LA legislators seeing through expansion snow job?

The Medicaid expansion con job perpetrated on Louisiana by the Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration continues to unravel, as confirmed in yesterday’s preliminary budget hearings by the House Appropriations Committee.

The Department of Health’s request for $14.6 billion for fiscal year would, in terms of operating expenses, vacuum up half of the state’s spending. From the beginning of former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal’s terms, this more than doubles that amount of a decade ago (including charity hospital costs), both in overall spending and in the amount of general fund dollars expended.

But LDH Secretary Rebekah Gee insisted Medicaid expansion had nothing to do with escalating state costs, saying almost all new spending would come from federal dollars. Further, she alleged that expansion had saved money this fiscal year – the oft-stated number being $184 million – and according to this budget would cause a reduction of $41 million in general fund spending over last year.

Trump picks portend good things for Louisiana

The news just keeps getting better for Louisianans regarding the shape of the incoming Pres.-elect Donald Trump Administration, with the selection of Dr. Ben Carson as Sec.-designate of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Before that pick, dating prior to the Republican’s election last month, Louisiana experienced a steady stream of good news regarding the assumed direction of national public policy under a Trump Administration. Tapping significant anthropogenic climate change realist Myron Ebell to direct incoming environmental policy and personnel meant a step back away from the punitive, ideologically-driven Environment Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse gases, challenged in court by Louisiana, and in approving of pipelines that would bring substantial energy resources to the state for processing and export. It also means putting a lid on alarmism by the federal government on the hydraulic fracturing process of extracting energy, which plagued efforts in some parts of the state.

Naming Republican Rep. Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services will help Louisiana pull back from the after-effects of ruinous Medicaid expansion. If that survives at all, it likely would come in a form of vouchers backed by block grants that allow states to shape their coverage parameters and responsibility, perhaps along the lines of the plan initially offered by incoming Vice Pres. and current Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Pence rejected by the federal government.

Out-of-touch Campbell Senate candidacy sinking fast

As it suffers its death throes, the campaign of Democrat Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell has turned increasingly bizarre, lurching into an Orwellian mode entirely tone deaf about why he will lose this election in uncompromising fashion.

With polls showing a healthy lead for fellow runoff contestant Republican Treasurer John Kennedy and early voting trends not on Campbell’s side, he and his allied political action committee Defend Louisiana have banked everything on hopelessly desperate and tellingly self-unaware advertisements and statements. These appear desperate because they spin fantastic assertions that strain credulity and lack awareness because they bring up Campbell’s own vulnerabilities as a candidate.

For example, even though Kennedy has publicly voiced pro-life attitudes since 2004 and has the endorsement of the leading pro-life group National Right to Life, the PAC ran ads claiming Kennedy harbored pro-abortion sentiments more than a dozen years ago. That Defend Louisiana would employ a tactic attacking Kennedy on inconsistency on this issue seems ironic given that the organization initially formed to back Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards last year, who himself evinced pro-abortion sentiments in a contemplated 2006 run for Congress and in 2009 as a legislator supported weakening a pro-life conscience protection bill yet now claims staunch pro-life views.

Conflict coming between Edwards' approval, agenda

Something’s going to have to give, and likely that means public approval of Democrat John Bel Edwards will fall unless he changes his agenda.

In a recent poll, Edwards checked in with about five-eighths of registered voters approving of his job performance, versus a third who disapproved. His rating came in a bit overstated, however, as the sample contained 49 percent Democrats compared to just 44 percent statewide, and that a significant gap appeared in judging him favorably between Democrats much more friendly to him and Republicans. Also worth considering: Democrats tend to turn out to vote in disproportionately fewer numbers than Republicans, by a small margin.

Still, it’s better than being barely above water as he was months ago, when then well under half approved. But going forward his agenda the public soundly rejects, creating a major problem for his elective career.

The Advocate column, Dec. 4, 2016

Edwards puts adults' needs ahead of children
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_41a77ce2-b803-11e6-be6e-c362010a712b.html

Links:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_64b9cb26-aa85-11e6-8f67-eb08d7a6667c.html
https://edexcellence.net/articles/how-will-essa-change-ohio%E2%80%99s-school-report-cards
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/why-school-report-cards-fail
http://peterccook.com/2015/07/20/quick-take-jabbar/
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/spi/2016/spi0916.htm
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_267fa724-57f4-11e6-9a77-47e1011b4e6a.html

Legislative leaders too comfortable with road tax hike

If it already isn’t, for conservatives it should be pretty close to last straw time for Republican state Rep. Kenny Havard, with perhaps some disgust left over for Louisiana’s GOP legislative leadership on the issue of transportation policy.

