Demagogic insurance bill aims to distract

It’s not even old wine in new bottles; it’s old wine in old bottles and still sour. And it’s the same old story of distraction to enable continued transference of wealth from ratepayers and consumers to trial lawyers.

SB 55 by Democrat state Sen. Jay Luneau essentially warms over some corpses from last year, combined into one bill. It would prevent insurers from basing rates on individuals for vehicles on the status of an insured being a widow or widower, the insured's credit score/rating, or the gender (which really means “sex,” but insurers refer to it as “gender”) of an insured over the age of twenty-five.

The facts haven’t changed to make any of these changes any more redeemable or sensible. To start with the banning using of widow or widower status that typically confers higher rates on previously married individuals, that simply reflects that in general single people drive more, which raises rates. Individual cases vary, but insurers often can’t distinguish among individuals and so are permitted to use this grouping.

Panel stops short with LA elections advice

A legislative task force made a very small step in improving Louisiana policy outcomes by recommending the state move its congressional elections to a modified closed primary system.

Currently, the state operates under a blanket primary system, which really isn’t a primary at all. It’s a general election without party nominations where any candidate may run regardless of label (or none), and if no candidate secures an absolute majority heads to a runoff between the highest two finishers.

And it’s extremely problematic from a policy-making view because it devalues the single most effective concept in aggregating, articulating, and clarifying issue preferences and holding politicians accountable: the political party. This tarnishing occurs because the state’s blanket primary system (except for presidential preference primaries) provides no incentives for voters to think in programmatic terms and reduced penalties for disloyalty by a candidate to his articulated preferences, of which these may not match those generally of other candidates running under that label for similar offices.

Honesty needed on gas tax failure, Biden suit

Honesty would be the best policy in Louisiana politics. You’re not likely to get it, as those who want bigger and more intrusive government illustrated last week.

Perhaps the defeat of his wife for a spot on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in a special election the previous weekend convinced Republican state Rep. Jack McFarland to pull the plug on his legislative attempts to hike the gas tax. Associating the family name with increasing taxes may have cost her a spot in the April runoff by making her conservative claims less credible compared to those of her conservative Republican opponent lawyer Michael Melerine, who almost certainly will capture the seat.

Regardless whether that result demonstrated a paucity of support for hiking taxes while the state’s economy shrinks year-over-year, McFarland announced he would abandon the effort publicized by a special interest group intent on seeing increased government spending on building roads. The group, which counts among its members many entities who would receive that taxpayer largesse, claimed that other legislation could meet its goals and the recent federal spending bill also would provide the state with potential one-time funding for roads.

Trucking tort reform needed to avert crisis

Unless the Louisiana Legislature acts soon, trucking operators in the state will find themselves becoming extinct.

Over the past decade, industry costs have spiraled upwards dramatically, largely fueled by exploding liability costs. The average size of jury verdicts increased nearly 1,000 percent from 2010 to 2018, rising from $2.3 million to $22.3 million. Worse, runaway juries are stretching the bounds of liability, with the most notorious case being a 2014 incident where a passenger vehicle crossing the median and striking a truck, killing a child in the vehicle, yet the family successfully sued the trucking company and won a $90 million judgment, now on appeal.

Any interstate truck must carry $750,000 in primary liability. In Louisiana, for those who don’t leave the state, the limit starts $300,000. Just for that minimum, the average annual rate is $13,143 per rig.

Harmful agenda threatens LA higher education

Louisiana leaders should rebuff attempts to cheapen higher education delivery on the basis of racist argumentation.

Last year, a panel authorized by law to study dual enrollment – allowing qualified high school students to take courses for college credit – issued a report aiming to increase this incidence. It made many recommendations, but the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic made any movement on these impossible last year.

With a new year, legislative action could occur. And certain special interests have seen this as an opportunity to advance a destructive agenda for both taxpayers and students.

Bogus "Equal Pay Day" encourages bad LA bills

The inevitable caterwauling, fueled by bleating from earlier this week, about a nonexistent problem inevitably will end up ready to waste Louisiana legislators’ time.

About as inevitably as herpes recurring, every year since 2003 with the exception of 2008, and sometimes in multiples, the Legislature has seen introduction of a bill purporting to address “pay equality.” Filers have included a pair of past Members of Congress (one returned to the Senate last year), the frontrunner for a House seat (vacated by the other former Member), and the current Mayor-President of Baton Rouge.

