Trends argue for LA to stop subsidizing movies

So, Louisiana is losing jobs in the film and television industry. That’s a good thing that can knock some sense into lawmakers chasing the bright lights of movie stardom.

A company that rents out spaces often used for film production took some U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and reported that the state lost the highest proportion of jobs in this industry since 2024. Even as there are states with much higher numbers of people working in the field, it still amounted to one of the highest absolute job losses in that time period.

It’s a comedown for the state that pioneered the notion of state subsidization of filmmaking by transferrable and refundable tax credits, passing that legislation in 1992. As many as 44 other states until recent years joined in to offer some kind of incentive, but that number has since fallen by several.

Landry move should reduce N.O. homelessness

Louisiana is a little late to the party, but it’s finally gotten on the right track when it comes to housing policy.

The state recently announced, through the Louisiana Housing Corporation which is a state agency that administers federal and state funds through programs designed to advance the development of energy efficient and affordable housing and run by appointees by various state officials but the majority by the governor, that it bid to oversee housing policy in New Orleans. As federal housing grants have a ceiling that go to an area, if money goes to the state to use, other entities won’t have it.

And almost certainly the state will grab control of the around $50 million the area will get because its plan, unlike the theory behind those of the present lead agency the nonprofit UNITY of Greater New Orleans, is congruent to best practices that the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development recently adopted. While state and local government and nonprofit representatives rank the applications, HUD has the final word.

Another lightweight story shills leftist agenda

Same tune, different verse for some Louisiana leftist media outlets, this time involving Republican Rep. Julia Letlow.

A couple of months ago a media organization that combined forces of three far-left news sites (backed largely by leftist out-of-state foundations) ran a piece on land acquisition and sales that involved GOP state Sen. Jay Morris concerning the Hyperion project in northeast Louisiana. It used what frequently has become a go-to tactic when leftist media wish to disparage a public official: taking disparate actions and events that themselves are perfectly legal and ethical, try to present a misstep, and use that to attempt to connect those even if unrelated as evidence of some kind of corrupt behavior, as a means of discouraging the official from pursuing a goal against the left’s agenda.

In the case of Morris, it was because Morris fronted legislation to right-size various offices around New Orleans held by Democrats, whose government thoroughly is awash in leftist ideas very out of step with the rest of the state and finds itself increasingly leeching off state taxpayers. Now comes a piece from the efforts of regional public radio and National Public Radio doing something similar with Letlow, coming as a desperate attempt to stop her expected big win this fall in the race against a far-left Democrat nominee.

Last ditch Democrats to push House races right

If you want excitement out of Louisiana elections this fall, you’re only hope is a pair of congressional contests that originally would have been settled by now as well.

The state’s six congressional elections found themselves rescheduled and reformatted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the previous districts unconstitutional, but time was running short. Additionally, Republican Rep. Julia Letlow forwent her Fifth District seat to win the GOP nomination for the Senate, meaning she will win by at least double-digits in the fall.

So too will the party’s nominees for three Supreme Court slots (technically, already elected), two Public Service Commission spots, a seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and three of the six congressional districts. The Democrats will triumph only in a single House district.

Caddo, Bossier races: ain't broke, no need to fix

Caddo and Bossier Parish contests for school boards and judicial positions this fall will follow a maxim that if it doesn’t seem broken, don’t fix it.

In Caddo Parish, only one incumbent judge across the First District, Shreveport City Court, and Caddo Parish Juvenile Court drew a challenger. That was the embattled Democrat City Court Judge Sheva Sims. Earlier this year she drew another suspension, the first since 2015, for nine months from the state’s Judiciary Commission, but decided to run again. Two other black Democrats, lawyers Kharmen Davis-Taylor and Trinicia Leonard, have challenged her. The other two City Court incumbent judges plus newcomer Republican Amy Brainard faced no opposition.

For District Court, all but two incumbents will walk back into office. Another rookie, Republican Heather Courtney, also will get a free pass, along with her husband Republican Justin Courtney on the Juvenile Court bench and his two compatriots. The only competition here will occur for the other open seat where Republican Hugo Holland will face off against Democrat Treneisha Jackson Hill.

