Cassidy blame exercise confirms unfitness

There’s more reason than ever for Louisianans to remind Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy not to let the door hit him out the way out of the Senate with his intemperate remarks made recently about increasing numbers of measles cases in the country and health care policy under GOP Pres. Donald Trump.

At a conference sponsored by a politics website, Cassidy blamed Trump and specifically his appointee as Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy for the increase, already in annual terms the highest number in over a quarter-century. He said messaging was to blame, as HHS under Kennedy has shifted departmental communications away from unabashed stumping for vaccinations to one of seeking advice from trusted health care providers.

 

He called this an effort to “undermine faith” in vaccines generally and also claimed to have had his faith undermined by his voting to advance Kennedy’s nomination for the post in early 2025 only to have this rhetoric about vaccination develop. Cassidy lost the Republican primary for reelection this spring in part because Trump backed likely winner this fall Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, after Cassidy had flip-flopped to vote to convict Trump on questionable impeachment charges as well as had backed large-scale Democrat spending legislation.

Cut inefficiency from Medicaid autism spending

Late to the party, Louisiana needs to go after sketchy Medicaid autism treatment and diagnoses aggressively.

Starting a few months into the second term of Republican Pres. Donald Trump, the federal government began reviews of select state Medicaid spending on treating autism, specifically applied behavioral analysis outlays. It found massive fraud in Minnesota leading to legal action, and across it and three other states extrapolated a disturbing pattern of rapidly escalating expenses capped off by some $200 million improperly paid and another $400 million in incorrect billings.

The Democrat Pres. Barack Obama Administration pushed through a rule mandating Medicaid coverage of autism not long after diagnosis guidelines were relaxed that qualified far more children so that those even slightly eccentric-acting qualified. This resulted in a near-quintupling of autism diagnoses since the turn of the century so that now over one in three children receive it, while in eight states that provide specific data on autism Medicaid spending costs sextupled to $2.2 billion in just a few years.

Reelection driving Shreveport new spending choices

Take a look at what Shreveport elected officials stump for in increased spending and you can tell it’s an election year.

Last week, Republican Mayor Tom Areceneaux announced, because of presumed higher sales tax collections from a data center siting in the city, that he would put into the budget, and start it a month before the next fiscal year (after the general election but before the runoff), pay raises and other potential bonuses for public. He thought for police the cost for around a 5 percent bump plus things like recruitment bonuses and for other achievements that could push it towards 8 percent plus a 6 percent firefighter raise would end up in the neighborhood of $7 million annually.

In essence, Arceneaux basically declares that the data center – apparently more its construction than operation as he indicated he saw this pop upwards would last only four or five years, or about the time a second term of his would end – will add 4 percent more sales tax revenues for a sustained period. Yet that asks for some optimistic math.

LA must fight to prevent dispensing dangerous drug

Louisiana’s intersection increasingly at the cutting edge of policy-making refreshingly continues with its pursuit of a suit designed to show deliberately designed unfettered access to chemical abortions can be dangerous to more than just the unborn and to reinstate rules to prevent that outcome.

The use of mifepristone as the second agent to kill in the womb (following misoprostol) the state has led the way in trying to have through the courts reimposed a Food and Drug Administration ban against doling out the drugs except during a doctor’s office visit. The Democrat Pres. Joe Biden Administration embraced the dictates of leftist abortion-on-demand advocates to remove that requirement in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that ruled unconstitutional federal government attempts to regulate abortion.

That move became a key element in the left’s strategy to prevent individual tighter state regulation from reducing abortion. The left celebrates the practice not only because of its assertive ideological-confirming performance that also counts coup over conservatives who largely favor pro-life restrictions, but also because of its background unspoken eugenics-based racism that doesn’t mind in a country that even as whites comprise almost 70 percent of the population that almost 70 percent of abortions are achieved by non-whites.

The campaign to dilute the ability of states to limit severely abortion availability within their borders has succeeded to the point that the number of abortions nationwide actually has increased since that 2022 decision despite many states imposed greater restrictions shortly thereafter. Remote prescribing largely is blame with a sharp increase in that, now making the deadly pills easily obtainable through the mail in almost an over-the-counter fashion with no guarantee that the requestor is the receiver of these, or even is legitimately asking.

Precisely as intended. The system was concocted specifically to thwart state bans and making the dispensing as easy as buying candy. And why, if the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration as it may do soon doesn’t return to rule to its previous form, the courts should because mifepristone, as Louisiana argues, reveals itself as an inherently dangerous drug.

Leftist media always evade the growing evidence of this, where women are being tricked, if not coerced through the use of violence, into swallowing the dangerous substance that often causes them health complications and usually killing the unborn they harbor. Almost always it’s the sperm donor who perpetrates these crimes, and frequently they obtain the pills through exploiting the now hardly-regulated system set up to fail.

A reality against which pro-abortion views have no defense. After all, pro-abortionists admit humanity to an organism genetically human only when it’s “wanted,” making the validity of human life and the individual involved contingent on somebody else’s emotions. Yet in these abuse cases the women involved look forward to giving birth but pro-abortion attitudes by permitting lack of restrictions in essence put these females in positions where they have no choice, which ironically the pro-abortion crowd alleges, to shield themselves from the moral implications of what they advocate, that “choice” lies behind their advocacy.

Simply, by nature the drug is dangerous, but pro-abortionists redefine that away when it’s used willingly to kill the unborn. But in the current regulatory regime where anything goes, those who don’t want to kill the young humans they carry cannot be protected adequately from others who wish their unborn charges dead. Only by restoring the regime to its previous state can that risk be minimized adequately.

That’s why it’s important that Louisiana continue its legal quest to have restored, one way or the other, the old rules. Lives and women’s desires depend upon that.

Tweaked BC district should replace those junked

Not inherent flaws leaving something fixable but trying to do too much too perfectly sunk the proposed pair of economic development districts proposed in Bossier City.

