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.

Left fighting rearguard action against pay raises

The struggle never ends against Louisiana’s political left’s quest to expand government, as the battle over a one-time shift in education spending demonstrates.

This week, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry notched a victory towards the state providing yet another stipend for educators and support staff in public schools. It all started in 2023 when the state, rather than baking in a permanent pay hike of $2,000 for those with a teaching license and $1,000 for all other employed full-time by a local education association to the Minimum Foundation Program, instead didn’t pass a formula for the MFP but did make a one-time appropriation for stipends. The process repeated the next two years, even as last year voters turned down constitutional amendments taking money from overstuffed trust funds that would pay down unfunded accrued liabilities that could shift money to LEAs to provide these raises, and did so again this year to a similar measure.

The two rejections came from the left mobilizing voters against those items, because in essence these would devolve power away from the state in ongoing education expenses, placing more in the hands of local governments which the left sees as less reliably able to spend more money and grow government because local officials and taxpayers are more likely to hold the line on spending in many places, whereas having the money as part of the MFP put spending increases across the state on autopilot. With this electorate veto power for the moment and Landry and GOP supermajorities in the Legislature wishing to fund raises but not from the MFP that provided for less local control, Landry hit on a plan through an executive order to perform an intercessional redirection for this budget year only to provide for the hikes.

Change execution method to save public's lives

A recent series of legal rulings has left Louisiana with the need to tweak its law that ultimately saves lives.

Rulings made concerning an Alabama law that permits hypoxia as a method of carrying out capital punishment, coupled with a U.S. Supreme Court declination to review them, said that particular method of execution is unconstitutional. This would rest on Eighth Amendment grounds as cruel and unusual punishment, as in the several instances where such a method has been used, including in Louisiana where the method was added into law in 2024 and carried out last year, the inmates appeared to struggle during the process.

This represents a temporary victory for capital punishment opponents, whose strategy in the face of the constitutionality of the general concept of the death penalty is to try to declare every specific method as unconstitutional. They do this despite the fact that social science research indicates that capital punishment when consistently applied saves innocent lives – or perhaps in spite of it for ideological reasons because they know if they can disrupt the consistency then the practice becomes ineffective and then they can use that to try to attack the conceptual constitutionality argument.

Kennedy presidential prospects hampered by age

It’s an interesting proposition, but if Republican Sen. John Kennedy does run for the presidency, that might be a bridge too far because of something illegal in employment law, but not when ratified by voters.

At a recent speech, Kennedy averred that he might eschew reelection, which he could garner without difficulty, and instead take a stab at the presidency. He said that donors were encouraging him.

 

Kennedy has solid conservative credentials in his time in the Senate but, perhaps more importantly from a national political perspective, has gained a reputation as an effective and witty communicator of those ideas. In fact, an online search will turn up, both in text and by video, sites that proclaim Kennedy’s “greatest hits” in terms of witticisms. As well, Kennedy also has built a reputation as a bulldog in interviewing nominees and testifiers of both parties, calling things as he sees them.

Funds shift should trigger new MFP strategy

Necessity is the mother of invention, and perhaps Republican Gov. Jeff Landry hit on some needed reform of education expenditures.

After two attempts fell short to amend the Constitution in two consecutive spring votes that would have rejiggered state finances to shuttle money to school districts to provide educator and staff raises, Landry proposed a plan to reshuffle the state’s Minimum Foundation Program for this year to take money from operational and other non-instructional expenses and send it to salaries. This would require an intercession vote remotely by two-thirds of legislators in each chamber.

 

Problematically, some state school boards have raised alarms about the plan. In essence, they would be required to beggar spending on non-instructional expenses that could delay projects and support services or leave a district short in case of an emergency such as rebuilding after a disaster. Alternatively, they could dip into reserves for this one-time expense (policy-makers have convened a task force to reform educational spending that they hope provides a permanent increase in future years).

Govts should vet outdated, useless agencies

Maybe both Bossier City and Bossier Parish could use their portions of nearly a million dollars on something better than an outdated local government agency that acts like a bank with public dollars.

At its meeting earlier this month, the parish’s Police Jury reappointed three members to the Bossier Public Trust Financing Authority for four-year terms that would expire at the end of the month. The governing board has two other members whose terms end in a couple of years for the agency created in 1979 to issue mortgages for single-family housing, serviced through area financial institutions. Reappointments will have to be ratified by Bossier City prior to term ends.

In its early years it issued several such bond issues, but since then largely has fallen into disuse. Technically it is a component unit of Bossier City, but in reality it essentially operates as an adjunct of the Greater Bossier Economic Development Fund as its board members all are GBEDF directors and its agent Rocky Rockett is the GBEDF executive director. None receive compensation, although the Authority pays out administration fees and professional fees presumably for its simplified audit annually for the state’s legislative auditor.

LA already seeing benefits from SNAP changes

Louisiana, both gratifyingly and embarrassingly, leads almost every state in reduction of people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is a good thing

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of last year made the most far-reaching changes to public assistance programs in three decades, among them to SNAP. Specifically, states would be penalized starting in fiscal year 2028 for an excessive inappropriate payment rate, reductions in eligibility requirement waivers for regions with higher unemployment rates, allowing fewer legally-residing foreign nationals to access it, and, in 2027, institution of a lenient community engagement requirement for working-age able-bodied adults without dependents.

Especially with the error-rate requirement using data that began using data from last year, states have become more vigilant in determining eligibility. As a result, rolls have declined steadily since the bill’s passage about a year ago. They’re about nine percent lower, or 4.3 million recipients, through February of this year (which should increase further as several states had waivers on standards into April).

Deal controversy to discourage Monroe investors

Double standards and good-old-boy politics aren’t going to serve Monroe well as it tries to take advantage of a generational economic development opportunity.

As the Hyperion data center project continues its buildout, which has given the area economy but particularly Monroe’s a big shot in the arm, bickering continues over a potentially-dubious use of taxpayer dollars. In the crosshairs is a $4.5 million deal by the Interstate 20 Economic Development District, giving the sum to an entity DZE LLC to build residential homes outside of the EDD. Its board, whose members mostly comprise City Council selections that at this time is controlled by black Democrats, bypassed normal procedures to award the money.

