LA EITC negative impact increased by virus

Just as Medicaid expansion exacerbated the coming fiscal crisis Louisiana will face for the next year or so, so does the presence of and 2018 increase to the state’s earned income tax credit.

With Louisiana’s unemployment claims shooting up to a third of a million this week because of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, which could produce an unemployment rate of 22 percent, more income tax filers than ever will find themselves in a position to claim this. Essentially, at lower earnings levels it refunds income tax liability. For many, it can act as a rebate greater than that liability, resulting in government subsidization lauded by some as a form of welfare that rewards willingness to work.

A minority of states offer this, which piggybacks onto the federal income version. Louisiana for most of the history of the credit offered it at 3.5 percent of the federal level, but as part of legislation that renewed partially the 2016 tax increases in 2018 for five more years, it also received a temporary hike, to 5 percent.

GOP vigilance needed after elections mistake

Earlier today, a pair of Louisiana Legislature committees debased the next two upcoming elections, and maybe more for decades to come, in the state for no good reason.

Last week, the same House and Governmental Affairs and Senate and Governmental Affairs Committees rightly rejected a proposal by Republican Sec. of State Kyle Ardoin, with Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ blessing, that would have expanded absentee voting by mail to make almost anybody eligible to partake of it, nearly doubled the time period for early voting, waived the requirement that registration by mail voters participate in person, and other technical changes that mostly would serve to reduce the chances of large congregations at polling places.

This plan had many faults. With such open-ended justifications not to vote in person, Louisiana would have resembled closely the all-mail elections of Oregon but without added ballot security that would discourage fraud. Particularly troublesome, the waiver of statute requiring in-person voting for mail-in registrants (including over the Internet) created a huge opening for the registration of individuals (whether they existed alive) whose identities could be manipulated by unscrupulous operatives in elections for decades to come.

Crisis made worse by Medicaid expansion

With one stroke of his pen four years ago, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards pushed Louisiana farther down the road to a fiscal nightmare exacerbated by Medicaid.

By expanding Medicaid, Edwards committed Louisiana to spend an extra over $300 million next fiscal year on some 450,000 people, almost all of whom are working-age adults without adult children, and of whom roughly a third to a half already had health insurance mainly through employers that now taxpayers must pick up. It capped nearly two decades of exploding state growth of Medicaid as a proportion of state revenues; by 2017 Louisiana paid out 22 percent of these to Medicaid, an increase of 11.5 percentage points since 2000 that was higher by far of all the states, tying it for the fifth-highest proportion spent among them.

Then came the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, and the decision by Edwards to close up a good portion of Louisiana’s economy by proclamations attempting to stem the spread of the virus. Almost 300,000 people make unemployment insurance claims now, meaning at a minimum the unemployment rate will rise to over 19 percent at the end of this month. A portion of those now unemployed will lose employer-sponsored health insurance.

Jobless claims another LA fiscal time bomb

It may not affect budgeting in Louisiana now, but the state’s remarkably higher unemployment claims will create a ticking time bomb that could stress the state’s fiscal health for years to come.

As a consequence of proclamations by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards to ward off ill effects from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic that has shut down large swaths of Louisiana’s economy, claims for unemployment benefits have mushroomed. Through Apr. 11 from Mar. 14, claims have soared from around 16,000 to 293,000.

(Note that despite this cratering job market the state’s workforce expanded in March by some 42,000 from February. This is because to draw unemployment benefits you have to maintain that you actively seek work, which then counts you for statistical purposes in the workforce. In other words, attracted by extending the special $600 a week benefit to people who normally wouldn’t qualify for regular state unemployment insurance, out of the woodwork came these people many of whom otherwise would not have intended to work anytime in the near future but now suddenly have been handed a guaranteed basic income for the foreseeable future.)

Events further mooting Edwards clampdown

As the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic enters the backstretch in Louisiana, it’s time for Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards to drop his stubbornness to a nuanced, balanced approach in dealing with the crisis.

One thing hasn’t changed about how the virus has struck the state is that it remains a New Orleans area problem, and to a lesser extent heading upriver to Baton Rouge. As of today, Orleans has a 64:1 infection ratio (although the good news, if you can call it that, is that all but two of New York’s downstate counties have higher ratios – lead by the almost three percent in Rockland – as do two New Jersey counties) and Jefferson 77:1. Surrounding parishes St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Lafourche are at 200:1, and heading north up the Mississippi River through St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. James, Iberville, Ascension, and West Baton Rouge, that’s collectively at 136:1. Stop after St. James and those nine parishes account for 63 percent of state cases but only 29 percent of state population.

