Reveal what LA GATOR ESA opponents really mean

Understanding the rationale behind Louisiana’s foray into education savings accounts presents a good argument for program expansion, a view at loggerheads with some legislators who actually supported this plan at its inception.

Another battle seems brewing between education freedom advocates in Louisiana, backed at the top by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, and those policy-makers more cautious on the issue, represented by GOP Sen. Pres. Cameron Henry. The throwdown came with Landry boosting in his fiscal year 2027 budget spending on educational savings accounts by double, which would allow for more than only the few hundred families at present able to take advantage of these besides the thousands of low-income families carried over from the state’s previous voucher/scholarship program aimed at allowing children who did attend or who would have attended inferior schools a choice at a better education environment. He had tried something similar last year, but Henry led opposition in thwarting that.

At and after the budget presentation last week, Henry threw cold water on the requested increase of around $44 million. During the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget hearing, he opined that the program had too many other possible family uses attached to it besides moving children away from failing schools to private schools, and accused the Department of Education of bad faith in keeping him informed about these details. Afterwards, in an interview he went further, saying he would reconceptualize the whole program, limiting it to tuition costs needed to move children out of subpar schools.

Higher cost, tougher on crime policy benefits LA

An increase in costs for Louisiana to house inmates, because more are being sentenced to jail and fewer are out on parole? Money well spent.

Far leftist media in the state began hyperventilating after the release of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s budget. In it, about $82 million more will go to corrections, fairly evenly split between the state system and in reimbursements to local jailers for housing state prisoners. Landry led the charge with legislative Republicans two years ago to overhaul the state’s criminal justice laws, which several years earlier had been relaxed, to sentence more people to jail and fewer to probation, force convicts to serve the vast majority (or if convicted after Aug. 1, 2024, all) of their sentences in jail, and to reduce the possibility of parole. In addition, Landry has appointed to the Board of Pardons and Parole members who more critically vet potential parolees, which has reduced the proportion of the lower proportion receiving a hearing that successfully attain early release.

These media bemoaned these outcomes, ideologically because of the tougher-on-crime agenda producing them, but also instrumentally in that this means fewer dollars to redistribute from state government to or to go to policies aiding their favored constituencies. The goal is to allege that the new policies largely waste money as they produce little or no benefits, defined as the opportunity for if not actual fact of reduced crime.

Monroe must try harder to avoid big rate hikes

Monrovians will have to bite the bullet – and very hard and big – over the water, sewerage, and waste disposal fees coming their way in May, which didn’t have to be this hard or big.

This week, the City Council is expected to ratify an ordinance that will increase these costs by nearly $300 annually (assuming a typical average usage of 4,000 gallons monthly for water and sewerage by a city residence) per ratepayer. Water rates will rise 7 percent, sewerage rates will jump by 45 percent, and garbage pickup costs per month will mushroom 87.5 percent.

Impetus behind the move comes from the city’s debt covenant for water, which requires it to have revenues of 125 percent of the principal and interest, federal and state law regarding funding for sewerage, and market forces with garbage collection. It makes for necessary ratepayer evils, but getting slammed all at once and at this level didn’t have to happen.

Tweak good Landry budget for better future

Strangling Medicaid costs threaten to derail Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desire to right-size Louisiana’s budget, data behind his latest budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 revealed.

Last week, the Landry Administration submitted its FY 2027 budget to the Joint Legislative Committee of the Budget, in preparation for legislative deliberation in the upcoming 2026 Regular Session. This document must adhere to the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference, which last month disgorged the latest estimates over the next few years, and covered the source that the Legislature can utilize in appropriations bills, the general fund.

The end product was essentially standstill according to the general fund (aided by significant efficiency cuts in the neighborhood of $300 million), but incorporated a noticeable reduction of $3.5 billion overall, split fairly evenly between declines in statutory dedications and federal funds (more of the former than latter). The main factor behind the federal funds decreases is as a result of turning off the debt-fueled/inflation-triggering spigots from the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden era and Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration programmatic changes plus some disaster-related expenditures, while for dedications that dropped mainly because the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund was tapped so heavily for projects the previous year.

Electoral politics outs Cassidy's true self

Whether he believes the impression he conveys, now Louisiana voters are receiving confirmation about the real Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, fueled by his seriously endangered reelection chances.

Cassidy had something to say about a tragic shooting in Minneapolis, where far left activists intentionally have invited confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officials to serve a political agenda unconcerned with the rights of illegal aliens. A man, who has been described as ardently dissatisfied with GOP Pres. Donald Trump, apparently brandishing a pistol was in the process of being disarmed by agents when a gunshot, seemingly from the weapon, went off and an agent shot the suspect to death.

Unfortunately, the man showed poor judgment in deliberately bringing a firearm to a location where he acted to disrupt armed officers performing duties under the color of law and apparently not immediately identifying himself as carrying a concealed and loaded weapon. With the evidence so far gathered, a leading theory is that the weapon discharged accidentally, with the man possibly disoriented after having been sprayed with pepper along with a woman right before the disarming attempt.