The city technically has jurisdiction over the District’s fiscal matters and has refused to release the portion of the money already billed. Initially it argued that it had uncertainty over whether statutorily it could do so, since the project had no real connection to the district. Mainly comprising Pecanland Mall, tax revenue gained through projects theoretically would fund district activities, so it is very difficult to see how infrastructure pertaining to houses outside of the district constitutes economic development within it. Other than the Board, does anyone seriously think new houses across the way will encourage more people to locate near to and want to take the low-wage jobs at the mall?

Bossier Jury setting itself up for lawsuit loss

Go ahead, Bossier Parish Police Jury, make my day, if you dare, although the parish would be far better off if you simply followed the law.

Last week’s Jury meeting ended with a letter of resignation from former Library Director Felesha Sweeney. Two days later, the parish’s Library Board of Control said it had appointed Marissa Richardson as the new interim director, it later clarified.

That’s important as she cannot take the permanent post until, according to statute, appointment by the Board, which requires a public meeting. But the past two meetings of the Board were inconsistent with state law because, among other things, the entire Jury of a dozen masqueraded as members of the Board when legally there can be a maximum of only seven voting members on it.

Taxpayer-funded weight loss bill deserves veto

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, if he considers costs and outcomes, has good reason to veto SB 433.

The bill by Democrat state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, after a few iterations, would have the state cover for Medicaid weight loss drugs for obesity, as prescribed. Louisiana Medicaid already covers it for clients where weight gain is a consequence of a chronic condition, which this expansion would not require. This has a five-year estimated cost of $72 million.

Here, the thinking is that obesity causes other maladies that eventually could fall under Medicaid treatment, hence needing state taxpayer support (although Louisiana typically has between 60-70 percent of costs covered by the federal government, so the bill has the Department of Health promulgate standards that would be consistent with federal regulations). By preventing obesity, the guess is that the use of semaglutide, the chemical in the drugs practically speaking that would have to be prescribed, would cost less than the eventual cost of treatment for other preventable conditions.

BC Council increases delivery of fiscal reform

Almost a year into their terms, the current Bossier City Council members that promised fiscal prudence and reform look set to deliver a heaping dosage of it in their meeting this week.

A couple of holdovers and four new members who took office last Jul. 1 came in with stated agendas of making more prudent spending decisions and better fiscal management than the predecessor majority. That has happened in bits and pieces, such as reducing free riding by large apartment complexes on water and sewerage fees and in refinancing bond deals. However, this week’s agenda features the broadest range of reform yet at the same time signals where more work can be done.

One item echoes previous efforts with the extension of a refinancing strategy for older bonds. An ordinance will extend the ability of the city to use a $15 million bond issuance in 2021 originally intended to pare down an issue connected to past public works projects (principally the Walter O. Bigby Carriageway, whose account has been spent in totality) to another active bond series. Essentially, the city will take advantage of differential interest due – the additional series had small payments early but these will increase substantially the closer it gets to its 2036 due date – between old and new issue to save roughly $850,000 annually.

Leftist media see Morris as threat, wield hatchet

Republican state Sen. Jay Morris has been getting a little too effective in countering the left’s agenda in Louisiana, drawing a transparent hatchet job from its far left media.

Morris has had a busy session authoring several high-profile bills that end up making it easier to remove wayward elected officials, reducing the size of overstaffed courts, and the just-signed law reapportioning the state’s congressional districts by replacing an unconstitutional map containing two majority-minority districts with a plan having just one. These have drawn the left’s ire, and so it wishes to discourage legislators from undertaking future reform efforts by trying to drag Morris through the mud.

The leftist Floodlight, Verite, and Louisiana Illuminator websites combined forces recently to publish a piece about the dealings of Morris and a long-standing business partner related to land near the Hyperion data center project. It breathlessly proclaims that Morris “used his political position to advance the project … [while] buying and selling the land around it over the past 15 months,” making him appear as a kind of grifter more commonly associated with political leftists concerning government.

Legislative review of alarmist plan welcome

Louisiana’s Climate Initiatives Task Force and its product the Louisiana Climate Action Plan officially died early last year. But a review of its legacy is most appropriate.

In 2020, Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards, safely reelected, let his inner radical leftist surface in part by establishing the task force, which received orders to come up with a plan that mirrored the climate alarmism agenda. It duly did so by 2022, fatally flawed by the scientifically unsustainable assumptions behind it, that wanted to commit the state to a traumatic ratcheting down of carbon emissions.

Fortunately, for the most part the significant portions would require legislative or Public Service Commission acquiescence, and the climate realism majorities in both make that unlikely to happen. However, actions taken by the executive branch, for example, could adhere to minor aspects of the agenda at the expense of taxpayers.

Sausage judicial bill still worth signing

Exemplifying to the extreme the old aphorism that legislating is like making sausage, reforming the bloated Orleans Parish district court system ended up half-complete with a plethora of compromises made by reformers.

SB 217 by the busy Republican state Sen. Jay Morris intended to right-size courts in Orleans. Even as it has only a little over 8 percent of the state’s population, a study determined the district had too many judges compared to others in the state, and this directly affected taxpayers statewide as they footed the bill for this bloat.

But with the history of Orleans that built in favoritism in its treatment – most of this a product of many decades past when it represented a much higher proportion of the state’s residents (over 20 percent in 1900, for example, and with New Orleans having more than twice as many people as all other municipalities combined) and commercial activity – this would require substantial dismantling, and right off the bat a concession needed making. Originally, the bill intended only to reduce a couple of seats of civil district courts, rather than all.

Article misjudges salutary LA Medicaid changes

Naysayers resist this truth, but the facts point to Medicaid reductions in Louisiana as a consequence of beneficial policy for all concerned.

 A recent media piece, for some reason, decided to publicize that in 2025 Louisiana saw about 200,000 people drop off Medicaid rolls and wanted to figure out why. Unfortunately, the effort largely was ineffective, as it only cursorily investigated the question but principally because it accepted implicitly a canard.