Last week, the city threw in the towel, for now, on an EDD encompassing only the city’s four casinos and another taking in the East Bank district plus capturing hotels, the Louisiana Boardwalk, and the Chasing Aces golf driving complex. The legislative author of the idea, Republican City Councilor Chris Smith, conceded it went too far too fast, with confusion over what was being taxed or alarmed with a 2 percent sales or occupancy surcharge within the districts, concern over a nebulous governing structure that appeared to favor out-of-town casino interests, and uncertainty over spending because of that structure and its outsourcing management to an area interest group that had no experience in these matters who seemed to drive the process in the first place.

That said, the idea isn’t irredeemable. The city finds itself in a tough spot, burdened by three decades of foolish spending choices that left too much debt, without the servicing of which money could be dedicated to district matters. With a more constrained budget as a result, district occupants could swallow a fair and equitable tax increase, knowing it will reduce their business for pricing reasons, if the proceeds go to the district and stimulate business at least enough to compensate.

Time ripe to zero out LA residential property taxes

Debate over Amendment #6 that voters will weigh in upon this fall illustrates a tax system so riddled with exceptions that the best strategy might be to dispense with property tax on homesteads.

The amendment would build upon the special assessment level now granted constitutionally to individuals 65 or older, as well as to some younger who are disabled or who are widows and widowers of those who once qualified (which includes active duty members of the armed service killed in the line of duty), as long as they remain at that homestead that is not significantly improved and their income doesn’t exceed (starting next year) $150,000. This exemption freezes the assessed value of the property at the last quadrennial round’s amount, almost certainly reducing property taxes that otherwise would be paid.

Each municipality and parish would have a chance to opt into this by popular vote, and if passed all taxing bodies in their jurisdictions would have to abide by the decision. If passed, it would increase the homestead exemption based on age, at the oldest range going far above the current $75,000. School boards in particular have complained that with this they would have no say in what happens to their ability to raise revenues, and it would create confusion and inequity if some municipalities in a district opt in and other out, or the parish does or doesn’t compared to the municipalities within it. For example, while Monroe derives about 8 percent of its total non-business revenues from ad valorem taxation, Monroe City Schools with the same boundaries gets about 16 percent.

Reworking, not money, best for child care policy

Rather than throw more money at a perceived problem, perhaps Louisiana should reconceptualize how it addresses child care.

Money that the country didn’t have was thrown at states, through federal government grants, during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic to give families – read single parents mostly mothers, who comprise the vast bulk of Child Care Assistance Program recipients – more money to pay for child care. The program will subsidize at varying amounts (plus for some a small co-payment) depending on family resources for at least part-time working or training parents with children under age 13 (18 if with disability) and who are citizens or legal residents.

While the leftist agenda of growing government and hoping it sticks lasted well after the pandemic could be used as a justification for it, eventually the bonus money faded away. Regardless, Louisiana chronically has had a waiting list for participation, even as it has chipped in the range of $80 million annually over the last few years (the federal government will provide a match for state spending).

Fully funded ESA program to give LA boost

Real world experience may have mooted the argument against Louisiana implementing fully its GATOR program on cost considerations.

This program provides an education savings account for public schoolchildren of school age (5-21) who have an income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty limit. It may be spent on tuition or a number of other services or items related to education. Eventually, it will expand first to incorporate families up to the 400 percent level, then finally open to all families regardless of income level.

However, this depends upon legislative appropriation to fund it for all eligible families, which could cost in the $100 million range just to fulfill all requests from the first cohort. It could double that to fulfill the others. Instead, for the past couple of years the Legislature allocated basically enough only to cover participating families in the prior version of the program predicated on allowing escape from failing schools, around $43 million.

Defeat spendthrift Caddo’s sports boondoggle

Overtaxed Caddoans, get set to receive a sales pitch this week about a low-priority sports complex that won’t come close to paying for itself, whether measured tangibly or intangibly.

In three sessions, the parish will present an idea for a complex that will allow for a variety of indoor sports – including pickleball, on which last year it already blew $10 million for a dedicated facility on land owned by the Northwest Louisiana YMCA. Outdoor sports around it also remain a possibility.

Perhaps it could have used that $10 million as it says the parish through debt issuance will cover only $60 million of a projected $70 million cost and apparently has hat in hand for that remainder. As of yet Caddo Parish commissioners haven’t decided where to put it, which they might want to do as voters will decide on whether to grant that debt request Nov. 3.

LA politicians shouldn’t back college subversion

It might make for good politics, but it’s bad law and devalues education for politicians to support efforts, encouraged by Louisiana State University, to allow professional athletes to play their sport at Louisiana institutions of higher learning.

As college football has begun, much attention has focused on the efforts of a number of former college players who participated in National Football League camps who wish to return to playing in college after their attempts to latch onto an NFL team failed. They do so on the basis of a ruling made by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a group of conferences comprised of different school classified into different competitive categories, at summer’s beginning that allows five years of eligibility for athletes.

The previous rule had allowed only four years, except for extenuating circumstances most often caused by injury that had a student missing much of a season. The new rule gives everybody five years, although additional eligibility could be granted only under uncommon circumstances.

Monroe Council Democrats delay may cost public

Difficult-to-explain political maneuvering by Monroe’s Democrat City Council majority potentially has put the city’s citizens in a tough spot.

Last week, the Council again deferred action on a pair of master service agreements with two established engineering firms. Use of MSAs occurs commonly in local governments, which basically is like a retainer: on short notice, the city could call upon these entities to provide services at agreed-upon rates. For example, if a water or sewer line became inoperative or a sinkhole opened up on a street, a firm could be called quickly to the scene to map out a fix and then a contractor (likely on a different agreement) could implement that as quickly as possible to minimize disruption. Shortly thereafter the Council would pass an ordinance declaring that emergency and appropriating money for the repairs.

