Poison pill threatens beneficial higher education reform

The seemingly contradictory actions within the Louisiana House of Representatives continue a disappointing session for higher education reform, highlighting a poison pill that threatens to negate otherwise far-reaching beneficial changes.

This week, the House turned down state Rep. Thomas Carmody’s HB 66, the companion legislation to a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed different higher education systems to set their own tuition rates and to delink these from Taylor Opportunity Program for Students awards. With the amendment, these would have allowed schools to increase tuition without requiring two-thirds approval of both chambers of the Legislature, wiping away the ability of system to increase it for each school as much as 10 percent a year if these individually met performance targets, without requiring the state to pay out more in TOPS money.

Enacting these into law and the Constitution would address a higher education delivery system that is overbuilt and inefficient. While alarmist rhetoric incessantly issues forth from higher education policy-makers and sympathizers inside and outside the Legislature that crisis would erupt if taxpayer funding levels for it this upcoming year at least do not match this year’s, the truth is in a comparative sense state subsidies should be more than adequate to meet genuine needs. If funded around last year’s level, that would put the state compared to its peers (plus the District of Columbia) all the way down to 28^th in per capita taxpayer spending on higher education. Which is appropriate, being that the state’s personal per capita income is ranked 30^th.

Jindal order protecting liberty good policy, politics

Producing both good politics and policy, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive order essentially promulgating the contents of HB 707, the Marriage and Conscience Act, also leaves some legislators a bit exposed and less comfortable in this fall’s elections.

It’s odd how a bill that prevents the state from taking punitive actions against individuals and non-public corporations in the conduct of business who refuse to engage in commerce where that action would violate their sincere religious beliefs on the subject of marriage could strike such terror that it does not even get a full hearing and up-or-down vote. State Rep. Mike Johnson’s bill got some discussion and proponents and opponents got a chance to testify, but before he even could ask to have some amendments put on it, the House’s Civil Law and Procedure Committee voted to return it to the calendar. Only Johnson and fellow Republican state Rep. Ray Garafalo objected to short-circuiting the debate (another, state Rep. Cameron Henry, did not show up for the vote).

But it’s common in human history when an oppressive majority, finding compelling argumentation lacking against an idea, suppresses that idea as it cannot defeat it in debate, and the committee’s action only echoes that sad history. No doubt the motivating force for this almost unheard-of maneuver stemmed from the nature of the amendments, which placated any remote chance that the law could be twisted to allow discrimination for constitutionally-unjustifiable reasons.

Common Core supporters win in LA by TKO

In the parlance of the recent fight between Evander Holyfield and Mitt Romney, in Louisiana the winner by technical knockout was pro-Common Core State Standards Initiatives advocates, creating two distinct losers in the bargain.

Last week, after two years of wrangling, legislators from both chambers and both sides of the issue agreed to a set of bills establishing a framework by which the set of standards meets with review, and even possible elimination. Essentially, a large group of people appointed by the various factions involved through three panels will forward, as part of the slightly-accelerated periodic review of curricula by the Department of Education, recommendations about changing what exists to a committee, which then sends it to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which then sends it to each of the two education committees in the Legislature’s separate chambers, which then sends it to the governor. All must agree to the changes or nothing happens.

Importantly, the present CCSSI standards stay in effect if there is not agreement on changes, if any, or on their scrapping. Being as at this time all of BESE and each chamber have majorities supportive of the set of standards, that means no substantial move away from these would be expected at this time. However, it would not be until 2016 that these chances to vet occur, and possibly elections in the interim could send anti-Common Core BESE members and legislators into majorities in their respective bodies.

End special union privilege with paycheck protection

As there is no intellectually defensible reason why labor unions should receive special privileges from taxpayers, hopefully enough legislators will come to see why paycheck protection promotes the public good over non-public greed and to act accordingly.

The bill, HB 418 by Rep. Stuart Bishop, replicates laws in many other states by simply removes a unique advantage given to unions that no other entity in Louisiana that is not a charity, financial institution with government employees as members, or government agency has: the ability to have siphoned money from employees’ paychecks directly to their own coffers, not using their resources to do so but governments’. Unions also have the unique advantage in that for school districts this is the only kind of deduction permitted under state law, and the union dues collected do not even have to go to organizations recognized as bargaining units with the local authority in question. At present, the bill appears to lack a majority in the House of Representative to move forward.

