Politics more than need explains plan for N.O. hospital

It’s not so much that it’s a matter of one hand of government not knowing what the other is doing, but a complex interplay of genuine need and political wants which explains why the state and City of New Orleans both are building hospitals just miles from each other.

The state continues with its effort to build a brand new charity hospital in New Orleans to replace the in-the-breach interim facility just west of the building site. This new facility has faced criticism over its size in a market already above the national average in beds per thousand population (about 10 percent higher at 3) and consequent cost. Yet simultaneously the city is building a facility in New Orleans East around the site of the old Methodist Hospital, to be operated by a nonprofit religious organization but governed and funded through the Orleans Parish Hospital Service District A, a state-created entity but a component of New Orleans.

The legal structure of this district intends to operate a hospital as an enterprise, without use of taxpayer funds other than a city payment to run it. To date, its funding has come from grants or in-kind contributions and revenues from opening an urgent care clinic. But the intent is for the creation of a full-service hospital even though it would create even more beds in the New Orleans metropolitan area and with 80 beds ridiculously over-bed New Orleans East at about 10 per thousand. The compelling argument, claims the city, is that no emergency services presently cover in the area without having to go over a major patch of water – six traffic spans to the west to other New Orleans/Jefferson hospitals, two east to the Slidell area, and one south to St. Bernard. Thus, potential bottlenecks exist that could cost lives in an emergency situation.

Closing barn door on tax exceptions later better than never

It’s never too late to close the barn door after the horse has gotten out, as some Louisiana legislators demonstrated again as part of approving the details of new tax breaks established earlier this year.

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget had to approve of regulations issued by the Department of Economic Development incident to the new laws. But the natives seemed a bit restless and did not want to do the usual rubber stamping of anything proposed in this regard, no doubt because of the state’s continued precarious budget position and the exposure the issue of exceptions to the tax code increasingly is receiving, with a select legislative committee overseeing the matter.

Eventually, they went along with it, but only after grilling department officials to ascertain that some kind of oversight would occur. These concerned tax rebate agreements that could be offered to employers that would require their approval after a review by an independent, third-party economist aimed at making sure the state will get more tax revenue from the new jobs created than the tax money lost with the credit.

Issues emerge from forum to help voters decide PSC race

Candidates for the open District 2 seat of the Louisiana Public Service Commission participated in a forum where interesting questions arose about the operation of and service on the PSC, also shedding light on a court case dealing with financing the body, all of which help the public evaluate the PSC and its current or potential members.

One question concerned whether candidates for the office should accept contributions for campaigning from utility companies, one of the kinds of firms whose activities may be regulated by the PSC. The fronturnners called this acceptable and said they had already taken such funds, while the also-rans, none of whom to date have filed a campaign finance report implying they have raised little money, said candidates should abjure from taking them.

But the problem with the latter approach is it unfairly restricts the free speech rights of shareholders of those companies, while their special interest opponents would face no barrier. And why single out utility companies when others, like motor carriers, regulated by the PSC would face no ban? If a candidate out of personal preference declines such funds, that’s his business, but mandating that stricture puts the state in the position of tipping the scales against a certain industry, as it already does in similar restrictions against gaming concerns.

Populism explains dearth of intellectual conservative media

Has the New Orleans Times-Picayune woken up and smelled the coffee? Who would have thought that apparently a closet conservative lurked at what’s left of it? That’s the impression one gets upon reading James Varney’s first opinion piece, and, although the issue he brings up isn’t exactly a burning one of the day, it’s interesting and deserves investigation.

Varney appears to have replaced the T-P’s rotund, pale female true-believing liberal columnist, joining the retained relatively thinner, dark male true-believing liberal one (and guest appearances seemingly planned from the aged, pickled leftist curmudgeon) on its opinion roster – which in and of itself is quite a statement. That balance now appears in the offing for the paper’s assigned opinion writers shows that T-P management perceives in order to catch the eyeballs that have begin deserting the printed word in droves, for the first time in decades it might actually want to present on a regular basis arguments sympathetic to the views of the majority in the metropolitan area, Louisiana, and in the country – in full contradiction to its reliably liberal (if not the state media’s worst offending) editorial page.