The article accurately notes that this is part of a trend prior to Republican Pres. Donald Trump assuming office last Jan. 20, but neglects to provide crucial context. The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic provided the excuse for Washington Democrats essentially to suspend eligibility checks for those already enrolled, and nationwide rolls exploded in size including in Louisiana. Eventually, the unwinding of that started and that process mostly was completed in 2024, but with the state’s dragged out further by Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards’ stonewalling. As well, the noticeably better economic situation nationally under Trump also contributed to shrinking rolls, encouraging people to switch to other sources of insurance.

Pay issue should start project funding debate

Except for in the world of sports road cycling commentators proclaiming a stage or race “epic,” the most overused aphorism in the English language in the worlds of politics and business is asserting that the Chinese symbol for “crisis” and “opportunity” is one and the same (which is just as false as the multitude of epic showdowns). Has Louisiana reached that juncture over its historical emphasis of state control of local governments?

In the wake of the defeat of a constitutional amendment that would have constructed education pay raises to replace the piecemeal stipend system of the past three years, policy-makers have gone into full panic mode. This has mutated into talks of a permanent solution through a task force for fiscal year 2028, with pledges somehow to usher that in with another year of stipends.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has proposed that, indicating he favored a temporary rejiggering of the Minimum Foundation Program to shift $150 million from operating expenses (three-quarters of the money to compensate for the current stipends) to salaries to cover FY 2027. He also correctly noted that one alternative floated, taking the amount needed out of the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, was (quite clearly) unconstitutional.

Settlement can't repair Edwards coverup damage

Some measure of justice looks to be on the way to the family of black motorist Ronald Greene, but none yet for what Louisianans suffered under Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards’ in his quest for political power ahead of justice.

Only cursory media coverage accompanied an initial settlement agreement between the state and Greene’s estate of $4.85 million for civil rights violations. Greene, who was in an impaired state that could have contributed to his death, was pulled over by state and local law enforcement, beaten, and neglected, dying later likely in part due to his treatment by law enforcement.

Because of the uncertainty behind the contributions of various factors that caused his death, criminal cases couldn’t be made against any officers of the law, which in turn also hampered pursuit of charges against Louisiana State Police officials who slow-walked the investigation. The suit looks to provide the only accountability.

Divisive remarks urge invalid Monroe Council maps

If unconstitutional racial politics need deploying, go for it, said recently the head of Monroe’s City Council.

At its May 12 meeting, the Council voted on a measure held over previously that would reapportion its districts mid-cycle. The move stemmed from a vote last year to spend considerable taxpayer dollars on such a task, passed by the Council’s black Democrat majority. One motivation for this would be to come up with a map with four majority-minority districts out of the five in order to add another black Democrat via 2028 elections and create a veto-proof bloc.

Yet the ordinance that came forth months later merely shifted a handful of districts between the only majority-white district with its neighboring majority-black district. And by the time the Council brought the measure to a vote, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that, absent demonstrated intentional racial discrimination in mapmaking, use of race in drawing maps was invalid.

Memorial Day, 2026

This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday around noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Monday, May 25 being Memorial Day, I invite you to explore this link.  

Fixing nominations to empower parties, voters

Louisiana legislators seem poised to fix a curiously known omission that promises a boost to state political parties.

HB 906 by Republican state Rep. Beth Billings quietly was amended at the end of March. Originally a prosaic bill that dealt with signature numbers to qualify for the presidential ballot, instead it became a vehicle also to take semi-closed primary elections for congressional, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Public Service Commission, and Supreme Court contests and make them completely closed, as far as the U.S. Constitution allows, at the behest of recognized political party organizations at least 180 days prior to such an election.

Additionally, it made presidential nominations and political party parish and state governance body elections also subject to this option. This means that parties can allow only those registered with the party to vote in these primaries. Louisiana would join eight other states with this arrangement.

Building LA education success bolstered by waiver

The Louisiana Department of Education, already with its foot on the pedal, just put it to the metal.

Last week, the state’s elementary and secondary education delivery stayed on a roll, it was announced. Using the latest national test data and other sources, a consortium of higher education research arms declared that, after previously ranking first among states in reading growth and second in math growth from 2019 to 2024, Louisiana once again earned the top national ranking for growth from 2022 to 2025. Specifically, it is the only state in the nation to surpass 2019 pre-pandemic achievement levels in both reading and math as the only state to exceed those levels in reading and one of only two states nationally to do so in math.

The formula hasn’t changed that has led to this success: a back-to-basics emphasis, plus targeted interventions to shore up areas of weakness, with a reduction of regulations and procedures that interfere with teaching and pursuing proactive initiatives. This week, a lot of that came together in a new development.

Timing fails again for helpful LA amendments

Reform-minded Republicans thought attaching beneficial constitutional amendments to a red-hot Republican Senate primary election this year would push these items to victory after some similar measures met with defeat last year. But the left’s heckler’s veto won out.

For the spring of 2025, the Republican-led legislature forwarded four items to voters – the first springtime election for amendments in well over three decades. The only measures on the ballot in many parts of the state, in others sharing only with local races and items, they met with big defeats.

That happened for two reasons. First, augmented with loads of money coming from outside the state in opposition from the political left – which didn’t want to see fiscal reform that would reduce the size of government as well as blanching at criminal justice reform based on tougher measures – the left skillfully found fissures, creating mountains out of molehills, among conservatives to peel some support from them. Second, in recent years conservatives had larger turnouts in higher-stimulus elections, and for most of the state this was about as low-stimulus an election as you could get.

Conservatism sees mixed results in LA elections

Conservatives had as many reasons to register disappointment as satisfaction at the results of May 16 elections.

Sure, they might be pleased at the Republican Senate semi-closed primary election outcomes. That saw incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy draw just a quarter of the partisan electorate’s vote, an abysmal showing that had him become the first reigning senator knocked out in a party primary in 14 years.

This would boost conservatives’ morale because the result eliminated an unreliable, inconsistent conservative. Intellectually lazy analysis attributes Cassidy’s failure to make the Jun. 27 runoff solely to his vote to convict GOP Pres. Donald Trump on specious impeachment charges just after Trump left office in 2021, causing a backlash among Republican voters.