Lesser-known races to provide NW LA excitement

Three of the highest-profile contests in northwest Louisiana for this fall’s election involve offices most voters rarely consider, all with some controversy involved.

Two of the hottest will occur in Shreveport and Bossier City for the obscure office of marshal. Each city court in the state, whose judges are elected, also has a city marshal attached to it, who carries out the orders of the court. Often that isn’t a great deal to do, so, in line with Parkinson’s Law, they perform other tasks as by ordinance (and reap extra compensation).

These offices often draw competition, and there is a logical explanation as to why: they can turn into huge jackpots because statute allows a marshal to collect fees for a wide variety of actions. The office does have expenses, principally for deputies in larger jurisdictions, but above and beyond those the marshal can keep the rest for himself. Several in the state make more than any other elected official in their jurisdictions, into six figures.

Can GOP's Arceneaux win again in Shreveport?

Perhaps obviously the Shreveport city majoritarian branch elections will make a big splash in northwest Louisiana, with the largest question of whether surprising results from 2022 can replicate.

The Shreveport mayor’s contest tops local office tussles in the region. Four years ago, Republican now-Mayor Tom Arceneaux upset Democrat then-state Sen. Greg Tarver to win in the majority-black city electorate. He accomplished this by making small but significant inroads into the black vote beyond the baseline city-wide Republicans had come to expect, which came as a segment of the black vote simply found Tarver unpalatable.

Since then, Arceneaux’s mission became how at least to hang onto black voters willing to give him a chance under those circumstances and perhaps capture more while hanging on as much as possible to his Republican base. That has produced a mixed bag of results: generally competent leadership but having to navigate consequences of crises he inherited especially up against a hostile Democrat-led City Council, and from time to time scoring own goals.

Reject Monroe school taxes for future lower rates

About the only thing that makes sense coming from the split among Monroe City School Board members over looming property tax renewals/reductions is the Board majority scheduling the vote in December when it has the best chance of passing.

Last month, the Board voted to put the propositions of 13.93 and 5.94 mills for operations and maintenance on the Dec. 12 ballot after renewals of 14.41 and 6.15 mills failed in May elections headlined by party primary votes for the U.S. Senate. These proposed are the current millages being levied, after the Board eschewing rolling forward rates to their maximums allowed since 2016, which then were levied at the rate that failed the voter test. The current levy expires at the end of the year.

Putting an election on a date with much less stimulus for voters to turn out is an age-old trick of local governments to pass taxes. Disproportionately supporters, who may be government employees whose agency directly benefits from the tax that also incite their families and friends, turn out for these. Delaying the vote from Nov. 3 also avoids at the same time that three supportive board members would have their names up for reelection on the same ballot as a tax.

Restrict, not ban, license plate readers in LA

There’s no question that automated license plate reading cameras need increased scrutiny. The only question is by how much.

Recently, Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, over social media and the airwaves, served notice that next year he would introduce a bill to ban such cameras. He declared the Legislature had momentum to do so after last year banning traffic enforcement cameras in all areas except school zones and the city of Opelousas. As well, the presence of reader cameras has irked privacy advocates worried that this has become another big data source ripe for exploitation, if not a breeding ground for constitutional violations of probable cause for searches.

However, he should expect some resistance. Law enforcement agencies have found the technology, which captures plate images that a private vendor collates into a database that law enforcement may access, helpful in tracking down suspects, even almost in real time that improves apprehension and conviction rates. Simply, this pits privacy rights against public safety.

LA should conduct study to increase JP relevancy

A little-known new law might serve as the start of the answer to making a superfluous, anachronistic office more relevant in the 21^st century.

Starting last month, courtesy of Act 950 passed this year, East Baton Rouge Justice of the Peace Districts were extended into Baton Rouge. That means they overlap with the Baton Rouge City Court, but only concurrently on one piece of jurisdiction: evictions where rent is fewer than $5,000 monthly.

Area legislators successfully advocated for the measure in order to reduce the backlog of eviction cases piling up in City Court. Ordinarily, within their jurisdictions as well as with evictions JPs deal with bail for minor cases (with an amount in controversy fewer than $5,000 or not with hard labor as a potential penalty), litter abatement, movable property abandonment with parish approval, and in a few parishes immovable property standards and nuisance cases.