In his initial effort, Varney advances a question about why conservative opinion journals seem rare around the area, concluding that he doesn’t actually know why, only that digital offerings will increase access. Well, after 30 years of writing conservative opinion pieces and having spent about as long studying conservative philosophy in and out of the academy, some of this in New Orleans and most of it in Louisiana, I can answer that for him.

Electricity deregulation could tip scales in PSC contest

The last edition of this space criticized politicians who should know better in attempting to insert more government into electric power regulation in Louisiana. Perhaps the upcoming Public Service Commission contest will present an opportunity for a winning candidate to embrace the winning issue of less government intrusion.

In the past, there might have been a case for close scrutiny of government in all aspects of this historically vertically integrated industry where generation, transmission, and distribution were performed by single firms in geographical areas where any competition faced tremendous entry costs. But the monopolistic environment, thanks to technological advances, has become softened at least on the distribution end, and to some degree on the generation side. Now, as long as a concern isn’t too far away from transmission lines to one of the three American power grids, as distribution becomes more and more deregulated in allowing customers to choose which supplier provides power, there is greater incentive to create generation capacity and plug it in, increasing choice further.

Unfortunately, Louisiana has yet to ride this wave of the future, until recently having just a handful of firms, dominated by Entergy, generate, transmit, and distribute power (although they have been able to buy and sell power on a wholesale basis) as the only provider in varying geographical regions. However, the first step to changing this occurred a few months ago when the PSC authorized Entergy to join the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc, with the specifics to be worked out over the next few months. This consortium governs power transmission in 13 states. Thus, the new member for the PSC from the open District 2 seat that will be elected no later than Dec. 8 will participate in some big decisions right off the bat.

Vitter ignorant to think more govt solves power problems

Politicians who know better have thrown their support behind a statist scheme that will make matters worse regarding power provision in emergencies, when the solution to reduce the incidence of post-emergency problems lies in the opposite direction.

Sen. David Vitter, joined by Jefferson Parish President John Young, ask state government to set in motion constitutional changes to allow any of a private company, private/public partnership, or government to take over forcibly a utility deemed to be underperforming. Incredibly, they argue it “would inject real competitive pressure” into power provision.

Let’s see if we have this straight: according to these guys, government’s bringing its power to bear to achieve an outcome it desires by fiat, where the decision-making doesn’t have to have anything to do with customer service but instead may be captive to fulfilling dozens of allied (on this issue) different special interest agendas for dozens of different reasons, is what defines “competition?” There’s zero guarantee that this action of stripping a company of its assets, even at fair market value, would not reflect a hidden agenda driven by political considerations.

Budget problems present more reform chances for Jindal

Veteran political observer John Maginnis wonders whether Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to set up the Legislature for something. Maybe so, but perhaps not in the way he imagines.

As state budgetary pressures continue, the Jindal Administration has had to start pruning state spending, to the consternation of legislators who are prone to taking more seriously than deserved interests with outsized influence complaining about unanticipated cuts to, if not closures of, colleges, state hospitals, indigent health care, and prisons. Maginnis speculates that the situation created allows Jindal to have his cake and eat it, too, with the cuts encouraging legislators to revisit tax exemptions next session that he has promised to veto changes to and go around him. Already a special panel is meeting to review the exemptions.