Illegal meeting shows Bossier Jury dishonesty

Pick your nastiness colloquialism: thumbed its nose, poked them in the eye, gave them the Bronx salute, held up its index, middle, and ring finger and told then to read between the lines, lifted its hind leg, whatever, but the Bossier Parish Police Jury just did that to parish residents.

Prior to its meeting last week, the Jury, for the first time in over two years, met as the parish’s Library Board of Control. This February, it had made “appointments” to it by making as members all 12 jurors, as well as assigned as officers those positions as held on the Jury.

The matters attended at the meeting were prosaic, but the mere fact of having the meeting in this fashion was not. For one thing, the Jury didn’t have the legal authority to appoint a couple of its members to the Board because terms of previous appointees had yet to expire nor had they been removed in a public vote. More seriously, all 12 couldn’t serve because state law limits voting membership to seven at most (with nonvoting status set aside for the Jury president). Because of these inherent illegalities, any action taken (which if citizens missed the Zoom-transmitted meeting only will have the minutes, which probably will not be posted on the Internet, available for a description of those actions) therefore is legally challengeable and likely would be undone if taken to court.

Pass bill reining in unions exploiting taxpayers

Louisiana seems prepared to forgo an opportunity to use better taxpayer dollars and to reduce privileging special interests.

Increasingly, states are reeling in the ability of public unions to squeeze the citizenry and leverage those resources to increase their political power. A number recently have passed legislation to prohibit deducting dues automatically for employees, whether union members, within the bargaining unit, giving paid time off to perform union business, preventing withholding dues – locals can deduct from non-members in many states unless they specifically designate disallow that outside of infrequent windows – and to require more than a small portion of the bargaining unit to specifically approve of recertification of certification is revoked.

But Louisiana remains stuck in the past. SB 312 by Republican state Sen. Kirk Talbot, addressing parish (except public safety personnel) and school district employees, sought to prohibit collected dues from being used for political purposes, to have salary deductions renewed automatically, and to transfer government administrative costs to the union. All of these were amended out.

Scoundrels' last refuge should not derail fix

Those angry from having had their privilege disappear who insist on keeping themselves locked in the past will prove a mere distraction to the big question those who wish to progress to the future will have to answer in Louisiana getting right constitutionally with its congressional districts.

Last week, the Senate Governmental and Affairs Committee started vetting various bills to accomplish this, with resolution anticipated this week. This has become necessary after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the current map an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because no compelling reason – that is, intended discrimination merely because of race – existed for race to be the primary element in its drawing.

This quest has upset black Democrats in particular, the most spleen-venting of the bunch being state Sen. Gary Carter. He caterwauled bitterly in his questions as a committee member, for the obvious reason that black Democrats no longer could use race as a fig leaf to draw districts favoring them but also because his uncle, Democrat Rep. Troy Carter, could have an even money chance of losing his seat with a map that had one or no majority-minority districts planned out, as opposed to the current two.

Pass bill that eliminates heckler's veto tactic

A bill heading to the finish line in the Louisiana Legislature that vetoes a heckler’s veto not only will protect law enforcement officers from abuse but also will increase the safety of the abusers.

HB 132 by Republican state Rep. Brian Glorioso would add a third part to the state’s definition of battery, joining using intentional force on another and throwing a poison or noxious liquid on another: directing sound at an injurious volume reasonably knowing that at somebody else. It only has to garner a favorable Senate vote to head to GOP Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk.

Free expression should have maximum latitude, when possible, but the judiciary recognizes limits to this First Amendment right. Colloquially called “time, place, and manner” restrictions, as long as a government restriction is content neutral, narrowly-tailored serving a significant government interest, and permits alternative communication channels, courts don’t perceive this as a constitutional violation.

Fleming bests Letlow in LA GOP Senate debate

The U.S. Senate Republican primary debate was informative, combative if cordial, and displayed how the candidates tried to play to their strengths.

The debate, sponsored by the Moon Griffon Show, featured only Treas. John Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow. Incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, despite numerous invitations, didn’t attend.

The math, as most recently evidenced by the latest independent poll, has these two running neck-and-neck with Cassidy several points back. Polling suggests that if Cassidy were to make the inevitable runoff he would lose decisively to either, so it was in the interests of both candidates to attack each other in the hopes Cassidy could crest over the opponent.

Landry map swap looking more likely to pay off

It’s been over two years, but Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s reapportionment gamble looks to be paying off, bigger and bigger and wider and wider.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that the 2024 congressional map drawn in a special session at the very start of Landry’s term unconstitutionally used race to create two majority-minority districts out of the state’s allotted six. The decision placed guardrails on the use of race, reaffirming that it does not have preferential treatment over other traditional principles of reapportionment in the absence of observable intent of racial animus in mapping.

That 2024 map came after a district court voided a 2022 map with only one M/M district without a trial on the merits, saying it violated the law. The Court enjoined any further action pending an Alabama case it resolved in 2023 that largely but not directly tracked the Louisiana case that also addressed the Voting Rights Act which ruled against the existing map, although the resulting judicially-drawn map eschewed doubling M/M districts to two and instead created two opportunity districts (where blacks had a plurality but not majority).

LA can beat clock, use better map for fall

If you are reading this during the first weekend of May, chances are, right this very second, certain elected officials of Louisiana government and their staff and/or contractors are huddled up trying to get an already-delayed set of congressional elections pushed back further while putting together a new congressional map that stays one step ahead of opponents and congruent with the law and U.S. Constitution.

In the wake of last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that ratified a lower court panel which declared the state’s latest version of the map unconstitutional, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency, as by statute. Also by statute, GOP Sec. of State Nancy Landry certified the contents of the order and thus early next week the House and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee will convene jointly and almost certainly approve of the certification, with the governor’s agreement.

The current map contains two majority-minority districts of six, but the decision likely makes it impossible to draw one with that many. As two Democrats hold those seats and Republicans are highly likely to win any not M/M, the left has gone ballistic over this turn of events and will try anything to stop the GOP pickup of a seat. As things stand, it can’t through any legal maneuverings. Louisiana’s Constitution nor its statutes define “emergency” and it can be argued that under powers to ensure the “integrity” of elections an emergency use may justify implementing these procedures.