One thing that has changed is that curves definitely have flattened. The seven-day rolling average of infections statewide as of today has slowed to a two percent increase and for deaths six percent. And some areas of the state have seen far lower infection and death rates, even in urban areas. Infection ratios range from 583 to 630 in Calcasieu, Lafayette, and Rapides – lower than the statewide figure (194) and also that excepting the above-listed parishes, all urban parishes, and Tangipahoa (478)  – and their mortality rates per capita are less than 100 per million, compared to the statewide ratio of 279 and the “all other” parishes number of 123.

Worst LA elections option rightfully rejected

Quite properly, Louisiana legislative committees yesterday rejected an unnecessary softening of the state’s ballot integrity as it pertained to postponed presidential preference, party governance, and local elections, an action which can lead to a far more elegant solution that seeks a problem.

Already pushed back from the beginning of April at the behest of Republican Sec. of State Kyle Ardoin and verified through a Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards proclamation due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, the two tag-teamed again to delay these again from Jun. 20 to Jul. 11, and any runoffs from Jul. 25 to Aug. 15. They pursued this despite increasing evidence of the pandemic’s subsidence, as yesterday the seven-day rolling average increase in cases came to just four percent.

However, this time the two went further than just wanting to change dates. They also jointly endorsed a plan to increase vastly the potential for mail-in balloting as well as increase from 7 to 13 days the amount of time available for early voting, also changing up a few early voting and polling places. Ardoin explained he had to set all of this in motion now because of logistical concerns such as ordering supplies, ensuring availability of adequate numbers of personnel, and possibly finding extra protective gear.

In virus gloom, LA govt lends helping hand

In all of the gloom about the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, here’s an Easter story showing off how Louisiana government can work well.

The news has been full of stories about the need for ventilators for virus victims. Behind the scenes are those people who use them on a daily basis just to breathe. For users with respiratory failure living at home, typically the household would have two such as on a wheelchair and beside a bed; thus, if one stops working correctly that person would be far less likely to die within minutes having another nearby.

Deshae has used these for over 17 years, most recently through Louisiana State University System’s self-funded insurance plan, through a supplier that will remain unnamed but is owned by a bunch of investment partnerships managed by the Blackstone Group. But earlier this year after botching attempts to transition her to a vent from a different manufacturer, the provider declared, despite its contract with LSU, that it no longer would supply vents particularly to her.

LA Legislature must stop Edwards end run

It’s time for the Louisiana Legislature to snuff out any attempt by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards to use the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to make an end run around the people.

The coming of the virus brought understandably drastic measures to limit gatherings that attenuated commerce. A series of Edwards proclamations has closed many businesses and swaths of state and local government activities, on the theory that reducing human physical interactions would slow the spread of disease.

Never mind that decisions made by Edwards created the least effective, most painful solution. Even with a growing amount of evidence that Carnival created a supercharged environment for transmission (all too apparent now to members of the famous New Orleans Krewe of Zulu), Edwards failed to urge the state laboratory and hospitals – some of which receive billions of dollars a year from the state as designated charity hospitals – to develop testing capacity to implement a rapid check and quarantine system before any cases developed in the state, as did some other states.

Cancer myth doesn't explain virus pattern

If Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards is doing his utmost not to let a crisis go to waste, so are his ideological fellow travelers with their own leftist agenda focused on the environment and economy.

Bad timing with Carnival and bad policy by Edwards exacerbated the impact of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic on Louisiana. As of today, the state continues to rank third in both infection ratio and mortality per capita, behind New York and New Jersey.

Worse, New Orleans and Jefferson Parish have become, outside of the New York counties in and surrounding New York City, the nation’s epicenter of the virus. An incredible 1 in 77 people are infected in Orleans and Jefferson, although even more incredibly most of the New York City counties have an even lower ratio, led by the almost-surreal nearly 2.5 percent of Rockland County.

Easter Sunday, 2020

This column publishes five days weekly after 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.

With Sunday, Apr. 12 being Easter, I invite you to explore this link.