Constitutionally, to repeal an exemption requires a two-thirds majority in each chamber, a difficult standard to achieve. But Maginnis argues the Legislature could suspend an exemption with a majority vote, because the Constitution allows suspension by the same vote required for enactment, which in the case of any law that reduces taxes requires only a simple majority (those that serve to increase them requires two-thirds votes). Further, this could work for an extended period of time, as the Constitution permits the suspension of a law to last as many as 60 days past the end of the next regular session – if done next year, as late/long as early August, 2014. With governors unable to veto concurrent resolutions like this, theoretically Jindal could try to goad legislators into going for it, criticize the move, and then budget the extra dollars with them, keeping his anti-tax increase credentials spotless while getting budgetary breathing room.

LA papers to lose more relevance unless reducing slant

The beginning of this week marks the grand experiment of making New Orleans a two-newspaper town again, as its longtime occupant at the end of the week will defer from publishing every day with an outsider starting to publish daily. Regardless of what happens, those interested in state and local politics likely will end up better off, one way or the other.

The owners of the New Orleans Times-Picayune earlier this year decided to go to a thrice-weekly print publication schedule and to concentrate on online delivery. The privately-held firm has stated cost considerations as the factor in an industry that has shown dramatic contraction as digital delivery makes an inexorable march to becoming the medium of choice. Already, a sister publication, the Ann Arbor (MI) News, has gone completely digital, and other outlets in the chain are making a similar transition as is the T-P.

This decision prompted the Baton Rouge Advocate to announce a foray into publishing daily in New Orleans, although with a barebones operation that would cover only news and some sports. This may appear audacious in a market where the dominant market leader, in one of the highest-penetration newspaper consumption areas in the country, asserts it cannot stay in business in the long run with daily printing. Why that’s the case The Advocate’s bigwigs need to understand if they don’t want the black ink used in publishing to be overwhelmed by the red ink from financial losses.

Sue recall scofflaws to protect society, rule of law

Usually, you have to punch bullies in the nose to stop their behavior. The Louisiana state electorate and some smaller parts of it did so to anti-reformers concerning education, but now parties interested in disclosure must step up and really drive the lesson home.

As noted previously, a handful of school employees invested in the current underperforming system got up recall petitions against Gov. Bobby Jindal and several state legislators, the due date for Jindal’s and at least some of the others expired last week with the expected failure of the efforts, sending a reminder that these defenders of the status quo have lost in the marketplace of ideas. In fact, despite much bragging and boasting about how there was such a groundswell of opposition to the politicians based upon their support of education reform and a number of publicized events designed to collect signatures, in all likelihood hardly any were gathered.

But the public can’t confirm this because the organizers continue to flout state law concerning the process. It’s very clear on this: the organization’s chairwoman must produce signatures within three days upon request, unless already filed with the secretary of state when he must do it. However, the organizers, citing some phantom fear of “retribution,” refuse to follow the law and plan to hold onto the petitions, raising the possibility that they will try illegally to recycle them in a future effort against Jindal or the lawmakers.

Free speech opposition to rule errs factually, logically

Even this space will make a mistake once in a blue moon, and that even the best sometimes do so should be kept in mind when evaluating the incorrect rationale by which the normally-incisive Institute for Justice tries to oppose regulation by New Orleans regarding licensing of tour guides.

For many years the city has required licensing of tour guides, an ordinance spottily if ever enforced until very recently. The city maintains the rules, which include passing a knowledge exam administered by the New Orleans Tourist and Convention Commission, completing satisfactorily a criminal background check, requiring a fee, and wearing of a badge, designed to ensure the safety of and provide high quality service to those contracting for a guided tour for hire. Some guides declare the rules intrusive and a restraint of trade, but local governments through powers granted to the states by the U.S. Constitution have the power to regulate in this area.

However, the Institute argues differently in its donated defense of a few guides challenging the ordinance, arguing that this constitutes a freedom of speech question. They don’t want to submit to the background checks, which they don’t see as reasonable especially as they have to pay for these in addition to the license fee, and the Institute argues that the marketplace will sort out whether the public will pay for guides that don’t seem to be worth it. Hence, in this view the city has no compelling argument to override free speech concerns, where government may restrict in this instance only when the health and safety of the public could be threatened.