Without MSAs, there’s no guarantee that issues could be addressed rapidly and probably would cost more. The city’s current arrangements expired at the end of June, before the Council first took up the ordinances that then were tabled at the majority’s behest. MSAs also allow work to commence on regular non-emergency projects as yet without appropriations.

Changes needed to reduce BC EDD riskiness

All the fancy footwork in the world can’t hide the fact that as Bossier City plunges forward with creation of two new taxing districts it risks picking winners and losers among businesses and invites future elected officials to help themselves to increased tax collections.

This week, the City Council approved the boundaries of these. One gulps in the city’s four casinos while the other basically radiates out from the East Bank District to the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway to the south, to the Red River to the West, up to and over Texas Street especially along the river to the north, and to Hamilton Road and somewhat down Barksdale Boulevard to the railroad tracks the west, excluding some professional and industrial concerns and residences.

The ordinances fixed boundaries, and within these empowered the City Council to levy sales and occupancy taxes, established a management board in common for both headed by the head of the Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation and eight others members (listing needed qualifications) appointed by the mayor, created a trust fund to hold collections from any avails which would be commingled, and defined uses for those funds in support of transportation, streetscaping, utilities, beautification, security, and for grants to new and existing businesses. Other details would come in the form of a cooperative endeavor agreement which it authorized the mayor to pursue.

Landry dealing overcoming lingering doubts

With a little luck and adroit maneuvering, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry might be covering his Achilles heel for reelection in 2027.

While drawing enthusiastic reviews from his conservative base for his tax-cutting policy, holding the line on state government spending, backing sensible measures addressing social issues, and scoring big on economic development moves, it has been nonplussed over his attitude about coastal restoration lawsuits. Over 40 parish-based suits remain against legacy exploration companies from decades ago, recently removed from state courts to federal ones, with Landry cheering on the plaintiff parishes. Conservatives typically see these as money grabs unjustified under federal law that will enrich trial lawyers, which put most on the political right at odds with him.

However, Landry may be softening his reputation as a trial lawyer supporter on the issue as he has spearheaded recent efforts that effectively take the wind out of the sails of the trial bar. It began when this summer the state concluded an agreement with ExxonMobil to have it aid the state in cleaning up orphan wells – those that a defunct explorer abandoned but not sufficiently capped – offshore, which could cost the state close to three-quarters of a billion dollars. In exchange, several suits against the company will be dropped.

Half-baked BC economic districts need rethinking

It’s possible that a taxing economic development district might be a good thing for the old part of Bossier City. But the plans presented for a pair of these that the City Council will vet this week make that impossible.

The Council will consider in its first September meeting creating two such districts where one takes in most of the commercial establishments in the East Bank District and to the north, east, and south plus the Louisiana Boardwalk, while the four casinos comprise the other. All residences, some businesses and nonprofits, and government buildings are excluded.

Each will have the power to levy up to a two percent sales and/or two percent occupancy tax on businesses included, will go into a trust fund that may have proceeds spent upon transportation, street, right-of-way, and utility infrastructure, grants to new or existing businesses, and security measures, with no more than 30 percent annually spent in any one area, unless three-quarters of the management board (below) votes to override, plus a unanimous vote needed to spend on grants. The City Council will govern each, and, as there will be no residents in them, the Council unilaterally can decide whether to enact taxation and issue debt within them.

Make beneficial changes before adjusting formula

In order actually to solve a problem, you need to understand it, which it isn’t at all clear that Louisiana’s Legislative Higher Education Funding and Formula Task Force does.

As the landscape of higher education continues to change, senators thought it would be a good idea to review the outcomes-based funding formula. It’s a good idea, considering the challenges funding for higher education faces, beginning with the fact of the “demographic cliff” in the country, or that traditional-aged college students will fall in number nationally over the next several years.

At the hearing last week of legislators and higher education officials, other presumed variables were presented that could impact funding: increased workforce development demands, higher price inflation, escalating costs of intercollegiate athletic programs, and reduced federal financial aid. On top of all of this, one official argued that supposedly higher education fell over $800 million annually short of necessary, although it was not explained how that figure was derived but presumably through the lens of the existing formula of 70 percent basic, 30 percent outcomes.

State GOP does best with restrained endorsing

It’s two steps forward, one step back for Louisiana’s state Republican Party on an endorsement process that has roiled two congressional elections.

Earlier this week, the party endorsed state Sen. Blake Miguez for the Sixth District contest. This brought remonstrations from the other leading candidate to win the seat, state Sen. Rick Edmonds. The process involves enough state central committee members within the boundaries of the district petitioning for an endorsement, with the final approval given by the party’s Executive Committee as usually happens.

Both candidates received the requisite support, but the Committee selected only Miguez. After the controversy flared in the media, the Committee hastily reconvened and awarded an endorsement to Edmonds as well – the first time this century the party had endorsed two candidates in a House contest.

State GOP Miguez nod unlikely to affect CD 6 race

It might inflame passions for those involved, but it’s likely going to make little difference that the Executive Committee of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee on behalf of the state party endorsed GOP state Sen. Blake Miguez for the Sixth Congressional District over GOP state Sen. Rick Edmonds.

This weekend, the Committee, a subset of party officers of the much larger SCC, after the SCC nominated both Edmonds and Miguez for consideration of the endorsement. Ultimately, the Committee considered only Miguez and delivered it to him. Edmonds felt aggrieved by this, claiming that a small collection of party insiders that have been big boosters of Miguez steered debate completely away from considering him.

A party endorsement unlocks money from both the state party and the Republican National Committee, as well as in-kind services from the state party, plus Miguez can tout the endorsement. However, state resources contributed are expected to be minimal.

Bossier City, Parish acts increase accountability

In a development that lately has run counter the field of play, the Bossier Parish Police Jury backed down on an issue that involved skirting the law – seemingly, echoing a prominent Bossier City appointee falling on his sword likely over a negative report.

