Republican Gov. Jeff Landry may have received 71 percent of the vote in Bossier Parish, but he might be somewhat unpopular these days among the courthouse crowd after some vetoes he cast to the state’s capital outlay and supplemental appropriations bills – perhaps all of it over votes cast on a bill Landry strongly backed?
In his first year of governor, Landry didn’t veto that much, and the pattern that emerged from that – indeed, he stated as much in his veto message – was he had to see an “appropriate government function” with an “efficient and effective use of state resources” involved. This time, he vetoed even fewer items.
When the dust settled, Landry cast vetoes on three items in HB 2, for capital outlay. His veto message stated he did so, and for projects where ground had yet to break, because the bill contained about $1 million in spending than authorized money available. Fair enough, but the three items totaled about $15 million, so something else additionally must have been at play.
About two-thirds of it came for a project in his neck of the woods, Breaux Bridge. But another was an extension of Highway 71 in southern Bossier Parish partly in Bossier City and partly in the parish for over $4 million. The last took out water system improvements in Minden of just under $1 million.
Landry wielded his pen more broadly with HB 460, the supplemental bill that is brought to deal with recent changes in revenue estimation that often serves as a vehicle for earmarks. He gave no reason for these, although they seemed more concentrated around parks/athletic fields and a couple of vaguely-intended gifts to nonprofits similar to his targets of last year. In all, 15 fell totaling just under $1.4 million.
But a pair of these were requests from the Bossier Parish Police Jury. One would have spent a relatively small sum for a “study on Highway 537,” while the other asked for over half a million bucks to bulk up the newly-established Kingston Park. That makes for a sixth of all vetoes.
Obviously, this does little to compare to the massacre the parish faced two years ago when Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards and the legislative leadership friendly to him found ways to wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars of projects – mainly through deemphasizing dollars to the new Jimmy Davis Bridge but lopping off many millions more for other things – to punish local GOP state Reps. Danny McCormick, Alan Seabaugh, Raymond Crews, and Dodie Horton for being among the main instigators behind plans to cut spending and taxes. Yet when looking more closely at a bill Landry vociferously supported, an explanation may present itself.
HB 148 expanded the authority of the state’s insurance commissioner, at present Republican Tim Temple, to exercise control over premiums charged by insurers. However, it does so in a counterproductive fashion, by presenting the possibility that for competitive markets a commissioner could rule politically, which would discourage writers who want actuarial bases emphasized in rate setting.
Landry stumped hard for the bill as a prime tool to reduce rates and the Legislature acceded, to Temple’s displeasure as to him it seemed a tool destined for failure but one where the governor and lawmakers could evade accountability in bringing down rates by making the commissioner into a lightning rod for criticism if they didn’t fall, by arguing the commissioner didn’t act forcefully enough to depress rates. Some legislators agreed with Temple’s view.
Two of that mind who were particularly disgruntled in opposition were Seabaugh, now a state senator who represents a small segment of Bossier Parish, and GOP rookie state Sen. Adam Bass, who represents the rest of Bossier Parish and a good chunk of Webster Parish, with both voting against the bill. Also unhappy on the House side were Crews and Republican rookie state Rep. Dennis Bamburg, who also voted against it.
The park is in Crews’ and Bass’ districts. The highway is in Bamburg’s and Seabaugh’s districts. The study is in Bass’ – and, for that matter, so was the Minden request. And Bamburg’s and Seabaugh’s districts also contain three municipalities in Red River Parish that lost out on line items. That means of the 18, 7 landed in these four, out of 144, legislators’ districts.
That does suggest they were targeted and for their votes of HB 148, keeping in mind commonly in the past governors have used their line-item veto power to settle scores. Again, this shouldn’t be overblown; after all, Bossier Parish still had most of its projects left in and in two of the Red River cases those towns had another item left unmolested. So, perhaps a rap on the knuckles rather than the third degree best typifies the dynamic.
Still, as a result of all this Landry may have been stricken off the Christmas card lists of some Bossier Parish politicians.
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