LA policy-makers must extend smoking ban

The good news is the smoking ban in East Baton Rouge Parish, including Baton Rouge, is producing the intended effect. The bad news is some renegade metropolitan areas in Louisiana still discriminate against individuals with pulmonary limitations – but state policy-makers can do something about it.

About a year-and-a-half after the ban, mirroring state law except it included casinos and bars, went into effect, air quality in a sample of those businesses showed indoor air pollution dropped 98 percent. The group that sponsored the testing hailed these results as victory for people employed in those establishments in their avoiding second-hand smoke.

But the real winners are the growing segment of adult Americans who suffer from some kind of respiratory ailment. About three in ten have one of emphysema, asthma, hay fever, sinusitis, or chronic bronchitis. A much smaller proportion have much more serious conditions that require consistent medical intervention to allow them to breathe.

Edwards politicizes by calling others political

Politics were on display when Louisiana’s Revenue Estimating Conference met last week ironically with the agent politicizing the process accused another member of doing just that.

Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards and his panel designee Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne didn’t like that the REC – which also has as members the Speaker of the House or his designee, the Senate President or his designee, and an independent economist – refused to bump up the official revenue forecast by $40 million. Both an economist from the Division of Administration and from the Legislature recommended that emendation to the forecast.

The REC sets the revenue baseline for the governor’s executive budget for next fiscal year, released a month into a calendar year, as well as affects whether government may spend more or have to cut in the current fiscal year. An extra $40 million added to the existing forecast helps Edwards politically in three ways: by making it appear the state enjoyed increased prosperity under him, by hiking the baseline thereby giving him more to distribute to favored constituencies next year, and – in an atypical budget arrangement in effect only this year – allows spending contingency funds for specific purposes that total (perhaps not coincidentally) $43.3 million.

Leger likely to challenge Landry, lose

Louisiana Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry likely will draw a high-profile Democrat challenger, but is unlikely to lose his reelection bid.

Recently, Landry announced his intentions to run for a second term, and (insert here customary declaration the statement that follows next is certainty unless the candidate in question gets caught with a live boy or dead girl) is pretty close to a lock to winning that. In part, it’s because of the historic nature of his first three years in office.

Until Landry assumed the Department of Justice helm by defeating seasoned two-term incumbent Republican Buddy Caldwell, Louisiana attorney generals had a marginal role in defining the exercise of state government power. Constitutionally, the officer mainly deals with civil law, although a district attorney or court may invite him to deal with criminal matters. Statute also gives him a variety of powers not inconsistent with these in the Constitution.

Kennedy correct: voting a privilege, not right

When Louisiana’s junior Republican Sen. John Kennedy calls voting a “privilege,” constitutionally he’s correct.

Kennedy, who occasionally moonlights teaching constitutional law at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, made that remark incident to a feud over which felons may vote between GOP Sec. of State Kyle Ardoin (currently standing for his current job on Dec. 8) and Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. His statement came under question in a column by the Baton Rouge Advocate’s Mark Ballard (I am contracted to write a weekly opinion column for The Advocate).

Ballard’s allegation reads in full:

The Advocate column, Nov. 25, 2018

Gov. Edwards' push for Medicaid expansion cost Louisiana taxpayers $62M of wasted money
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_d220f424-edc6-11e8-ae2c-8fb3e73508f9.html

Links:
https://lla.la.gov/PublicReports.nsf/1CDD30D9C8286082862583400065E5F6/$FILE/0001ABC3.pdf
http://www.ldh.la.gov/healthyladashboard/
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2018/02/done-right-medicaid-work-rules-will.html
https://www.watchdog.org/national/error-rate-report-confirms-need-to-end-food-stamp-performance/article_17d50c16-7b36-11e8-98fb-53a0febe66cf.html
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2018/08/data-show-huge-medicaid-expansion.html
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2018/01/medicaid-expansion-defenses-again.html
https://www.kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/marketplace-average-benchmark-premiums/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

Audit deals blow to Nungesser reelection hopes

The agency overseen by Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser in responding to a tough state audit probably gave a good hint of a combative reelection strategy for its boss.

That wouldn’t deviate from his past statewide runs, where for this office Nungesser had a strategy of making feisty ideological proclamations, even if much had nothing to do with the duties of the office itself. But now as the incumbent, he has to defend his record in office, and, ironically enough, one big mark against him to many comes from an issue preference he expressed in carrying out his official duties.

This came from a Bond Commission vote not to disallow bond merchants whose financial businesses discouraged exercise of Second Amendment rights, a motion which failed in April by his single vote. Another attempt in August that succeeded found him absent. In more symbolic ways, Nungesser also has perturbed conservatives, such as a reluctance to criticize Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards over questions of taxes and spending.

Thanksgiving Day, 2018

This column publishes usually every Sunday through Thursday around  noon (sometimes even before; maybe even after sundown on busy days) U.S. Central Time except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Independence Day or Christmas or New Year's when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, there are six of these: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas. My column for The Advocate will run on Easter Sunday.

With Thursday, Nov. 22 being Thanksgiving Day, I invite you to explore this link.

LA blanket primary won't go away anytime soon

Louisiana’s blanket primary election system won’t be going away anytime soon because, for now, elites dependent upon it want it.

Officially, it isn’t even a primary at all, with it technically being a nonpartisan general election with a runoff should no candidate receive a simple majority of votes. All candidates regardless of party affiliation (if any) participate. A trio of other states have similar systems, except they are of the “top two” variety where a primary prior to the general election sorts out which two appear in the general election, regardless whether one receives a simple majority in the primary.

Rumblings among state politicians on this issue caught the attention of my colleagues at the Baton Rouge Advocate (I am a contracted to write a weekly opinion column for it), who produced a story about whether the state should change. It has used the blanket primary since 1975, except for all political party and presidential preference primary or caucus elections since then and in 2008 and 2010 a closed primary system for Congress.

Modest proposal to end LA film tax credit waste

Here’s the solution to ameliorating the damage from Louisiana’s porous Motion Picture Investors Tax Credit – defeat Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards for reelection next year.

It’s not that Edwards has proved an impediment to reforming the giveaway, which returns about a quarter of every dollar subsidizing filmmakers, many of whom come from out of state. He might well be, given his past support of the corporate welfare that he reiterated recently in a jaunt to Hollywood. But lawmakers haven’t ever challenged him to do so, only instituting tepid reforms last year.

Instead, it would be the act of keeping him from retaining office. That’s the model that nearly worked in Georgia. Over the weekend a number of Hollywood’s dimmest bulbs called for an industry boycott of the state, since it declared former Republican Sec. of State Brian Kemp the winner over Democrat lawmaker Stacey Abrams for governor.

The Advocate column, Nov. 18, 2018

New Orleans City Council shouldn't reverse Entergy decision for these reasons 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_54776ab8-e866-11e8-b75a-07d145e24605.html

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_580dee6a-dd56-11e8-a550-f72cccae8618.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_04e04914-dc8d-11e8-906b-a765ffffe066.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/gambit/new_orleans/news/the_latest/article_8cb15d2a-e048-5bfe-aa50-1ab45673086e.html
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-orleans-city-council-approves-entergys-128-mw-gas-peaker/518952/
https://www.nola.com/politics/2018/10/city-council-votes-to-fine-entergy-5-million-for-paid-actors-scandal.html
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36813