The Jury in recent years has made it a habit of dancing on the precipice of what’s legal and what’s not, in the process violating the spirit of the law if not the intent. As an example of the former, the Jury continues complying with the law concerning transmission of its and its committee meetings, but in the most minimal way possible (although it did recently begin to post its informational packet for each meeting prior to them, years after all other major local governmental organizations in the area). As an example of the latter, for months it illegally allowed its former parish administrator to act as the head of libraries and allowed him to serve as the parish head executive even though he really resided outside the parish contrary to law.

But over two years of openly flouting the law regarding the parish Library Board of Control apparently it couldn’t stomach any longer. Last week, it amended its ordinance about the Board to bring it closer in line with state law. Previously, the ordinance had set membership only at five parish citizens, but the amending expanded it to many as seven and it clarified the length of terms, making it basically the same as in statute.

New center boosts Arceneaux at Young’s expense

Last week wasn’t so hot for Shreveport mayoral candidate Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John-Paul Young. By contrast, it went pretty well for incumbent Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux.

At the Commission’s work session Monday, Young offered up a resolution that would have placed a two-year moratorium on data center siting in the parish. He also wanted to advance to Thursday’s regular meeting a resolution by a colleague to require more onerous environmental impact studies on centers.

Instead, commissioners, perhaps because resolutions don’t have the force of law, decided to send the matters to committee. Only an ordinance would be enforceable, but legally the parish can’t pass one on this matter because it doesn’t have a master plan. That came as a consequence of the separation of the parish and Shreveport from joint zoning for a portion of parish jurisdiction a few years ago, leaving a good chunk of the parish unregulated.

PSC must rule to attract centers, help ratepayers

Economic prosperity through data centers is being thrown into Louisiana’s lap. But it’s not enough just to solve the puzzle of economic incentives; political necessities all need attending to.

It turns out that a number of states, run by Democrats, are throwing up roadblocks if not banning outright data centers, on claims that they hog too much water and raise electrical rates. Certainly, the Monroe area, while seeing a surge in business and tax receipts as a result of siting the Hyperion project in Richland Parish, also has witnessed negative externalities that could sour people on the idea.

However, such assertions ignore how other states, many farther along in the game, have engaged in policies that sidestep bothersome spillover effects. After all, they don’t have guns pointed at them, forcing them to hand out no-strings massive incentives.

LA children to benefit from new Head Start rules

Impending rules changes by the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration to running the Head Start programs for pre-kindergarten education will be a boon to Louisiana.

The program is designed provide free child care, allegedly with part of that provision of basic instruction to children from infants up to about five years old, to families who are at the 130 percent poverty level (about the same level as those qualifying for free or heavily discounted health care for states with expanded Medicaid), or in foster care, or who are homeless. It exists in parallel to monies spent by states on similar services to nonqualifying families.

It is, however, typically more expensive to taxpayers –- federal ones, as it exists as a roughly $12 billion grant program going directly to states – than spending per slot by state taxpayers for their separate programs, reaching about $20,000 annually on average for the 0-2 age group program and $15,000 for the 3-5. In large part this is due to the far more stringent regulations the programs have than their state, with one exception, equivalents have.

History of wasted BC tax dollars keeps unfolding

Voter apathy and having the wrong people in office cost Bossier City more than first realized.

Beginning almost three decades ago, the city, doing decently financially, went on a spending spree. Dissatisfaction across the Red River with the State Fairgrounds’ arena for events, particularly ice hockey, aroused the City Council to count coup on Shreveport and build its own. Controversy ensued over its siting and costs, with the numbers initially bandied about eventually almost doubled. What followed was a parking garage tied to a private development which soon teetered into receivership, contributing about a third of the expense to a high-tech office building that failed to attract its intended client and took years to find any substantial tenants at all, construction of compressed natural gas alternative fuel stations requiring more expensive city vehicles that quickly turned into a money-losing proposition, and building a $50-million-a-mile road that didn’t do fully what it was supposed to and perhaps has increased accidents.

None of this was needed, but it seemed to be cool and made it appear councilors and the two mayors involved were doing something to make the city more than America’s biggest small town posing as a bedroom community, enabled by an inattentive electorate. Its own arena! A destination outdoor shopping center! A Silicon Valley-like building to land a new Air Force command! Leveraging of shale assets that skims the cutting edge of low-emission transportation! Relieving congestion on major arteries for the growth boom ahead! Which hardly came, although had the Walter O. Bigby Carriageway been built for its purpose of a true north-south corridor from downtown to the foot of Interstate 220 an extra $20 or so million added to the $89 million might have made sense. But that couldn’t be pursued because of the over $100 million wasted on these other things that made the proper extension unaffordable, adding debt and interest owed needlessly.

LA to benefit from deflating alarmists' hot air

With wind power generation from offshore Louisiana now on the back burner, if not moribund, the hypocrisy of Luddites stumping for propagating this enterprise off the state’s coastline has become all too apparent, even as this result saves American taxpayers and/or consumers their hard-earned dollars.

Under the climate alarmist Democrat former Pres. Joe Biden Administration, a lease for this purpose was sold in federally-controlled waters 40 miles south of Lake Charles. Under the equally climate alarmist Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration, the state also leased two more such lands in state waters.

But now the federal lease has gone with the wind. The Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration, guided by climate realism, gave the German company RWE $1.2 billion dollars to relinquish that claim and offshore sites in other parts of the country.

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.

Bossier Parish restroom ordinance appropriate

Again, it’s important to remember that when on the losing side of the argument, delivering distraction and non sequiturs becomes the order of the day, as recent squawking about a proposed ordinance in Bossier Parish illustrates.

Last month, the Bossier Parish Police Jury passed along a measure that creates a framework to ensure and enforce that in parish-owned or run buildings those of a biological sex only use restrooms and dressing rooms designated for that biological sex, unless the facility were designated family/single occupancy. Essentially, a parish employee if discovering or alerted to a violation may issue two warnings (first, exiting the facility, then exiting the building, which could be the same) if not heeded then makes the person subject to arrest and criminal penalties. Essentially, it adds criminal enforcement to existing state law.

