Thumbs up on all LA amendments this cycle

In a state election cycle that looks to end up as a yawner, so do the constitutional amendments voters in Louisiana will be asked to decide on Nov. 5 and Dec. 7.

The earlier date has just an Amendment 1, which would sequester from federal government offshore areas funds from alternative energy royalties to the Coastal Restoration and Protection Fund and therefore used for reclamation and flood control purposes. That’s the arrangement dealing with these one-time dollars for fossil fuel extraction in that region, and it makes sense. YES

The other four appear on the Dec. 7 ballot, and are as equally undramatic, if not also as arcane:

Flawed BC charter review invites litigation

The freak show finally concluded that was the Bossier City political establishment’s drive to stave off strict term limits on its mayor and city councilors, but it appears that by no means has this story reached its end

The Council emitted a last-minute gasp to keep alive the chance of deflecting a citizen petition that places on the ballot three-term retroactive and lifetime limits when at a hastily-called Oct. 10 special meeting it passed a resolution to attempt to put on the Dec. 7 ballot votes on three amendments to the charter from its politically-connected Charter Review Commission: a relaxed three-term limit, not lifetime nor retroactive, for councilors, a similar one for the mayor, and an omnibus amendment trying to roll about 160 changes into one. Its tardiness in not having this ready for the regular Oct. 8 meeting agenda meant it had to have unanimous Council approval for consideration, which was not forthcoming then.

If successfully placed on that ballot, the term limits measures would exist alongside the ones in the petition due to be placed on a future ballot, which is subject at present to a spurious appeal by Republican Councilors David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio plus Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby to an order forcing them to resolve to put it on the ballot. They have used lawfare to evade their oath-bound Charter duty that makes it unlikely the petition measures would be on the Dec. 7 ballot. That means voters could vote into existence the relaxed term limits measure, then months later up the ante with the stricter version.

Lawmakers turn up tort reform heat on Landry

In perhaps the only major rift that has developed between legislative Republicans and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry in their first year in this term of office, party lawmakers have turned up the heat on Landry over tort reform that influences vehicle insurance rates.

Backed by a good deal of trial lawyer money, Landry has appeared lukewarm on the issue of reform away from a legal structure weighed in favor of plaintiffs and the legal community that backs them. His most defiant move came in vetoing HB 423 by Republican state Rep. Mike Melerine this past session. That bill would have limited payouts by defendants to the actual amount of costs, plus up to 30 percent of the difference between the amount billed and the amount paid to plaintiff’s medical providers calculated from actual billing for insurance premiums and attorney fees, unless the defendant proves it to be unreasonable. Present law authorizes a flat 40 percent.

That bill actually represented a compromise. GOP state Sen. Alan Seabaugh had one which wasn’t heard that did away with paying out any difference at all, something neighboring Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas do, which is termed the collateral source rule. In his veto message of HB 423, Landry defended its presence on what he called its fairness in reimbursing foresight and advocacy, although the note didn’t address whether the current law created a fair framework for determining that amount possibly improved by the bill.

Police HQ controversy eroding Arceneaux image

It’s taken a couple of years, but Shreveport Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux finally has started encountering some drama that served as a hallmark of his predecessor that impedes his low margin for error in reelection.

Even before he took office and throughout his term, Democrat former Mayor Adrian Perkins embarked upon a string of controversies involving questionable deals, questionable personnel moves, personal behavior that conveyed a disinterest in the job, and neglect of pressing city needs in favor of quixotic policy pursuits. Often this meandering brought him to clashes with the City Council, even though his party held a majority on it throughout his term.

In part, the electorate’s counterreaction to Perkins’ accidental mayoral reign thrust Arceneaux into the job, a white Republican in a majority black city, most of whom register as and vote for Democrats. This has the city’s Democrats in power, all black, licking their chops for 2026 hoping to ride these voter demographics to make Arceneaux a one-term mayor, and from time to time the Council, now with a 5-2 black Democrat majority, has played these electoral politics to cast aspersions on Arceneaux’s governance.

BC oath violators' hypocrisy reaches new heights

The Bossier City Council Oathbreakers are a persistent bunch when it comes to thwarting citizen rule, but even that won’t pay off with their latest ploy.

The Oathbreakers – Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio plus Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby – earned that sobriquet as they on multiple occasions violated their oaths of office by refusing to uphold the city charter’s mandate that they must forward to voters a charter amendment that creates lifetime retroactive three-term limits for city councilors and the mayor, as by a successful citizen petition. As this would disqualify all but Maggio from among them for reelection next year, they have fought tooth and nail to sabotage in any way the amendment, which came about when the registrar of voters duly certified the document in July,

It began when the petition began circulating again last year at this time, after the Oathbreakers initially had rendered another inoperative for a technicality in the courts. The strategy involved invoking a charter review commission a majority of its members they appointed, mostly political insiders and allies. Initially, it was supposed that it would take the wind out of the sails of the citizen petitioners.

Bold rate policy can determine LPSC winner

While it’s a foregone conclusion that a climate realist will join the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 2025, why not start with some wind behind the sails?

The realists are Republican state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan and GOP former state Sen. Julie Quinn. Both have described themselves as advocates of an all-of-the-above, let-the-lowest-priced-reliable-energy-source-win model for rate determination. By contrast, political newcomer Democrat Nick Laborde takes a climate alarmist approach favoring renewable sources.