CD5 GOP nod to turn more on hopefuls than issues

Republican candidates for Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District, perhaps appropriately given the job for which they audition (as least as it stands for now), had to hop around its elongated boundaries last week in about 24 hours to participate a couple of forums, which perhaps turned more on presentations of competence and knowledge than on policy.

Thursday before last, all seven, including the main four – Board of Regents head Misti Cordell, state Rep. Mike Echols, and state Sens. Rick Edmonds and Blake Miguez – appeared at one sponsored by Livingston Parish GOP women’s clubs. Last Friday, all but Edmonds, who is from the southern terminus in Baton Rouge and begged off because of dealing with the shooting tragedy there, participated in another sponsored by Monroe’s public radio station KEDM, the University of Louisiana Monroe, and two local chambers of commerce. Cordell and Echols are from Monroe, while Miguez is domiciled outside the district about 75 miles south of it.

Edmonds might have used the opportunity, as the only independent poll to date of the contest has him behind second-place Echols by ten points, who trails leader Miguez by three, and Cordell is way back in single digits. However, almost half of respondents didn’t name a preference, leaving plenty of chances for candidates to collect voters through performance in somethings like these.

LA needs to prevent alarmism jackpot justice

Proactive legislation addressing the potential costs of climate alarmism could save Louisiana businesses much time, money, and hassle, in creating a fairer business climate for the state.

HB 804 by Republican state Rep. Brett Geymann would prevent suits against companies for greenhouse gas emissions that weren’t in violation of the specific permits issued for the emitter or those not violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Those gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases.

Passage of this bill would obviate the possibility that these concerns in state would have to battle nuisance suits brought by climate alarmists. Elsewhere in the country, increasingly Chicken Little local governments have sued firms that produce these gases, alleging these caused individuals’ deaths or maladies or even possibly could, amounting to over two dozen such actions. A smattering of individual plaintiff cases also have begun to circulate.

LA case decision invalidates leftist election tool

This week, a U.S. Supreme Court majority tore the fig leaf off of a major strategic election tool used by Democrats and the political left, in declaring unconstitutional Louisiana’s congressional map in deciding Louisiana v. Callais.

The Court, in a monumental decision widely expected and inevitable to anybody with a passing knowledge of constitutional law, said the current district arrangement was an impermissible racial gerrymander. In 2024, the state had reapportioned specifically to avoid a potential district court redraw based upon a decision (on a notion underscored in the ruling as faulty) that it was discrimination not to have roughly an equal proportion of majority-minority districts as a minority group (generally defined as eligible for this treatment in a 1986 case) existed proportionally in the population.

The decision reaffirmed that when government deliberately intended to discriminate against people of a certain race because of racial animus that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act would provide protection against that. However, it went further to clarify that this statute could not be perverted to match the dictum of a far-left scholar who famously declared that “[t]he only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

Transparency bill to challenge LA govts

An overdue update to transparency laws working its way through the Louisiana Legislature would force sunshine onto some places that don’t really want it, with Bossier Parish exemplifying that.

HB 615 by Republican state Rep. Mike Johnson would require any public body that can levy taxes or fees, if in a municipality of at least 10,000 population or is parish-wide if the jurisdiction has at least 25,000 population or if it a state entity (which would account for multi-parish agencies as well), to transmit live (or near-live) by video their meetings and to archive these for at least two years on the Internet, with social media as a permissible outlet, starting this August. It would apply to these bodies’ committees as well under existing law but also adds to this roster state entities that can promulgate rules. This comes on the heels of changes a few years ago that first mandated that taxing bodies transmit or archive.

As Johnson noted on the House floor, current law, even if expanded a few years ago, comes up short. It requires only live (or near-live) video or audio transmission or archiving by taxing bodies (not by single executives who don’t have meetings, such as sheriffs, assessors, and coroners), and carries no requirement that archiving (which is optional if transmitted live) be for a specific length of time nor that it may be made readily available to the public, such as through the Internet. Therefore, in the vast majority of instances citizens must deploy public records requests to obtain archived transmissions, if they exist. The bill would leave in place the video/audio transmission and/or archive regime for all those local entities that didn’t meet the population requirements.

Excise exception to stop bad camera law attempts

All in all, for those in Louisiana concerned that traffic enforcement devices – mainly red light and speed cameras – serve as little more than an excuse for a money grab by local governments have to consider this session of the Legislature in a positive light there being no harm, no foul, but as well a stepping stone for the future.

That conclusion is disheartening when considering recent progress on the issue. In recent years, the Legislature has acted wisely in circumscribing use of such devices. Most recently, it created much more stringent criteria on which vehicle owners could be charged with an infraction such as speeding, like limiting their use to school zones just at the beginning and end of a school day, and with penalty limitations. Still, they leave too much room for actions more consistent with maximizing revenue-raising than safety which additional strictures could address. Worse, Democrat state Rep. Dustin Miller managed to except Opelousas from these.

The lead author behind these changes, Republican state Sen. Stewart Cathey, ever since has tried to foment even more positive outcomes. In addition to the valuable changes last year, he also had a bill that would have exposed the hypocrisy of local governments relative to revenues and safety by requiring all revenues after expenses remitted to the state for use in youth programs. Not surprisingly, it was shunted to a committee that could sit on it.

Hammons sets sights on taking down good old boy

Regardless of the outcome, Bossier City Republican Councilor Brian Hammons’ entry into the city marshal’s race should shine a needed light onto a largely-superfluous office and presents a chance that taxpayers could save some bucks.

Almost 50 cities in Louisiana, some with populations in just four figures, have a city court and thus a city marshal attached to it. A carryover from the 19^th century, at their basics marshals serve a court’s orders and provide for its security. But as the positions are set in statute with lots of variations, and that these offices can contract with local governments to perform additional tasks, revenues, expenses, employees, and functions can vary wildly.