The ordinance bends over backwards in other ways. It exempts actions pertaining to a parent assisting a minor child., assistance provided to a disabled person, emergency medical care, law enforcement activities, custodial or maintenance services, and emergency evacuations or disasters.

Miscreant top judge not wrong on clarifications

You can be right and wrong at the same time, a recent flareup at the Louisiana Supreme Court proves.

No party Chief Justice John Weimer keeps getting on the wrong side of his colleagues. In 2023, upset at how they thought Wiemer ran the Court – the senior-most justice legally becomes chief regardless of the desires of others – that they formed a committee to administer the Court, leaving only ceremonial duties for Weimer. Republican then-Assoc. Justice Scott Crichton was appointed to lead it.

He almost found himself out of a job years early (he will surpass the age limitation disallowing reelection in 2032) when in 2024 almost all of those then on the Court backed a reapportionment plan that would have changed his district residency. He survived when a subsequent plan kept him in place.

Trump and Landry defuse Luddites on data centers

It’s not as important that another Republican Gov. Jeff Landry win tamped down discord among some over data center spillover costs, but that it deflated the rearguard action conducted by climate alarmists.

Already having set the stage with his recent executive order that said costs passed on to power and water consumers as a result of data center creation and expansion had to be matched by benefits conveyed to consumers in other ways, Landry received an assist from his ally Pres. Donald Trump upon the latter’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge  recently drawing the signatures of heavy hitters in the data center universe. Governors also were invited to sign off, and Landry assuredly did that which crept a bit more forward than his executive order.

Essentially, the pledge says entities involved will not pass along exclusive data center added costs to the general public. All major Louisiana power utilities have signed it as well as a number of entities building, overseeing, and operating, or planning to do so, data centers in the state. A framework to restrict this already exists with the Public Service Commission, although a dissident Democrat on it claims this should occur more specifically.

Suit may make BC Marshal Whitman next victim

The Bossier City political establishment’s worst nightmare is back and, even if tangentially and somewhat accidentally, about to threaten another of its member’s political careers.

Last month, in Merriott v. Bossier City, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals thoroughly embarrassed former city councilors Republicans Jeff Free and David Montgomery and no party Jeff Darby, along with current City Attorney Charles Jacobs with a ruling handing an almost total victory to SOBO.live website operator Wes Merriott. He sued the city after what the panel described as a series of egregious abuses of power by the majority then on the City Council, goaded by Jacobs, in its violating Merriott’s free expression and due process constitutional rights.

Although a district court initially dismissed much of the case, the panel revived almost all of it with instructions that will make it all but impossible not to rule in his favor and potentially invoke damages against the city (the individual defendants will escape penalties on the basis of a technicality). The city failed to appeal by its deadline to do so this week, so the case will resume in Judge Terry Doughty’s Western District Court at some point in the future.

Obamacare disenrollment benefits Louisianans

More good news continues to come Louisiana’s way as policies to improve verification for taxpayer subsidization of government-backed health insurance take hold now aided by the expiration of bonus dollars for it.

Disguised as a Wuhan coronavirus pandemic palliative but in reality a mechanism to encourage more dependency on government and to acquire a greater taste for getting free stuff from government, until starting this year the federal government subsidized on average almost 90 percent of the premium paid for health insurance purchase under a state or federal government market, known as Obamacare. Cooler heads prevailed to remove the extra gift so now the typical exchange user pays closer to 30 percent.

This partly is responsible for a decline in exchange enrollment, although the stepped-up verification also contributes as it catches out disingenuous or inattentive people to prevent them from qualifying for subsidies (roughly a quarter, estimated at around 6 million) which have income means tests. Louisiana so far has seen enrollment numbers drop by more than a quarter, and also has experienced fewer annual enrollees maintaining coverage since signing up at the start of the year. Both the decline in aggregate enrollees and enrollment drop off are among the highest of states.

Promoting marriage would bring benefits to LA

Louisiana has made stellar progress in education. But what may temper these gains more than anything else something almost entirely out of the control of educators.

Soon to be published is an analysis of the impact that marriage has on children’s academic achievement. Researchers note an enormous gulf in achievement between children in married households with both parents present as opposed to, at the most extreme, single parent-led households. They caution this can be confused with other associated indicators such as race, leading to incorrect policy prescriptions that too enthusiastically declare that racial considerations are at fault for poor outcomes when in reality something else is at work.

It long has been observed that children from higher socioeconomic statuses achieve educationally at significantly higher levels than do low SES children, and marriage plays a part in that as it denotes a future orientation of a life planned together that includes measures to earn better incomes that typically come later, allowing devotion to children of greater resources and for greater homelife stability. Unmarried couples tend to have children at younger ages and in a more cursorily, if at all, planned fashion more oriented to present gratification than in striving for more economic and emotional security for offspring. Staying married usually, although not exclusively, reinforces the same future-oriented attitudes into children that spawn academic success.

Cassidy unfitness reinforced by voting views

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy gave us another reason why it’s a good thing he’ll be out of a job soon: he doesn’t understand the basics of one of the most crucial policy aspects of it.

Recently, Cassidy was quoted musing about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and, even though he sponsors the one and only version of it, would like to see changes to it. Basically, insofar as the act of voting it requires official government-issued identification in order to vote, and it restricts the use of mail-in ballots to certain special cases that prevents mass-mailing.

However, Cassidy isn’t on board with control that tight. Moreover, he wants to encourage participation, which he imagines would come from not restricting mail ballots but expanding their use such as Oregon’s practice of mailing ballots to all who were registered to vote with that vast bulk coming from driver’s license interactions. Indeed, he claims having closed primary elections constitute an impediment to voting, even as the majority of states restrict voter choices when selecting a particular political party’s nominee for offices, and tried to back this sentiment by noting that voting turnout for the GOP closed primary in May that announced his defeat had significantly lower turnout than his 2020 general election victory.