Argumentation in favor of retaining the practice typically involves heaping servings of red herrings and straw men. For state employees, payroll deduction at taxpayer expense in addition to union dues includes mandated federal or state income withholdings, credit unions, garnishments, liens, savings bonds programs, qualified United Way entities, health and life insurance products offered through the Office of Group Benefits, and products having state participating contributions, sponsored by the Office of Group Benefits, as part of a cafeteria plan.

Democrat tactical voting appearing in race for gov

Presented with a quandary about whether to support their party in this year’s gubernatorial contest, Democrats are responding in a way forecasting that if the front-runner doesn’t win there won’t be a Democrat winner either in 2015.

Previous polls made Republican Sen. David Vitter the favorite, followed not too far away by Democrat state Rep. John Bel Edwards, with Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne somewhat farther back, and Republican Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle lagging the field in the single digits. The most recent of the bunch confirmed this pecking order but gave Vitter a larger lead at 38 percent, with Edwards at 25 percent falling back towards Dardenne’s 16 percent, and Angelle still dragging the rear considerably with 5 percent.

Those older ones raised some questions about their sampling frames and the relatively low number of undecided votes. This one, by Southern Media and Opinion Research, had a better sampling frame and came up with roughly the same proportion undecided. Given that it happened two months later, that roughly equivalent proportion appears more reasonably valid and thereby shows a firming of support driven not so much by party label and name recognition.

Alario budget strategy making him conservatives' friend

Oddly, if not ironically, conservatives may end up having Sen. Pres. John Alario to thank for keeping the focus on right-sized, sensible government in Louisiana as the state grapples with a looming budget deficit for fiscal year 2016.

In days gone by, the Democrat-turned-Republican often fronted efforts to expand government spending with commensurate tax increases as part of that. Whether for convenience sake and/or genuine ideological change, as Louisiana began electing legislators more compatible with their own worldviews and that worldview itself began to deemphasize populism, Alario became more conservative/reformist in his voting habits (in this term, his Louisiana Legislature Log voting score has crept up over 60, right about at the GOP Senate average).

And now he is throwing cold water onto House efforts, backed by some of its majority Republicans and party leadership, to raise taxes, most of these for at least a few years, as a budgetary solution by expressing a preference that the Senate will seek temporary means by which to balance the budget – implying suspensions of existing tax breaks would comprise the bulk of any revenue enhancements. As Alario’s greatest skill is herding lawmakers in a particular direction, chances are good it is this way at this time the Senate will head and thereby pressure the House to do the same.

Higher education policy going badly wrong this session

While budgetary constraints present in this cycle could have pressured Louisiana to embark on a long overdue and needed reshaping of its delivery of higher education, if anything in regards to this area policy-makers are engaging in counterproductive backpedaling.

The state’s inefficient system has three issues that prevents it from improving both its quality and efficiency, all interrelated. First, it is overbuilt, ranking 18^th in per capita spending on higher education as a consequence of too many institutions chasing too few students, particularly when it comes to baccalaureate-and-above schools. Second, its funding is imbalanced, where taxpayers subsidize disproportionately compared to other states its spending, while average tuition ranks (for study at senior institutions) only 40^th among the states even as in per capita income ranks Louisiana 29^th, meaning the ability to pay is there for families but its taxpayer spending on this is outsized. Third, it spends inefficiently within institutions, as evidenced by the fact that the baccalaureate-and-above institutions in the similar state of Oregon generate much more proportionally of their own resources with lower expenditures per capita, in part by having a much higher proportion of their students in junior institutions.

These realities mean the optimal reform course would seek to demote, merge, or close senior schools, to raise tuition levels, and to reshape incentives so as to prevent inefficient expenditures. Institutional realignment at the four-year-degree-and-above level can’t happen overnight, but at least the groundwork can begin this year. Tuition increases and shifting of incentives, however can commence to take effect in the next fiscal year that begins in less than two months. Yet with one exception, not only are legislators failing to do what’s best for higher education delivery specifically and the citizenry generally on that issue, but they actually are doing the opposite.