Statute defines Bossier City’s marshal (technically, the constable of Ward 2) in a single place. He is allowed to appoint a deputy marshal and he is to earn at least $5,000 a year from the city and $2,200 a year from the parish. Everything else has been made up over the decades.

Keep public notice to make bills great again

A pair of linked bills potentially would pare Louisiana’s election calendar a bit and encourage more voters to vet local government bills that involvement taxation, but with a reduction of transparency that needs correction.

Two decades ago, Louisiana suffered more election dates than excess judges today in Orleans Parish. Over the years, breaching silly complaints about the necessity of having so many eligible election dates, gradually statutory changes reduced the number of eligible days so that the 46 separate election dates from 2000-04 dropped to just 26 from 2020-24.

That number may fall further with Republican state Rep. Bryan Fontenot’s bills HB 393, a constitutional amendment, that would open the door to having his HB 400 reduce the number of elections on which local taxing and referendum items may appear. Essentially, for these it would make eligible annually only a single election, in the fall in even-numbered years and gubernatorial election years, and in the remaining year in the spring except for Orleans Parish in the fall, which also would exclude general election runoffs. In other words, the eligible dates are those that promise the highest potential turnout because of other local, state, or national elections sharing the ballot.

Caddo-Bossier Port deal exemplifies CCS obstinacy

The Octopus of the Red River flexes its arms again, and that’s one reason why anti-carbon capture and sequestration efforts, as well as attempts to rein in the Port of Caddo-Bossier that have been blunted, in Louisiana seem destined to fail.

Over the years, fueled by a property tax, the Port has built up a considerable kitty, as well as increased powers the envy of governments whose elected officials actually face elections. Most prominently, the Port’s Board of Commissioners, all appointees of various local governments, can make economic development deals involving tax abatements anywhere within the two parishes that override the desires of the elected (and in some cases appointed) officials of the local governments involved.

But that power spreads even further. Recently, a Louisiana House of Representatives panel defeated an attempt to deny the use of eminent domain for CCS purposes. Given that the practice carries at best microscopic environmental or economic benefits and is driven solely by federal government subsidization through tax credits that becomes economically viable at vastly expanded scale only as part of an artificially-constructed market for carbon reduction credits, yet is full of question marks for safety and environmental degradation at vastly expanded scale, taking away the ability to force CCS on property owners made sense.

Trump endorsements not conveying big advantages

So far, Republicans in northeast and north central Louisiana and the entire state aren’t quite on the same page with GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s endorsements for the Senate and Fifth Congressional District races.

In February, Republican Rep. Julia Letlow announced her challenge to incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who last year had drawn Republicans Treas. John Fleming and state Sen. Blake Miguez as challengers, on the back of Trump’s declaration of support for her if she ran. Almost immediately thereafter, Miguez abandoned that quest and announced for the Fifth with Trump’s endorsement.

The nods by Trump were supposed to seal the deals for Letlow and Miguez. Both were well-funded and his imprimatur would assure more dough rolling in to enrich campaigning efforts as well as loosen the purse strings of sympathetic groups to spend independently for them and would serve as a signal to distinguish these candidates from others in the field for voters. Together, observers believed these would separate them from their competitors.

New LA Medicaid weight-loss drug benefit unwise

Louisiana legislators may not have learned their lesson as they try to put taxpayers on the hook for a new Medicaid benefit that may end up causing any or all of wasted money, much higher expenses, and potentially avoidable harm to recipients.

Last year, a line item tucked into the state’s general appropriation bill would have made funding available to give semaglutide, a receptor agonist for human glucagon-like peptide-1 which is the basis for several drugs such as Wegovy, Ozempic, Monjauro, and Rybelus, to state employees that suffered from obesity. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry vetoed that.

And wisely so, for the monthly injections would have imposed a tremendous cost that must continue for effectiveness to kick in and stay in. Lifestyle changes, of which Landry has signaled at least indirect support for through his healthy eating initiatives, would just as effective if not even more so for weight loss and shedding of problems related to obesity. It would cost the state little to engage in campaigns urging personal responsibility to eat right and less, and to exercise more.

Transparency should dampen Monroe govt conflict

More transparency will mean fewer fireworks over an obscure adjunct to Monroe’s government that sits on over $20 million.

About three decades ago the Interstate 20 Economic Development District was created as a vehicle to provide for infrastructure needs along the eastern reaches of I-20 in Monroe. It has partial tax increment financing for sales, meaning it receives 40 percent, mostly from Pecanland Mall, of state sales tax collected, which then is used to pay off debt issued and its interest to provide funding for approved projects.

The I-20 EDD, like the Tower-Armand EDD, is somewhat unlike Monroe’s other economic development districts. While the other four are written into state statute, these were grandfathered into law from cooperative endeavor agreements with the state. The others also have a wider range of TIF source options for revenues. This also means their governance is established through bylaws over which the City Council has authority.

Vote for first four amendments, junk last one

Mostly keepers, the May 16 slate of Louisiana constitutional amendments does include one clunker. Let’s see what voters will be asked to vet.

#1 – would allow the Legislature to bypass the State Civil Service Commission in classifying jobs as civil service with protection. Presently, except as delineated in the Constitution, the Commission determines which jobs are unclassified, or those without at-will firing protection (although most, such as college faculty members, have protections equivalent to those in the classified service). Because the Commission is composed of insulated appointees and a classified employee-elected representative, historically its members become inured to backing state employees to the detriment of efficient administration. Elected legislators are the appropriate power center to determine policy of whether a job is necessary and policy-oriented enough to grant greater flexibility to executive branch officials. YES.

#2 – would create a new school district in the new city of St. George in East Baton Rouge Parish. This is nothing new, emulating what three other cities in the parish have done, of which two now outperform substantially the Parish School System. Further, the way the finances work, on a per-student basis the EBRPSS actually will be better off with the carveout. There’s no reason not to grant autonomy (it will require a majority both among state and parish voters). YES.

Polls edge closer to predicting Fleming-Letlow

It’s true, a month out from party primary elections, it’s uncertain which of three serious Republican candidates will advance to an inevitable runoff. And there’s a polling-based reason for that for which a little historical data and common sense can address partially to give a better idea who’s likely to be part of that duo.