New Orleans clowns invite tough love punishment

You mess with the bull, you get the horns, politicians in New Orleans as the city comes to potential reckoning through tough love.

The saga started at the beginning of the month when a grand jury out of thin air lodged an indictment against Republican Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill. It charged her with multiple counts of malfeasance and public intimidation, whereupon a special prosecutor was appointed. The basis for that came weeks earlier when the city attempted to contravene new statute that abolished one of the clerks of court by merging it into another, but was shot down by the judiciary. Murrill had warned city officials that those actions violated state law and threatened legal action to remove officials from office if they proceeded.

That indictment was halted almost immediately by the state Supreme Court, citing perverse legal logic, conflicts of interest, and procedural errors. It said the case essentially was dead in the water on the basis that Murrill’s actions amounted to her discharging legally her duties.

Stats don't back Stewart getting tougher on crime

The “Seabaugh effect” keeps progressing on Democrat First District Attorney James Stewart, a recent review of data reveals.

Stewart will face off against Republican state Sen. Alan Seabaugh this fall to try to win reelection. Demographics slightly favor Stewart, but Seabaugh has shown a terrific campaigning ability in his runs for the state Legislature.

In his challenge, Seabaugh, picking up on some disgruntlement within the parish, has emphasized an approach that will lead to more charges filed and more cases going to trial. Stewart has come under criticism for being too much in the mold of a “progressive prosecutor,” or one who tends to dismiss lower-level charges or pleads down too aggressively because supposedly prosecutorial resources should go to more serious crimes and lower-level offenses are allegedly an offshoot of a disadvantaged background that are committed disproportionately by racial minorities.

Property tax amendments could shake govt finances

In light of what happened this spring and what’s going on in other states, it’s not too soon to talk about Louisiana’s property tax amendments placed in front of voters in fall elections.

Four came as a consequence of the last regular session. Act 274 would add to the homestead exemption for the special assessment level as applied to owners 65 and older up to $30,000, Act 272 would put an exemption in place for rehabilitation of blighted properties, and Act 39 would transfer the special exemption for surviving spouses of veterans one time. These would decrease non-municipal (and including New Orleans) local governments’ property revenues. Potentially raising it, however, is Act 273 which removes a quirk in adjusting millage rates that would allow them to increase within the four-year assessment period after a decrease, so long as the maximum authorized rate isn’t exceeded.

But perhaps the greatest impact would come from Act 220 of 2025, which bumps up the income eligibility level for special assessments (mostly owners 65 and older which freezes their aggregate taxes paid) from $100,000 to $150,000 (which in the case of the Act 274 amendment would add even more leakage). Given the large numbers of unknown such as qualifiers, there is not an estimate of the total cost to local governments, other than it’s assuredly fewer tax dollars rolling in.

Govts must not forfeit NE LA economic surge

It's a new world in northeast Louisiana with Meta plopping down in rural Richland Parish what now may become the world’s largest data center, pumping in $50 billion in economic activity over the next decade, it was announced recently. I experienced a symptom of that with this traffic jam at rush hour with vehicles returning from the construction site over a road that never used to see anything close to that volume.

Anecdotal evidence like this now has empirical confirmation. The economic development group Grow NELA has inaugurated a web site displaying data it collected on general sales taxation across the 10-parish region. In some cases, the numbers are astonishing.

Every parish showed sales tax growth from when Meta first announced the Hyperion project at the end of 2024. Only a couple have a pre-Meta quarter that was higher than any of the quarters in their Meta era. Ouachita from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of this year was up 17 percent, compared to only 14 percent from the first of 2021 to the same in 2024. For all of 2026, sales tax growth in on track to increase 19 percent.

Ill-timed tax votes waste bucks, disserve public

The Bossier Parish Police Jury is pursuing one of the most hackneyed dodges that a Louisiana local government can do, wasting, and maybe collecting too many, tax dollars in the process.

Last week, the Jury voted to send a couple of property taxes out for renewal. One is a 1.99 mill dedicated to roads and bridges, currently with only 1.95 being collected, and the other is a 0.82 mill dedicated to running the parish health unit as established by statute which the parish must maintain with only 0.81 being collected.

It’s difficult to argue against the presence of either. Infrastructure is a constant concern, and the health unit is a legal obligation on behalf of the state. But the manner of renewal is craven, if not cowardly or even duplicitous.

LA must stop subsidizing viewpoint discrimination

In recent years, Louisiana has taken the lead in protesting viewpoint discrimination by government proxy through the private sector. Its policy-makers should do so again and expand those efforts in covering when the private sector does business with state government.

In the Murthy v. Missouri case, Louisiana played a major role taking up the cause of one of its then-citizens whose viewpoints on health decision-making were discriminated against by social media companies, which in isolation was uncontroversial except that government actively steered the companies in that direction. The judiciary held this to be state-sponsored speech suppression, but it also determined that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. A narrower case, without the state’s involvement, then filed brought a settlement where certain federal government agencies could not engage in that discrimination.

There are other ways in which Louisiana has fought viewpoint discrimination. A few years ago, the State Bond Commission, then led by then-Treas. John Schroder, declared it would not do business with entities that discriminated by viewpoint, specifically with those that refused to do business with gun manufacturers. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry the year he took office issued an executive order covering higher education institutions, which prohibits state agencies and public institutions from discriminating against students, faculty, or staff based on their political ideas and aims to foster a culture where individuals do not face retribution for their speech or political beliefs.

BC district can't treat big boys preferentially

Creating an economic development district that could help to revive the flagging fortunes of Bossier City’s Boardwalk might have merit, but it depends very much on execution that doesn’t have one set of private businesses subsidizing another.

