive to taxpayers –- federal ones, as it exists as a roughly $12 billion grant program going directly to states – than spending per slot by state taxpayers for their separate programs, reaching about $20,000 annually on average for the 0-2 age group program and $15,000 for the 3-5. In large part this is due to the far more stringent regulations the programs have than their state, with one exception, equivalents have.

History of wasted BC tax dollars keeps unfolding

Voter apathy and having the wrong people in office cost Bossier City more than first realized.

Beginning almost three decades ago, the city, doing decently financially, went on a spending spree. Dissatisfaction across the Red River with the State Fairgrounds’ arena for events, particularly ice hockey, aroused the City Council to count coup on Shreveport and build its own. Controversy ensued over its siting and costs, with the numbers initially bandied about eventually almost doubled. What followed was a parking garage tied to a private development which soon teetered into receivership, contributing about a third of the expense to a high-tech office building that failed to attract its intended client and took years to find any substantial tenants at all, construction of compressed natural gas alternative fuel stations requiring more expensive city vehicles that quickly turned into a money-losing proposition, and building a $50-million-a-mile road that didn’t do fully what it was supposed to and perhaps has increased accidents.

None of this was needed, but it seemed to be cool and made it appear councilors and the two mayors involved were doing something to make the city more than America’s biggest small town posing as a bedroom community, enabled by an inattentive electorate. Its own arena! A destination outdoor shopping center! A Silicon Valley-like building to land a new Air Force command! Leveraging of shale assets that skims the cutting edge of low-emission transportation! Relieving congestion on major arteries for the growth boom ahead! Which hardly came, although had the Walter O. Bigby Carriageway been built for its purpose of a true north-south corridor from downtown to the foot of Interstate 220 an extra $20 or so million added to the $89 million might have made sense. But that couldn’t be pursued because of the over $100 million wasted on these other things that made the proper extension unaffordable, adding debt and interest owed needlessly.

LA to benefit from deflating alarmists' hot air

With wind power generation from offshore Louisiana now on the back burner, if not moribund, the hypocrisy of Luddites stumping for propagating this enterprise off the state’s coastline has become all too apparent, even as this result saves American taxpayers and/or consumers their hard-earned dollars.

Under the climate alarmist Democrat former Pres. Joe Biden Administration, a lease for this purpose was sold in federally-controlled waters 40 miles south of Lake Charles. Under the equally climate alarmist Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration, the state also leased two more such lands in state waters.

But now the federal lease has gone with the wind. The Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration, guided by climate realism, gave the German company RWE $1.2 billion dollars to relinquish that claim and offshore sites in other parts of the country.

Trends argue for LA to stop subsidizing movies

So, Louisiana is losing jobs in the film and television industry. That’s a good thing that can knock some sense into lawmakers chasing the bright lights of movie stardom.

A company that rents out spaces often used for film production took some U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and reported that the state lost the highest proportion of jobs in this industry since 2024. Even as there are states with much higher numbers of people working in the field, it still amounted to one of the highest absolute job losses in that time period.

It’s a comedown for the state that pioneered the notion of state subsidization of filmmaking by transferrable and refundable tax credits, passing that legislation in 1992. As many as 44 other states until recent years joined in to offer some kind of incentive, but that number has since fallen by several.

Landry move should reduce N.O. homelessness

Louisiana is a little late to the party, but it’s finally gotten on the right track when it comes to housing policy.

The state recently announced, through the Louisiana Housing Corporation which is a state agency that administers federal and state funds through programs designed to advance the development of energy efficient and affordable housing and run by appointees by various state officials but the majority by the governor, that it bid to oversee housing policy in New Orleans. As federal housing grants have a ceiling that go to an area, if money goes to the state to use, other entities won’t have it.

And almost certainly the state will grab control of the around $50 million the area will get because its plan, unlike the theory behind those of the present lead agency the nonprofit UNITY of Greater New Orleans, is congruent to best practices that the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development recently adopted. While state and local government and nonprofit representatives rank the applications, HUD has the final word.

Another lightweight story shills leftist agenda

Same tune, different verse for some Louisiana leftist media outlets, this time involving Republican Rep. Julia Letlow.