In the last several days, the campaign for Treas. John Fleming released one, and two others have come from other organizations, although there are no details as to who paid for these. Rep. Julia Letlow was named the leader in those, while the Fleming campaign had him on top with incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy running second. The other polls had him running third.

This continues a pattern where campaigns release polls favorable to their candidate, which may be why Cassidy’s camp hasn’t released any recently. None of the most recent trio had him at better than 26 percent, which is abysmal for a sitting senator who by himself already has spent probably at least $10 million on his reelection (as of the end of the year; the most recent numbers through the first quarter of 2026 will be available later this week) and has had surrogate political action committees as well churning out cash on his behalf.

LA oil & gas battered more by policy than price

Elections and the policy that comes thereafter matter, as demonstrated by the antics of Democrats in Baton Rouge and Washington that until recently suffocated Louisiana’s fossil fuel industry and thereby contributed to a problem that may cost state approaching $1 billion.

Recently, a report from New Orleans’ The Data Center highlighted how the state’s oil and gas industry has done not much more than tread water going back to the swoon in oil prices in 2014. It’s skeptical that the industry will grow disproportionately compared to other sectors in the future and argues to move towards greater diversification of the state’s economy, based upon the industry’s recent underperformance.

But it was all by design, partly out of the animus of Democrats when in power had against fossil fuels, and partly because of their desire to grow government and redistribute wealth at the expense of economic growth. When prices began their protracted fall, Democrat Barack Obama was president, whose administration backed by toadies in Congress acted hostilely towards the fossil fuel industry, as opposed to their favored renewable energy.

Over-the-top ads show panic over Fleming strength

As reality finally begins to intrude upon the political and chattering classes, the inevitability of realizing Republican state Treas. John Fleming is a serious candidate to win the senatorial seat up for grabs this fall finally has prompted what in retrospect may turn out to be a too-little-too-late series of go-for-broke attacks on his candidacy, validating his growing strength.

To date, the campaigns of his GOP nomination opponents incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Julia Letlow, but more instructively political action committees pledged to support either, almost exclusively had trained their fire on each other. This is done in good cop/bad cop fashion, where the campaigns extoll the virtues of their candidates and the PACs lambaste the opponents. Candidates and their allies follow this strategy because the PACs keep the candidate they prefer from looking demeaning through attacking that tries to detach voters from the opponent while the campaign presents a pristine candidate and positive reasons to vote for the candidate.

However, they now have put Fleming in the crosshairs, although in a spectacularly clumsy and manufactured way with a couple of negative television advertisements recently aired. One claimed Fleming supported carbon capture and sequestration, despite Fleming being the candidate most assertively and visibly arguing against the use of tax dollars to subsidize the activity, by its saying he voted for budget bills that allow the subsidization. It attempts guilt by association by trying to tie Fleming to leftists who also oppose CCS (but for reasons with which Fleming disagrees), a connection that becomes even more ludicrous when considering that meant, according to voting on last year’s budget reconciliation bill, just about every Republican in the House of Representatives and Senate also were in league with leftist bogeymen – including both Cassidy and Letlow.

Error like Cassidy's may sink Letlow campaign

What has brought Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy close to extinction in his quest for reelection now threatens the chances of GOP Rep. Julia Letlow for promotion to that office.

Last week, news escaped concerning Letlow’s endorsement of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices during her time as a University of Louisiana Monroe administrator prior to her election to Congress. Recordings of her interview process to helm the university in 2020 as well as internal documents revealed her expressing support for the divisive measures, which posit that American societal differences among races comes from irredeemable racism practiced, whether consciously, by majority whites that may be compensated for only through reverse discrimination.

Actually, it was only the publicity of her past statements that was anything new. Media had reported on the documents and the video has been publicly online for years, but the presence of these recently picked up amplification by additional media reporting.

Easter Sunday, 2026

This column publishes five days weekly after noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Sunday, Apr. 5 being Easter, I invite you to explore this link.

Make patriotic election integrity measure law

Not only does it make good sense but also is vital and patriotic to put into law procedures that obviate the cheapening of democracy.

HB 691 by Republican state Rep. Beau Beaullieu would strengthen voting integrity by requiring Louisiana, if there is no charge to the state or it appropriates money for the purpose, to use the federal government’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database 180 days prior to a regularly scheduled federal general election (every two years). This allows vetting of registered voters for citizenship, and already is being performed as a matter of policy since the federal government dropped access charges.

Even though noncitizens can’t vote legally, GOP Sec. of State Nancy Landry has found that layer of security breached. She reports over 400 such registrations and over 100 actual votes cast by such individuals during this decade, citing the need for this bill.

Democrats flooding GOP primary not happening

If there’s some strategy afoot to have Democrats raid the May 16 Republican primary to have a preferred candidate win that nomination since their field is so crippling weak, rank-and-file voters of that party aren’t cooperating.

Speculation has risen about the impact of party registration, or raiding, with the reinstalment of closed primaries for congressional contests in Louisiana. With the new rules such as they are, there’s not much incentive for unaffiliated voters to pick a major party label as they can choose which party primary (carrying through with the choice if a runoff emerges) in which to participate.

But with incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy under duress for nomination, some observers have wondered whether he would make explicit appeals to non-Republicans to vote for him. He apparently already has done that in one media appearance.

Bills unlikely to faze Caddo-Bossier port panel

The Octopus of the Red River has drawn attention from a pair of lawmakers who see a need to bring greater accountability to, if not clip the wings of, it on behalf of Caddo and Bossier Parish citizens.

Since a law a few years ago gave the Port of Caddo-Bossier expanded economic development powers, its nine commissioners have flexed their muscles to exert power over parish residents, such as in bringing deals, that could remain confidential until the bottom lines were signed, within the entire two-parish area that allowed override of local government taxing authority. Citizens have no direct accountability over the Commission, as its members are selected by all of Shreveport (4), Bossier City (2), Caddo Parish (2), and Bossier Parish (1) governing authorities for staggered six-year terms (except for one Shreveport appointee who serves concurrently with the mayor) with the city appointees needing their respective city council confirmations.

Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick wants to change that. His HB 667 would make the commissioner posts elective for four-year terms concurrently with state legislative offices, running in nonpartisan, at-large fashion combined between the parishes.

Changes to bring needed Medicaid savings to LA

The good news is federal government legal changes to discourage able-bodied adults without dependents who don’t want to use Medicaid as a bridge to reduced government dependency will allow the overwhelming majority of Louisianans to continue in the program. The bad news is for that reason taxpayers won’t see much savings.

The federal budget passed last year by Republican Pres. Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress introduced many changes coming to Medicaid, among which were community engagement requirements (working, studying, or volunteering for 80 hours a month) for ABAWD and increased eligibility checks for those Medicaid expansion recipients in states like Louisiana. The former removes Medicaid expansion as a crutch from achieving personal independence while the latter reduces waste, which according to the latest annual data available meant state taxpayers lost over $9 million from the expansion population (known; these were just the ones flagged), for which overall state taxpayers ponied up $489 million.

The requirement may end up cutting taxpayer costs in another way. Research notes that adding such a requirement doesn’t change short-term health outcomes and may improve them over the long run because of resulting increased upward economic mobility that allows escape from low-performing Medicaid service provision to better privately-insured care.

LA judicial election sections may go to dustbin

Overlooked in all the hubbub about the likely-momentous U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais is how that will impact judicial elections in Louisiana.

The Callais case appears poised to restrict heavily how the racial composition of an electorate can play in drawing districts. While a great deal of attention of its probable outcome has gone to how that impacts Congress, and a small amount to state legislatures, it also could alter the way in which some Louisiana judicial elections occur.

Technically, in states where there are judicial elections, the racial composition of the electorate shouldn’t matter as judges are not parts of policy-making majoritarian branches of government. However, not long after the jurisprudence now challenged in Callais was codified, the Louisiana case Clark v. Edwards was jackknifed (along with its successors) into that. This case basically held that at-large selection violated the Voting Rights Act in nine judicial districts plus East Baton Rouge Family Court and the second district of the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In the following consent decree, two more district courts and the Second Circuit’s first and third districts were offered up.

New degree puts LA universities on slippery slope

For its senior institutions, Louisiana higher education launched their intents and purposes down a slippery scope by allowing a hollowing of select bachelors degrees.

This week, the Louisiana Board of Regents approved a request by the Louisiana State University System to offer “accelerated” such degrees. LSU Alexandria will offer two and another the flagship campus in Baton Rouge will house, which take only 90 hours to complete rather than the typical 120. The system points to nascent programs scattered across the country, local business demand, and average salaries ranging from $68,000 to $145,000 for graduates with these three majors as justifications for their introduction into the degree inventory.

All are related to artificial intelligence, with the LSU one more directly so. The one at LSU is designed to train those in the fields of machine learning engineering/data science, artificial intelligence research (computer and information research scientists), and artificial intelligence software development (including quality assurance and testers). The ones at LSUA will crank out computer information and systems managers and information security analysts, and data scientists, database administrators, and software developers. Somewhat similar programs for the LSUA pair are in computer science, cybersecurity, and biology, while the LSU one claims it is entirely dissimilar to any other in the state although it facilitates entry into a masters degree in computer science.

Monroe should shore up finances, not splurge

Last meeting, the Monroe City Council heard some potential good news that could portend the disappearance of bad news it will have to deal with starting at its meeting this week – but maybe discover a whole new set of problems for which it will require foresight and discipline to manage.

At that last session, independent Mayor Friday Ellis revealed the city could be receiving a major economic development project. He asked for, which the Council granted, permission to sell the old Ouachita Candy Company riverfront property which the city bought a few years ago to a developer that would create a mixed-use complex.

The project builds upon the win down the road in Richland Parish snagging Meta’s Hyperion Project, a data center that is forecast to pump in $27 billion to the region for startup and continue with hundreds of higher-paying jobs. Anecdotal reports are that the activity has pumped up lodging, entertainment, real estate, and general retail sales, and triggered interest in the historic property, which Ellis said those elements making it historic will be retained because of the tax credits involved and the complex built around it.

The boost in downtown development reflective of the Meta activity promises to line additionally city coffers, with that bonus already starting to be detected in year-over-year numbers. That provides a ray of sunshine to offset disappointing budget news.

According to the budget Ellis sent to the Council, which was covered in budget meetings a week earlier, it sees a nearly million-dollar deficit, which will drive the general fund balance to its lowest level since the start of Ellis’ first term in office. Even as revenues advanced three percent, expenses went up four percent.

Ellis noted increased costs came primarily from higher insurance premiums, fire department compensation hikes, and pouring more into repairs and maintenance of community centers, a priority of the majority Democrats on the Council. He declared that streamlining through reductions in force – 69 percent of the budget is in personnel expenses – would be pursued to balance in the future.

Yet the good economic news could change all of this. The budget anticipates only a one percent jump in property tax revenues, which comprise about 11 percent of all, and just three percent in sales taxes, which make up 63 percent. Putting more property on the rolls and with more sales at prices above assessments from two years ago, and with sales tax revenues up 10 percent year-over-year, that could add as much as $5 million in revenue from these rather than a projected $1.4 million, padding the general fund nicely.

What’s more, the budget has Monroe Regional Airport losing $4.2 million. Yet because of Hyperion, MLU already has seen flights added and passenger volumes going higher, so the passenger facility fee revenue could take a bite out of that deficit.

The larger question that remains is if the bounty transpires whether later in the year the Council will want to spread it around. The Democrat majority has made no secret that it would like to spend more on city government and particularly with capital projects in their districts, calling neglected the areas of the city they represent. At the same time, Ellis has an ambitious capital program, Oneroe, that doesn’t entirely mesh with the majority’s agenda.

Normally, when a government lands some unexpected largesse, its elected officials become a big, happy family with bucks to go around for all. Taxpayers should hope if that this scenario plays out that the city still pursues its efficiency measures and thinks ahead with the bounty; for example, increased activity will mean greater needs for roads, their repairs, and traffic management. Now is not the time to splurge.