Just because Gov. John Bel Edwards won’t
admit that he follows the past practice of governors in weaponizing capital
outlay requests doesn’t mean he doesn’t do it, as a review of the fiscal year
2018 spending decisions reveals.
Edwards returned
Act 4
of the Second Extraordinary Session with three dozen
line item vetoes. While a few seemed appropriate, such as excising a
request for a medical facility in north Baton Rouge that appeared duplicative
of existing resources, many looked entirely random outside any political
context.
For example, in the district of Republican state
Rep. Chris
Leopold, who typically votes against Edwards’ agenda, the Democrat took two
swipes, vetoing a $1 million project to build a gymnasium and spending $120,000
on a park. Yet he kept on a $4,165,000 request to build a state-of-the-art
athletic complex at Carver Collegiate Academy in New Orleans East located in House
and Senate districts of two steadfast allies – bumping up the request by $2
million in a last second move at the end of the regular session that added
a number of projects requested by Democrats. In the same move, Democrat
state Rep. Robbie
Carter, whose terms in office wrap around this seat Edwards once held, got
$200,000 for the police station in his hometown of Amite. Meanwhile, after the
bill came back from Edwards frequent education policy opponent of his
Republican state Rep. Nancy Landry
found Maurice lost out on $720,000 to build a new village hall.
Contrary to what Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker
asserts, that municipality desperately needs term limits.
Asked a question at his inauguration for his
fourth term about the value of this, Walker
declared himself opposed to the concept at the local level of government. He
argued that having people serve potentially lengthy periods in office led to a
knowledgeable continuity in city government.
Bossier City could stand as the poster child for
little refreshment in government. The current lineup of him and the seven-member
City Council boasts 108 years of collective service – not including the 16
years Walker spent as chief administrative officer prior to his first election.
City incumbents who served a full term have not lost a regular election in 16
years. In fact, they don’t see much of a way in challenges; from 2005, just 41
candidates ran for 32 available slots, only about two contested races of eight
each cycle.
This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday around noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) 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 Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.
Two-time U.S. Senate candidate Republican Rob Maness hopes the third time is the
charm in his quest to fill his retirement years, with an announced
run for the Louisiana House of Representatives in an upcoming special
election.
With the stepping down of former state Rep. John Schroder to concentrate on a bid
for state Treasurer to fill the post vacated by Maness’ vanquisher in the
Senate contest GOP Sen. John Kennedy, his
slot opened for which Maness has thrown his hat in the ring. With his pair of
nontrivial Senate pursuits behind him, Maness has become a seasoned campaigner
who knows how to raise money and his chances appear far better to win this time
out.
This race suits him much better. When Maness
parachuted into Louisiana at his retirement from the Air Force and only months
later declared his candidacy for the 2014 contest, he appeared clumsy and
forcing himself on the state. Having hardly resided in Louisiana long enough to
meet the residency requirement by the time qualification rolled around, he
informed anyone who would listen that U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy –
possessor then of legislative scorecard numbers indicating he voted as least as
conservatively, if not more so, as any GOP member of Congress – was
too liberal and only political newcomer Maness could save Louisiana.
The scorched earth road show must go on, Louisiana’s
Democrat Gov. John
Bel Edwards indicated with his line
item vetoes of the state fiscal year 2018 operating budget.
Edwards signed the Second Extraordinary Session’s HB 1
earlier this week, but took advantage of the governor’s Constitutional power to
excise individual sections or expenditures. While the Legislature as part of a
veto session could override these with majority assent in both chambers, that
never has happened since enactment of the 1974 Constitution.
He excised only four items, none dealing with a
direct expenditure. But two seemed clearly related to a strategy focusing on
expanding government rather than budgeting on the basis of genuine needs while
allowing citizens to keep more of what they earn.
What is it about New Orleans that produces
politicians who, especially when the national spotlight hits them, turn into
such insufferable windbags?
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu recently
took over as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, using his
acceptance speech to showcase his superior ability to say one thing while
actually doing another. That talent Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro
previously had laid
bare to Baton Rouge Advocate readers
when in an opinion piece last month he excoriated Landrieu’s crime policy.
Cannizzaro cited Landrieu for placing “politics
above public safety” through pursuing policies that endangered citizens, as
reflected in a rapidly escalating number of shootings this year. He noted how
Landrieu talked up policies that create an “illusion of public safety,” while
Landrieu continued to staff the city’s police department well below optimal
levels and cut funding to Cannizzaro’s office.
To Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’
invitation to share in blame for his tax-and-spend agenda, Louisiana’s
legislative Republicans should demur.
Edwards recently
announced that he might forgo a special session of the Legislature under
certain conditions. An additional meeting outside of the 2018 regular session
prior to the end of the fiscal year is widely anticipated to address the
disappearance of temporary taxes by then, at current spending levels leaving a
gap of about $1.2 billion.
Realizing the resistance of majority of the
Republican House caucus members to tax increases generally, Edwards proclaimed
that he would not call such a session unless GOP leadership rallied behind some
kind of raise, calling to do so in those circumstances a waste of time and
money. For their part, leaders such as Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras
has conceded the necessity of some kind of tax renewal/increase.
Despite a weak attempt to show otherwise, partisan
gerrymandering above any minor influence does not exist relative to Congress,
although whether it could in Louisiana’s Legislature is difficult to ascertain.
The Associated Press breathlessly
reported that “Republicans had a real advantage” for 2016 elections in both
statehouse and the U.S. House of Representatives as a result of drawn district
boundaries. Combining its own analysis with some academic literature, it
concluded that in both arenas the GOP won more seats than the distribution of
votes among parties in states would have suggested, alleging that this came as
a result of partisan gerrymandering.
That politicians have engaged in this strategy for
two centuries certainly is not new, and unquestionably, as past studies have
shown, at the margins it influences seat distribution. But in claiming a more
significant role for partisan gerrymandering, the AP study resorts to dubious
assertions and makes the classic error of confusing association with causation.