A couple of months ago a media organization that combined forces of three far-left news sites (backed largely by leftist out-of-state foundations) ran a piece on land acquisition and sales that involved GOP state Sen. Jay Morris concerning the Hyperion project in northeast Louisiana. It used what frequently has become a go-to tactic when leftist media wish to disparage a public official: taking disparate actions and events that themselves are perfectly legal and ethical, try to present a misstep, and use that to attempt to connect those even if unrelated as evidence of some kind of corrupt behavior, as a means of discouraging the official from pursuing a goal against the left’s agenda.

In the case of Morris, it was because Morris fronted legislation to right-size various offices around New Orleans held by Democrats, whose government thoroughly is awash in leftist ideas very out of step with the rest of the state and finds itself increasingly leeching off state taxpayers. Now comes a piece from the efforts of regional public radio and National Public Radio doing something similar with Letlow, coming as a desperate attempt to stop her expected big win this fall in the race against a far-left Democrat nominee.

Last ditch Democrats to push House races right

If you want excitement out of Louisiana elections this fall, you’re only hope is a pair of congressional contests that originally would have been settled by now as well.

The state’s six congressional elections found themselves rescheduled and reformatted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the previous districts unconstitutional, but time was running short. Additionally, Republican Rep. Julia Letlow forwent her Fifth District seat to win the GOP nomination for the Senate, meaning she will win by at least double-digits in the fall.

So too will the party’s nominees for three Supreme Court slots (technically, already elected), two Public Service Commission spots, a seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and three of the six congressional districts. The Democrats will triumph only in a single House district.

Caddo, Bossier races: ain't broke, no need to fix

Caddo and Bossier Parish contests for school boards and judicial positions this fall will follow a maxim that if it doesn’t seem broken, don’t fix it.

In Caddo Parish, only one incumbent judge across the First District, Shreveport City Court, and Caddo Parish Juvenile Court drew a challenger. That was the embattled Democrat City Court Judge Sheva Sims. Earlier this year she drew another suspension, the first since 2015, for nine months from the state’s Judiciary Commission, but decided to run again. Two other black Democrats, lawyers Kharmen Davis-Taylor and Trinicia Leonard, have challenged her. The other two City Court incumbent judges plus newcomer Republican Amy Brainard faced no opposition.

For District Court, all but two incumbents will walk back into office. Another rookie, Republican Heather Courtney, also will get a free pass, along with her husband Republican Justin Courtney on the Juvenile Court bench and his two compatriots. The only competition here will occur for the other open seat where Republican Hugo Holland will face off against Democrat Treneisha Jackson Hill.

Lesser-known races to provide NW LA excitement

Three of the highest-profile contests in northwest Louisiana for this fall’s election involve offices most voters rarely consider, all with some controversy involved.

Two of the hottest will occur in Shreveport and Bossier City for the obscure office of marshal. Each city court in the state, whose judges are elected, also has a city marshal attached to it, who carries out the orders of the court. Often that isn’t a great deal to do, so, in line with Parkinson’s Law, they perform other tasks as by ordinance (and reap extra compensation).

These offices often draw competition, and there is a logical explanation as to why: they can turn into huge jackpots because statute allows a marshal to collect fees for a wide variety of actions. The office does have expenses, principally for deputies in larger jurisdictions, but above and beyond those the marshal can keep the rest for himself. Several in the state make more than any other elected official in their jurisdictions, into six figures.

Can GOP's Arceneaux win again in Shreveport?

Perhaps obviously the Shreveport city majoritarian branch elections will make a big splash in northwest Louisiana, with the largest question of whether surprising results from 2022 can replicate.

The Shreveport mayor’s contest tops local office tussles in the region. Four years ago, Republican now-Mayor Tom Arceneaux upset Democrat then-state Sen. Greg Tarver to win in the majority-black city electorate. He accomplished this by making small but significant inroads into the black vote beyond the baseline city-wide Republicans had come to expect, which came as a segment of the black vote simply found Tarver unpalatable.

Since then, Arceneaux’s mission became how at least to hang onto black voters willing to give him a chance under those circumstances and perhaps capture more while hanging on as much as possible to his Republican base. That has produced a mixed bag of results: generally competent leadership but having to navigate consequences of crises he inherited especially up against a hostile Democrat-led City Council, and from time to time scoring own goals.

