Climate alarmism ready to gouge LA taxpayers

If you think climate realism of Louisiana’s Republican legislative majorities will keep the climate alarmism of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards from hurting Louisianans, think again.

Earlier this year, Edwards’ task force designed to produce recommendations to force the state into hitting the alarmists’ goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and halfway there by 2035 issued its report. The most drastic measures are dead in the water without cooperation by the Legislature and GOP-majority Public Service Commission, but it outlined plenty of mischief available for perpetration onto the state in the remainder of his term.

Last week, he gave some insight into that by acting on one of the pieces of advice rendered in the report. Upon receipt of the first tranche of funding from the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden Administration (assisted into law by Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy) for electric vehicle (EV) charging station rollout, he announced plans to transitioning the state’s public fleet to low- and zero-emission vehicles by a rolling replacement of state vehicles across all agencies.

Study underscores Edwards pandemic missteps

As other jurisdictions begin to fall prey to repeating folly associated with the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Louisiana and specifically Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards should learn from his mistakes as highlighted by a new study.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity recently released a report on the efficacy of measures taken in the pandemic by U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It reviewed both health and economic statistics to rank order states in their responses, where higher grades went to states that endured less economic destruction, reduced educational disruption, and whose citizens suffered fewer deaths (either from the virus or in excess deaths triggered by restrictions). To refine further the explanatory power of policy, the economic indicators were adjusted by composition of state economies (such as Louisiana being more vulnerable due to its reliance on tourism) and by overall state health (such as Louisiana being more vulnerable due to worse lifestyle factors). The authors noted that of these mortality likely was the least likely least affected by policy.

All in all, Louisiana — and by extension Edwards’ policies, since statute permitted little legislative input — didn’t fare badly on the index. It ranked not far below average at 29th, although only Virginia scored worse among southern states. Also of note, of the 28 states ahead of it, only eight didn’t have unified Republican governance and just one didn’t have the GOP in control of at least one branch. By contrast, of the 22 behind, only four had unified Republican control and split control in three, leaving the other 15 under complete dominance of Democrats.

One poll does better in assessing LA officials

I’m not sure what to make of a survey by my alma mater concerning Louisiana’s major statewide elected officials that stood in great contrast with another recent poll of the same figures, or even whether it can tell much meaningfully at all given the characteristics of that effort.

Recently, JMC Analytics completed a poll of 600 statewide likely voters in the period Mar. 21-23, apparently by random interactive voice with about three-quarters coming from cell phones, without a response rate listed. A week later, from Mar. 28-Apr. 1, the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center did the same of 325 statewide registered voters through live interviewing asking for a particular respondent with an unknown distribution of cell phones involved that triggered a response rate of seven percent. Both adjusted sample composition to reflect race, sex, and geography, while JMC also balanced its by partisanship and UNO by age.

The JMC effort asked many more questions and differently, using a five-category Likert ordering by creating “very” and “somewhat” vessels for approval or disapproval to go along with “no opinion.” UNO asked about only those three figures using just response categories of “approve,” “disapprove,” and “don’t know.” (Survey research literature generally considers “don’t know” and “no opinion” as interchangeable methods of preventing neutral answers, which may disguise themselves as actually a respondent not caring, or at least not caring enough about the question to spend the cognitive effort to form and relate an opinion.)

Woke EPA prepares to bully LA processors

Here comes the punch to Louisiana telegraphed a couple of months ago, by an Environmental Protection Agency clearly captured by woke special interests against which the people and their elected officials must fight back.

Last week, the EPA announced it would investigate alleged state agency discrimination against black residents of an area with a large concentration of chemical manufacturers. Like a puppet, the agency parroted flimsy claims made a couple of months ago by a special interest group in the area that the state too cavalierly allowed permits for some facilities (one existing, one planned, and a proposed grain elevator) which provoked an “environmental justice” violation, or an example of an institution by its systemic nature discriminating against racial minorities in its allowing greater pollution where they disproportionately live.

Of course, the “environmental racism” behind this is a notion is a myth, dispelled beginning a quarter-century ago yet which continues in discourse only because its advocates redefine it not as a produce of intent, but of outcome that makes the concept lose its discerning power. More specifically to the case at hand, concerning permit decisions for the existing and planned producers in St. John the Baptist Parish, through a series of dishonest claims beginning with the oft-refuted assertion that people living in so-called “Cancer Alley” have significantly higher rates of cancer, it rears its ugly head. In reality, the best recent study, of plant employees where it contains a proxy for exposure as opposed to others that measure cancer incidence and distance from emission only crudely, confirms no elevated cancer rates.

Peterson bails while left embraces her style

My doctorate isn’t medical, but Democrat former state Sen. Karen Peterson finally took my advice, ironically as the party in which she served in a senior position increasingly has adopted the unhinged style that she practiced in her legislating.

Last week, on the Louisiana Senate floor, Peterson called quits to her 23-year legislative career about 20 months early, citing a decision to focus on her personal life. She publicly has battled gambling addiction, which she attributes to depression.