These haven’t varied much. They all base themselves on a statistic that women make only X cents on the dollar to men in pay, and therefore government regulation becomes necessary to stamp out the alleged “discrimination.” This year’s version, as unveiled by activists testifying to Congress vetting this foolishness and echoed during yesterday’s “Equal Pay Day,” is 82 cents. Activists select the day as an indicator of how many extra days into the next year a woman supposedly must work to match a man’s compensation.

King fleeing pressures LSU prez, Board, Edwards

Sic semper regibus. And the King goes down, which will have political repercussions in Louisiana even though the former Louisiana State University president vacated the state well over a year ago.

Yesterday, the Oregon State University Board of Regents took the resignation tendered by its former president F. King Alexander, who had headed up the LSU System from 2013-19, over his inaction regarding LSU administration knowledge and concealment of sexual misconduct, if not criminal activity, among its student athletes and coaches. It shows the risks that two-faced, mealy-mouthed administrators face as they grapple desperately up the academic ladder.

Alexander exemplified the new breed of high-level university administrator. He had little in the way of classroom experience, obtaining his terminal degree in higher educational administration and getting grooved his first job leading a university by succeeding his father. His career became hopping from one job to another looking for something better, becoming a chameleon in the process.

Edwards ignoring science on mask mandate

Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards still won’t let his people go, despite the growing consensus that his Wuhan coronavirus pandemic policy doesn’t follow the science and has failed – even taking into account the increased incidence of self-destructive lifestyle choices by Louisianans.

While nearby governors jettison mask requirements and most, if not all, economic lockdown restrictions they had in place (which in most instances were fewer than Edwards still imposes), he stubbornly refuses to do the same. Asked last week about the policy, he proclaimed his mask mandate isn’t going away any time soon, despite that vaccinations against the virus continue steadily, the new case amount has dropped by over 75 percent since mid-January, and daily deaths fell to average single digits last week.

Already well established that economic restrictions do little good – the latest academic study showed in a comparison across jurisdictions that these had a significant positive impact in less than two percent of cases – utilizing face coverings has greater scientific backing. Still, as a recent exchange in U.S. Senate hearings demonstrated, an improper understanding of the science can prompt even the top medical official in the U.S. to make mistaken policy recommendations.

Regional LA special elections end predictably

Regional special elections went much to form across Louisiana last Saturday, leaving the state’s conservative dominance largely untroubled.

Most pro forma of the bunch came in the contest for the Fifth Congressional District. Predictably, Republican administrator Julia Letlow swept into the seat that remained vacant when her husband Luke, elected last fall, tragically died just before his swearing in. She rang up nearly two-thirds of the vote in a contest where the only drama involved whether she could win without a runoff, given the dozen candidates in the contest. She answered that rather decisively and shamed Democrats whose sole entrant could muster just 27 percent of the vote.

Less predictably but rounding into expected form, the Second Congressional District race ended in a runoff matchup between Democrat state Sens. Troy Carter and Karen Peterson. Carter racked up 36 percent of the vote while Peterson trailed with just 23 percent, edging out Democrat community organizer Gary Chambers at 21 percent.

BC voters make down payment on policy change

In the clash of competing philosophies, generations, and campaign strategies, Bossier City election results showed the tide has begun to turn against the parish’s old guard.

This weekend’s municipal contest at best presented the chance to put a down payment on dismantling the long-standing old Bossier power structure. While over the past two decades the city underperformed fiscally, allowed debt to put every resident in hock nearly $7,000 each, and saw crime become increasingly problematic, this cabal was more committed to counting coup on Shreveport, puffing their chests out, and breaking their arms trying to pat themselves on their backs than to addressing those deficiencies.

However, three members of the City Council – independent Jeff Darby, Republican Jeff Free, and Democrat Bubba Williams – didn’t draw any opponent. And in the one open seat contest, old Bossier support coalesced around Republican Vince Maggio against Republican reformer Marsha McAllister. Meanwhile, Republican at-large councilors Tim Larkin and David Montgomery drew challengers Republican Chris Smith and Democrat Lee “Gunny” Jeter, and District 1 incumbent Republican Scott Irwin faced GOP challenger School Board Member Shane Cheatham.