Caddo voters, commissioners continue wasting money

Seven-hundreths of a mill isn’t a lot, but it may have saved the taxpayers’ mother’s milk to the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana from both voters and the Caddo Parish Commission. Which ensures nearly two more decades of waste of the people’s money.

Recently, voters in Caddo Parish took to the polls to decide whether to stamp approval on two property tax renewals. One was for 1.74 mills mostly for the BRF – actually slightly smaller than its reauthorization in 1997 and original amount in 1993 – to help fund its activities in attracting small technology-related startup firms, in providing venture capital, and in running its small medical operation that consists of overseeing facilities, medical grants, and a subsidiary with a Positron Emission Tomography scanner.

But less than two years ago, the BRF got into a whole bigger business – like a minnow swallowing a whale at a scale more than 50 times larger – when the state awarded it management responsibilities over two of its charity hospitals, in Shreveport and Monroe. The only operator of any state hospitals that had no prior experience doing so (technically through a subsidiary), it has come under criticism for what state officials and auditors have described as a troubled transition period, with monetary disputes spilling into the open and intimations that an original considered partner with the state, Willis-Knighton Health System, should step in before the initial contract was up.

Like herpes, worse comparable worth bill returns

It’s not that bad bills make it into law in Louisiana – it happens far too often. It’s that you would not expect that a committee would pass one along unanimously after many almost-identical versions have been rejected in the past – some this session.

SB 219 by Sen. Edwin Murray tackles the fiction that, all things considered equal, women do not receive equal pay compared to men. Reams of academic studies have demonstrated when accounting for all conditions, such as differences in occupation choices, hours worked, educational attainment, taken time off, reliability, and seniority between sexes, any difference in pay statistically goes to zero, or even favors women in certain cases. That makes perfect sense: there are few hardcore sexists out there in the business world who would not want to maximize profits by getting the best workers for their value, and that means ignoring sex as well as a host of other factors when these have nothing to do with the job at hand.

Proponents of this legislation, ultimately designed to extend government control over business with this goal obscured by presentation of a solution to a nonexistent problem, understand that and over the years have adopted a number of strategies to try to work around this fact. The tried-and-true tactic is to introduce the concept of “comparable worth” into such legislation, revealed upon seeing phrases such as “all employees shall be compensated equally for work that is the same or comparable in kind and quality” [emphasis added]. In other words, rather than let the market decide valuation of activities, some artificial construct makes that determination; for example, something is deemed wrong if nurses, a field primarily staffed by women, with bachelors’ degrees make less money than computer technicians, who primarily are men, with associates’ degrees, as a science degree like nursing should produce more “valuable” work. Et voilà, to explain the difference it must be sexual “discrimination” at work.

Unnecessary tax increases could haunt propagators

If Louisiana’s disease was a budget imbalance, it’s hard to see where the alleged cure of tax increases was not worse. Which may require another round of treatment that the authors of this previous round may find hazardous to their political health.

Last week, the state’s House of Representatives dug into the flesh of taxpayers of all kinds, with uncoordinated measures bordering on the irrational, in proposing tax hikes of $677 million – and left wishing they could have done more. A critical mass of the majority Republicans had to join almost all Democrats to pass these measures. At day’s end, chamber leaders declared they wished these proceeds to go entirely to fund higher education, essentially wiping out any reductions from this year’s baseline levels, perhaps as a ploy to pressure health care interests to lobby for additional increases to make up for a gap formed from a combination of not funding for next fiscal year previous improvements to charity hospital operations requested by their nongovernment managers, the opening of the new one of these in New Orleans, and to fund present and future pension payments for the previous state employees of the facilities prior to the state turning over management, of $200 million.

Few of the actions taken made any fiscal sense, these being passage of HB 218, which changes carrying periods for net operating losses by corporations that would reduce incentives to make decisions primarily for their tax implications; of HB 402, which increases taxation on income earned in other states, thereby encouraging making it in Louisiana; and of HB 549 (which actually is unlikely to contribute any additional revenues this year), which begins to reduce the horizontal drilling credit when oil reaches $70 a barrel, recognizing that at a certain point prices become high enough to need less in the way of incentive to perform expensive drilling. These aren’t perfect pieces of legislation in the larger scheme of balancing revenues and spending, but when considered in isolation at least they recognize that tax policy should steer behavior towards activities that increase economic output and therefore government tax take beyond the value of the break.