Some specific incidents in recent years hinted at her personal struggles. In 2016, Peterson went ballistic over a colleague’s birthday cake she called sexist and profanely chewed out its creators and recipient. In 2019, she also became vituperative over her exclusion to admission to a casino, even though being barred being was her idea.

Nonpartisan judicial elections disserve public

Those members of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee who recently voted for HB 206 either don’t understand the bill’s implications or aren’t for good government.

The bill by Democrat state Rep. Kyle Green would remove partisan designations from judicial ballots. While most states use elections to pick state court judges at least at the highest level, most that do don’t have partisan elections, the majority don’t use elections at lower levels, and Louisiana is unique as the only state that has partisan elections at all levels and does not feature retention elections as part of that.

Elections alone aren’t the best method because that carries the most possibility for political considerations to intrude in the selection process. This occurs because of the vacuum of information that voters by necessity have about these elections. They have next to no access to the minutiae behind decisions of sitting judges and for candidates without any bench experience none whatsoever. Further, even with that access most likely don’t have the interest to commit to understanding these.

Cassidy picks poor issue to debut populist self

The Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy redemption tour now heads to the National Flood Insurance Program, but it’s an issue where he may not find that much traction.

Last fall, rules alteration to the major mechanism for providing flood insurance in the country began shifting gears to price policies more realistically. A new methodology started bringing price increases to around two-thirds of the population, almost most will be relatively small, with larger amounts for the few phased in over the next several years. At that point in time, the changed rates impacted only new policies and the almost quarter who would see decreases on annual renewals.

Last week, the other shoe dropped with renewals suffering the increase commencing. Louisiana disproportionately, not surprisingly given its geography, will take a hit with only a fifth or so of ratepayers seeing reductions. And about 3 percent will see dramatically higher rates over the coming years, with these increasing not more than a rate of 18 percent a year for most, although some special cases could be 25 percent. But for single-family primary residences, a cap of $12,125 will be in place this first year, and other subsidies such as those reflecting how well local governments fortify against floods can lower this cost.

Bill aids case against election outsourcing

A recent state court decision has reinforced the original intent of how Louisiana funds elections, but a clarifying law would do better.

Last week, the state’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a district court decision that misread the Constitution and statute. In 2020, two special interest groups, the Center for Election Innovation and Research and the Center for Tech and Civic Life announced they would distribute hundreds of millions of dollars supposedly to defray election expenses in the face of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. However, a closer inspection particularly of the latter, which in Louisiana planned to operate through another advocacy organization called the Center for Secure and Modern Elections and eventually would channel nearly $400 million nationwide to election administrators, reveals grant restrictions that often followed leftist elections policies.

The CSME involvement was notably suspicious. The group acts as a child of the major leftist dark money group New Venture Fund, and is related to another, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, that lobbied for automatic voter registration and, ironically given the group’s name, against ballot security measures. For the 2020 election cycle, the former raised nearly $1 billion, whose largest donor in the hundreds of millions has been the Gates Foundation founded by multi-billionaire Bill Gates and ex-wife, and the latter nearly $400 million, about half from just four billionaires. Its principals have served in a number of capacities for leftist politicians and organizations.

Override effects to ripple well past Edwards

While the historic veto override of last week certainly demonstrated the continued deterioration of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ power, it also has future implications beyond his time in office.

When both chambers of the Legislature slapped down Edwards’ veto of a recent special session bill reapportioning the state’s congressional districts – especially with the House gaining crossover votes from a Democrat and three non-party representatives in order to succeed – it represented the first time a veto session had overturned a governor’s wish on anything. That came on the heels of the first veto session ever last summer, making this one just the second in nearly a half-century under the current Constitution.

Although conventional wisdom posits that Louisiana’s governor wields much power, actually those formally enshrined in the Constitution don’t give him an extraordinary amount, especially when compared to some other governors. The state’s chief executive doesn’t face some limitations as do some, not having to settle for relative few appointments and not facing much legislative ability to check executive orders, but at the same time only has all-or-nothing veto power except for budget line items and all can be overridden by the Legislature and he must put up with more separately-elected independent constitutional executive officers and boards than in almost any other state.

Perkins reelection hit by more bad publicity

After steering clear of controversy for a year, the latest flareup involving Shreveport’s Democrat Mayor Adrian Perkins couldn’t have come at a worse time for him.

Up through the end of 2020, Perkins’ first two years in office had been tumultuous. The rookie politician made several policy and ethical missteps, culminating in a disastrous political move of running for the U.S. Senate and performing very poorly. It seemed to bode ill for a shot at reelection this year, but 2021 passed quietly for him without him attached to negative attention-getting events.

Until the end of the year. After some voluntary personnel resignations, at last year’s beginning the city needed to fill the chief financial officer’s position, one of the most powerful in its ranks that requires City Council confirmation. Tapped to fill it in the interim was Kasey Brown, who had joined the Finance Department not long after Perkins took over. Brown, about Perkins’ age, had vaulted straight from a few years as an assistant bank branch manager – about the lowest managerial level in retail banking possible – into an assistant CFO position.