Reject Monroe school taxes for future lower rates

About the only thing that makes sense coming from the split among Monroe City School Board members over looming property tax renewals/reductions is the Board majority scheduling the vote in December when it has the best chance of passing.

Last month, the Board voted to put the propositions of 13.93 and 5.94 mills for operations and maintenance on the Dec. 12 ballot after renewals of 14.41 and 6.15 mills failed in May elections headlined by party primary votes for the U.S. Senate. These proposed are the current millages being levied, after the Board eschewing rolling forward rates to their maximums allowed since 2016, which then were levied at the rate that failed the voter test. The current levy expires at the end of the year.

Putting an election on a date with much less stimulus for voters to turn out is an age-old trick of local governments to pass taxes. Disproportionately supporters, who may be government employees whose agency directly benefits from the tax that also incite their families and friends, turn out for these. Delaying the vote from Nov. 3 also avoids at the same time that three supportive board members would have their names up for reelection on the same ballot as a tax.

Restrict, not ban, license plate readers in LA

There’s no question that automated license plate reading cameras need increased scrutiny. The only question is by how much.

Recently, Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, over social media and the airwaves, served notice that next year he would introduce a bill to ban such cameras. He declared the Legislature had momentum to do so after last year banning traffic enforcement cameras in all areas except school zones and the city of Opelousas. As well, the presence of reader cameras has irked privacy advocates worried that this has become another big data source ripe for exploitation, if not a breeding ground for constitutional violations of probable cause for searches.

However, he should expect some resistance. Law enforcement agencies have found the technology, which captures plate images that a private vendor collates into a database that law enforcement may access, helpful in tracking down suspects, even almost in real time that improves apprehension and conviction rates. Simply, this pits privacy rights against public safety.

LA should conduct study to increase JP relevancy

A little-known new law might serve as the start of the answer to making a superfluous, anachronistic office more relevant in the 21^st century.

Starting last month, courtesy of Act 950 passed this year, East Baton Rouge Justice of the Peace Districts were extended into Baton Rouge. That means they overlap with the Baton Rouge City Court, but only concurrently on one piece of jurisdiction: evictions where rent is fewer than $5,000 monthly.

Area legislators successfully advocated for the measure in order to reduce the backlog of eviction cases piling up in City Court. Ordinarily, within their jurisdictions as well as with evictions JPs deal with bail for minor cases (with an amount in controversy fewer than $5,000 or not with hard labor as a potential penalty), litter abatement, movable property abandonment with parish approval, and in a few parishes immovable property standards and nuisance cases.

Bossier Parish restroom ordinance appropriate

Again, it’s important to remember that when on the losing side of the argument, delivering distraction and non sequiturs becomes the order of the day, as recent squawking about a proposed ordinance in Bossier Parish illustrates.

Last month, the Bossier Parish Police Jury passed along a measure that creates a framework to ensure and enforce that in parish-owned or run buildings those of a biological sex only use restrooms and dressing rooms designated for that biological sex, unless the facility were designated family/single occupancy. Essentially, a parish employee if discovering or alerted to a violation may issue two warnings (first, exiting the facility, then exiting the building, which could be the same) if not heeded then makes the person subject to arrest and criminal penalties. Essentially, it adds criminal enforcement to existing state law.

The ordinance bends over backwards in other ways. It exempts actions pertaining to a parent assisting a minor child., assistance provided to a disabled person, emergency medical care, law enforcement activities, custodial or maintenance services, and emergency evacuations or disasters.

Miscreant top judge not wrong on clarifications

You can be right and wrong at the same time, a recent flareup at the Louisiana Supreme Court proves.

No party Chief Justice John Weimer keeps getting on the wrong side of his colleagues. In 2023, upset at how they thought Wiemer ran the Court – the senior-most justice legally becomes chief regardless of the desires of others – that they formed a committee to administer the Court, leaving only ceremonial duties for Weimer. Republican then-Assoc. Justice Scott Crichton was appointed to lead it.

He almost found himself out of a job years early (he will surpass the age limitation disallowing reelection in 2032) when in 2024 almost all of those then on the Court backed a reapportionment plan that would have changed his district residency. He survived when a subsequent plan kept him in place.

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.