Disturbingly, he vouches for returning to a net metering framework that essentially has almost every ratepayer subsidize the lifestyle choice of a few as a method to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the produced portfolio. This would lead to much higher costs for consumers because then the utility forced to buy renewable power from a customer at retail has to build reliable redundancy into the system, such as adding a peak combined-cycle natural gas plant, and charge consumers for it (or, impossibly both physically and financially, building out battery capacity).

Bossier Jury asks victim taxpayers to thank it

The Bossier Parish Police Jury blinked as well, but did so as part of what appears to be a plan to boost its image while deflecting from the fact for years it overtaxed parish property owners.

Bossier Parish property owners were looking at some hefty tax increases this year. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington as well as a fire district foisted some onto their constituent by refusing to roll back entirely tax rates as instigated in the Constitution. Every four years after reassessment, the total amount collected by a government on properties not improved and held by the same owners is not in the aggregate to change if assessments went higher unless a taxing authority by a supermajority (in the case of a single executive like the sheriff, by his decision) refuses to allow a roll back in tax rates to compensate, which then means it can boost tax rates from that level all the way up to the one authorized by law.

Even with a roll back, unless assessed and sale values have decreased, with the property improvements and higher uses that have occurred in the previous four years within their boundaries entities will see more money coming into their coffers than previously. The intent behind the automatic roll back unless overridden is to prevent the vast majority of property owners who don’t use their property in and of itself for income generation through its lease or rental from having to pay more on a long-term asset for which they receive at present no capital gain, if any.

If real, LA crime drop unlikely policy related

Presidential candidates clash over who will do best to reduce rising crime, Louisiana’s governor joined with the Legislature to make a raft of changes to combat this, while local leaders as in New Orleans preen over a measured drop in it as well as those in Shreveport. This begs the question: as some indicators show crime rates falling nationally with most jurisdictions reflecting that, can politicians in Louisiana or elsewhere take credit for that – if it even exists?

Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released final statistics through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program that showed nationally violent crime declined an estimated 3 percent in 2023 from the year before, while murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12 percent. The overall rate now stands just above the 2019 level prior to the spike observed during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and is close to returning to reflecting the long-term secular decline in violent crime over the past three decades, although it basically has been flat since 2012. Perhaps better, preliminary numbers for 2024 show a continued decline.

While good news, it may not be all that it’s cracked up to be, beginning with that the FBI’s system (which underwent a major change as the pandemic took hold) is a measure of crime reported or discovered by law enforcement, while different measures tell the opposite story. The Bureau of Justice Statistics compiles the National Crime Victimization Survey which measures crime not reported to law enforcement as well, with the exception of homicides and manslaughter because the dead tell no tales although these generally comprise about a percentage point of total violent crime. NCVS numbers typically differ, sometimes significantly, from the UCR, and it reported a small proportional increase for 2023 after double-digit spikes in 2021 and 2022 but a big dip in 2020. In fact, for these years the absolute differences were for the NCVS starting in 2020 29.31 percentage points lower, 20.18 higher, 24.81 higher, and 7.63 higher.

Landry tax reform clears fence, if not bases

All in all, the fiscal reform package Republican Gov. Jeff Landry will present to the Louisiana Legislature, at least in its broad outline, charts an improved course towards economic development but falls short in restraining big government.

This week, Landry announced that he would call a special session around election day in November that could last until just before Thanksgiving Day to commit fiscal reform. The worldview behind it shifts revenue from income to sales taxation. It essentially wouldn’t levy any individual income tax to single filers below $12,500 and joint filers below $25,000, and above those levels impose a flat three percent rate, with the possibility of additional deductions. Plus, senior citizens receive double that level. But in exchange, it would keep the 0.45 percent sales tax hike from 2018 and would expand that to potentially many of the 223 sales tax exemptions currently in law – but not to the constitutional provision that exempts unprepared food, drugs, and utilities. A separate sales tax exemption on business utilities also would be retained, although perhaps not entirely.

Additionally, corporate income tax rates would be made a flat rate and the franchise tax eliminated, which overall likely would end up as a net tax decrease for most. The three percent rate would reduce one of the highest in the country at its top level, and of the few states that have a franchise tax, Louisiana’s is the highest.

Nothing compels LA tax bucks for CCUS research

Nice try, apologists for using taxpayer dollars to bankroll needless, if not pie-in-the-sky, carbon capture use and sequestration (CCUS) research that already has taken $25 million and more indirectly out of the hide of Louisianans.

Almost as if triggered by a recent post that critiqued this consortium of public and private interests overseen by the Greater New Orleans Development Foundation from sopping up more taxpayer largesse, H2theFuture made a case in a media article as part of a story about its CCUS efforts that would justify such reception. To date it has received part of that state allocation plus $50 million from the federal government designed to attack the nonexistent problem of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.

CCUS is considered the middle way between CAGW craziness. that demands near-immediate decarbonization no matter what the cost, and climate realism, backed by research, that human activities have a minor impact on climate and any such spillover that could increase global temperatures can be mitigated at relatively low cost and in a way that actually improves overall global wealth. As CAGW calls for a dramatic reduction, if not total elimination, of fossil fuel extraction and consumption, CCUS argues this approach could be scaled back dramatically if in extracting and processing fossil fuels and in some instances their use an apparatus could extract carbon from that. Once removed, the carbon can be stored or used for other purposes; indeed, for decades carbon has been employed in stretching oil recovery.