Although he burst into the consciousness of many with his ill-timed sense of stripper-based humor during the past session of the Legislature, Havard during his career on numerous occasions championed big government inimical to conservatism: sponsoring legislation that essentially would halt privatization efforts, supporting Medicaid expansion, and voting to keep letting unions use taxpayers as their bill collectors.

Still, he managed to wangle a prestigious committee chairmanship, Transportation, Highways, and Public Works, by playing both sides of the street. He publicly endorsed Democrat liberal then-colleague, now-Gov. John Bel Edwards last year to take the state’s top job, but cannily refused to back Edwards’ choice for House Speaker Democrat state Rep. Walt Leger in favor of staying loyal to his party that led to the installment of Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras.

Campbell's strange debate strategy unlikely to pay off

There’s no mystery as to why Republican frontrunner for Louisiana’s Senate seat Treasurer John Kennedy may not enthusiastically wish to participate in a debate with his Democrat runoff counterpart Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell. More curious is why Campbell seems not to want the joint appearance to come off as well.

With polling giving Kennedy a commanding lead in the Dec. 10 runoff election, he can fall back on the tried and true tactic of running out the clock. When in the situation that dynamics favor you and the only way to lose is to make some tremendous mistake, you limit your chances to make these, while not looking like you completely want to ignore campaign events.

By contrast, someone as deeply down as Campbell would want to emulate Democrat former Sen. Mary Landrieu, who as soon as she found out she fell well short of winning without a runoff against Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy in 2014, even though she led him narrowly in the general election she immediately asked for an absurd six debates in the month prior to the runoff. Cassidy laughed that off and they had one a few days prior to the final election where he blew her out.

Disgust at Shreveport garbage fee should go further

Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler will have to reassess old spending priorities to shore up a leaky 2017 city budget buffeted by property tax and garbage fee subtractions.

During quadrennial periods coinciding with presidential election years, Louisiana assessors perform a mandatory reassessment on all property in their parishes, reflected in that year’s billing. In Caddo, as with some other parishes in the wake of flooding during the year and a general economic slowdown in the oil patch, its assessor Charles Henington reduced marginally property values parishwide.

In typical years where assessments rise – either because of the reassessment or because property sales occur at values higher than the property’s previously-assessed values – governing authorities on their own may roll forward millages in order to capture more tax revenue. Even if they do nothing, rates automatically roll back to produce a constant stream of dollars. But in a situation where property tax proceeds actually will go down because of changed assessments, they cannot do anything unilaterally to prevent that.

Back to the future appointment reminds of regression

Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards made the old new with a recent appointment, continuing to demonstrate the retrogression his administration brings to Louisiana.

In agencies part of the Division of Administration, leaders serve at the pleasure of the governor, so with Edwards’ assuming the job at the beginning of the year, one by one heads selected by Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal, unless told not to by the incoming regime, stepped aside. For his pick to helm the Office of Group Benefits, which oversees employment benefits of state employees save for retirement matters, he chose former OGB Chief Executive Officer Tommy Teague.

Previously appointed by Democrat former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Jindal assented to him continuing in the job until he began to buck the Jindal Administration on streamlining the agency and reining in excess balances held back from ratepayers. Officials wanted to privatize most functions as had almost every state and to institute a more realistic reserve level; at around half a billion dollars, this was at least twice as high as industry norms, a trend Teague had tried to feed by asking for rate increases annually that DOA usually pared down considerably.

The Advocate column, Nov. 27, 2016

Louisiana's left relying on scare tactics to mobilize support
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_71d83664-b0f5-11e6-8ea5-73e6cbe1f6a7.html

Links:
http://klfy.com/2016/11/10/damage-left-in-wake-of-new-orleans-anti-trump-protest/
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/crime_police/article_044768be-a77b-11e6-b8e0-93ecfe761745.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/crime_police/article_2e351106-a74b-11e6-86d9-cf799c2824a8.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_07105398-a79f-11e6-b38a-179c88ebc0b6.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_b8bed38a-add5-11e6-bb7d-af2f87ad99d8.html
https://louisianademocrats.org/2016/11/10/louisiana-democratic-partys-executive-committee-unites-to-endorse-campbell-jones/
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_b8bed38a-add5-11e6-bb7d-af2f87ad99d8.html
http://www.marshalljonescongress.com/press-release/newspaper-headline-creates-controversy-never-wrong-time-right-thing/
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/daniel-mitchell/