In recent months, meetings have occurred attended by a number of business owners located from the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway north bounded by Hamilton Road, East Texas Street, and Traffic Street and inclusive of businesses along these routes. The proposed boundaries would include all casinos, the East Bank District, and the Boardwalk. General conversations have been held discussing the areas to include, revenue collection methods with an additional sales tax charged as the leading option, and uses of these proceeds such as using them to back debt issuance to pursue projects.

EDDs under statute may be created by a local governing authority, so the City Council would have to pass an ordinance doing this and would establish itself as the district’s governing authority, with, among other powers, has the power to tax. These could collect revenues by property (5 mill maximum) or sales taxation (2 percent maximum) or hotel occupancy taxes (2 percent maximum) and engage in a number of economic development projects, or even establish cooperative endeavor agreements to run the district with public or private entities.

GIGO-hampered lists misinform on state of LA

Louisiana policy-makers, businesses, and citizens are laughing all the way to the economic development and social livability banks even as a leftist news organization misreads the room.

Last week, cable business channel CNBC peddled two indices of where states rank. One overall index, alleging to capture state economic performance, put the state 46^th, citing its heavy reliance on federal dollars that may shrink – partly a consequence of the stupefying decision to expand Medicaid a decade ago at the behest of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards – tariffs, and slow economic growth.

The other was a subset of the first, supposedly capturing quality of life that factors in about a ninth of the overall. Here, the state ranked a place worse, with Vermont on top and Tennessee on bottom.

BC bad past spending choices hamper development

When peeling back the layers, the Bossier City Council’s recent decision to deny a rezoning request isn’t about accommodating a commercial enterprise at the edge of a residential neighborhood but illuminates a consequence of poor spending choices made in the city’s past.

Last week, the Council, contrary to the recommendation of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, voted 6-1 to deny the request – for a second time – to open a chiropractor clinic at the corner of Douglas Drive and Benton Road. South along the east side of Benton Road up to that point are a string of commercial establishments, but behind these are the older neighborhoods. The west side of Benton from just south of Douglas is all large-lot residences almost to Viking Drive.

Councilors introduced multiple reasons to deny the request again. One questioned why the owner, who lives nearby, wouldn’t buy a more suitable commercial property as the location to transfer his business, with speculation that he was trying to get a price break and then count on changing the zoning. Another noted that the city was in the process of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new master plan and any zoning decision should wait until after its completion rather than carving out what could be a last-second exception.

Landry tries again to thread needle, on centers

Just as he has found himself trying to thread a needle concerning carbon capture and sequestration, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has tried to do the same regarding data center presence in the state.

Last year, under growing popular pressure, Landry issued an executive order that had the effect of slowing down CCS projects in the state. It allowed only a few to go forward, rendered when increasing public and legislative opposition advised that the impact particularly of the sequestration process had not had sufficient study for the application of appropriate safeguards.

This issue has caught Landry between its two aspects of capture and sequestration. With federal tax credits (and, for now, carbon credits paid by foreign concerns) for capture enabling a profitable industry, Louisiana has a competitive advantage only because of its abundance of sequestration options. It has no leverage over capture policy, just sequestration policy, but it precisely is sequestration around which major opposition has coalesced.

LDH free condom giveaway strategy shift beneficial

If you’re a dude (or you’re a gal who’s about to have an assignation with such a guy) who can’t keep it in your pants, go grab yourself a free state-issue condom. And here’s a map to help you.

Yes, Louisiana participates in an HIV (and, more generally, sexually transmitted and infectious disease) prevention program that, among other things, tosses loads of free condoms to nonprofits and businesses to distribute. For example, feeling randy in Bossier City but concerned you’ll pick up a gift that keeps on giving? Check in to any of four motels on East Texas St. and not only can you get a room for the deed (maybe even by the hour), but a free state-issue wrapper as well.

According to the most recent numbers, the state spent $3 million of federal money on the broader program in the latest year available; how much of this went to condoms and if there were state taxpayer dollars at work is unknown. And, before accusations arise about how this is a looney leftist politicized waste of money, it is a Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration initiative.

Groups oppose rule that would uncover true selves

If you throw water on a dog and it yelps, the water must be scalding to the dog. The interesting question, as in the case of the hue and cry emanating from leftist special interests over a proposed Louisiana Public Service Commission transparency rule, is why what seems lukewarm to everybody else feels radioactive to them.

At its next meeting, the PSC is expected to approve a rule requiring intervenors in cases to reveal in broad terms whether they receive funding from entities outside of Louisiana including foreign governments and if so the proportion. Additionally, money from foreign governments or entities that they control received over the past five years would have to be specified, including whether domestic donors to organizations received money from these sources. The rule would apply to any entity that comments on a case, all the way from climate alarmist organizations to corporations, including regulated utilities, who have a potential monetary interest in an outcome, including lobby groups.

It's not like this information is hard to come by. Corporations or cooperatives have to file tax forms that draw upon this information, and nonprofits, even those designated as charitable, also have to collect information on donors to satisfy reporting requirements such as indicating sufficiently large donations or determining whether they meet a public support standard to qualify as tax exempt.

Media outlet falls for reporting flawed narrative

If you’re a special interest group basing your policy preferences on bad science that needs donor dollars, you must scare people, and a Louisiana media source bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

This year, the group Climate Central put out a report alleging that summers over the past 35 years have warmed in almost all of 243 U.S. cities and that anthropogenic climate change is the leading driver in nearly all of those. Then the group, which prides itself on fronting the fable that anthropogenic causes necessarily have triggered more extreme weather such as rising average temperatures and packages this for local media, snookered the Louisiana Radio Network into swallowing this line for a story about summer temperatures in Louisiana, blaming supposedly higher temperatures on increases in carbon emissions that eventually will lead to doom.

Chasing the story was defensible, given alarmist reporting about temperatures. However, swallowing the bilge whole proved a lapse in judgment.

Monroe unwise to change mayoral veto standard

A frustrated set of Monroe City Council Democrats are advocating the gutting of the intent and purpose of the city charter because the system works.

Last week, the Council addressed a pair of vetoes issued by no party Mayor Friday Ellis. He struck a measure that would have established a constitutionally problematic procedure for addressing allegedly discriminatory statements and actions among city employees, prompted when his chief operating officer Morgan McCallister hit back at baseless accusations of such alleged statements. Another denied ordinance would have had the city annex a neighborhood, against the decision of the city’s zoning board, with questionable liabilities involving a principal whose other project is stalled by the city, discussion of which in front of another government body was what prompted the accusation against McCallister.

Council Democrats complained that Ellis had the power to create an extra hurdle for things he didn’t support – in other words, carping about a venerable and basic check and balance in American government. Democrat Juanita Woods said she was bringing a reworded version of the investigatory ordinance one of which was introduced later, and she insinuated racism lay behind the annexation veto, while Democrat Rodney McFarland said the stated basis of the veto was “lies” and made the similar comparison that the largely-black southside area of Monroe was getting shortchanged; all Council Democrats are black while Ellis is white.

Registrant totals show continued GOP momentum

It’s official: for the first time in around 150 years, Louisiana has more registered Republicans than Democrats in the electorate, with implications.

Official beginning-of-month statistics give Republicans an over 2,000-registrant lead over Democrats. Compared to the year’s beginning, the GOP has added over 12,000 voters while Democrats have lost over 18,000. As the electorate increased by around 6,000, this means that all other voters gaining made up the 12,000 or so difference.

It’s hard to overstate the significance of the shift. Not even two decades ago when Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal became the first lifelong Republican to win the Governor’s Mansion, Democrats held a two-to-one advantage (and there were 134,000 fewer registrants then). That means the GOP has increased 52 percent since, while Democrats have dropped 41 percent. Even more dramatically, 65 years ago Democrats comprised 99 percent of the electorate.

Trump, markets hand win to LA CCS foes

They may have lost at the Louisiana Legislature, but concerned residents and carbon capture and sequestration foes picked up a win courtesy of the politician who backed the opponent of the U.S. Senate candidate they supported, pointing the way to future successes.

Today, the other shoe dropped when Air Products confirmed that it would abandon its so-called Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, after last year suspending continuation of work on it. The project would have produced “blue” hydrogen, meaning through a process that didn’t emit a lot of carbon. That carbon would have been sequestered around and under Lake Maurepas, which generated significant opposition from those near it including some local governments.

Such was the alarm, with fears that without any history of sustained large scale sequestration to draw upon and isolated past instances of crises in transportation rendered CCS too risky, that dozens of bills hit the Legislature this past session to restrict or prohibit CCS, including a few aimed specifically around Lake Maurepas. Legislative leaders and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s tacit acceptance of CCS caused these to go nowhere.

Conservatism to see few gains in LA fall votes

In essence, Louisiana’s Senate, one Board of Elementary and Secondary Education spot, and two Public Service Commission posts have been settled, resulting with arguably little in the way of conservative advancement.

That’s not because Republicans won’t triumph in all of these contests come November. That basically was set in stone upon qualifying, with first the party primaries of May 16 and then the ensuing runoffs Jun. 27 setting the exact field. Who gained the respective nominations mattered to determine the advancement of conservatism.

For the Senate, Rep. Julia Letlow’s win over GOP Treas. John Fleming hardly will cause an ideological ripple, if actually regress slightly from conservatism. Her lifetime voting record is actually slightly more moderate than that of who she and Fleming vanquished in the primary and who she replaces, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, although both are to the political right roughly equidistant between centrism and perfect conservatism. Fleming’s record in Congress, by contrast, was much further to the right.

Despite lower turnout, Letlow forges victory

The tumultuous U.S. Senate Republican runoff between Treas. John Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow ended not much differently than where it had started from the primary election.

After that, it looked as if Letlow could cruise to victory. Leading Fleming in percent of the vote 45-28, that left her with a sizeable advantage not needing to pick up much relative support to notch a runoff win. But a few factors should have raised alarms in her camp.

First, there would be a chunk of voters who showed up simply to boot incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy. A half-baked flipflop on the question of convicting (then former) GOP Pres. Donald Trump as well as subsequent votes backing a big-spending Democrat agenda soured especially conservative voters on him, who would make up disproportionately the party primary electorate. Further, they disproportionately likely voted for Letlow because she was seen as the more moderate of the two, but they had no real commitment to her and with a good portion of the state having nothing but the runoff on the ballot, many of these voters would disappear from the polls, giving Fleming an advantage.

Landry vetoes urge NO to get, keep it together

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry wouldn’t be much of a chief executive by Louisiana’s past standards if he wasn’t using his line-item veto clout. But this year his aim seems different.

In his first two years, Landry employed this technique of vetoing line items animated by a particular purpose. In 2024, he lopped off items that he didn’t see having a statewide purpose that went to nongovernmental organizations, and from there developed criteria by which such requests would pass his muster. In 2025, he used his pen more punitively as retribution against legislators, even of his own party, who opposed some signature pieces of his legislative agenda.

For 2026, the overall theme seemed to be to get Orleans Parish affairs in order. The regular capital outlay bill for 2024 apportioned for projects exclusively in New Orleans some $341 million (keep in mind this doesn’t have to be spent in that year or could include projects from previous years not complete, and this amount includes roads, ports, and recreation money but not for state buildings, and also accounts for NGOs and subgovernments exclusively within the parish), and its 2025 counterpart laid out $514 million (the jump mainly due to a huge appropriation to the Port of New Orleans, counted although technically in St. Bernard, as well as the airport, technically in Jefferson, counted in all years). In 2024, all three Landry line item excisions hit Orleans, for almost $2 million, and in 2025 none of those three affected Orleans.