Selfish, ignorant protesters illustrate LA's problems

The ignorant and idiotic definitely came out to play when special interests mustered a couple of hundred warm bodies to protest good government and the dismantling of power and privilege in Baton Rouge this weekend.

Held out as a rally against the budget-cutting tactics of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose measures to remove the preferred positions enjoyed by public sector unions in that state have drawn intense opposition from their beneficiaries at the public’s expense, criticism spilled over onto Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal who, like Walker, has recognized his state must live within its means by making proper priorities that gets the state of out doing the ineffective or nonessential, working more efficiently, and not privileging special interests over the people. But from the commentary that emerged from it, those who gathered in Baton Rouge sounded like morons.

Prison sales challenge putting govt jobs ahead of people

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal to contract out several prisons, including the sale of some of them, should merit applause not so much because it generates one-time, short-term funds, but because it will lead to better correctional operations at reduced cost. Whether legislators intent on protecting state jobs instead of taxpayers will allow this remains to be seen.

Yes, the state gets a one-time padding of the purse of an estimated $66 million for selling the two currently operated by the private sector, and then will save a forecasted $10 million-plus a year for the new contracted ones (savings figures, if any over existing contracts, are pending for the ones to be sold), but the real payoff comes from the ability also to do a better job if research – including that concerning its previous privatization of two prisons – gives any guidance. So long as the state puts sufficient care into both kinds of contracts – with sheriffs who claim they can do the job at lower cost and the companies that will buy the prisons they already operate – that ensures maintenance of standards and cost reductions – taxpayers benefit. To guarantee space will be there when needed, the state also should pursue changes in incarceration practices in concert with this transition which could generate savings in the $200 million range.

While the contracting part will not need legislative approval, sales will and the good old boys won’t go down without a fight on this. Typifying their attitude, Democrat state Rep. Robert Johnson whose district contains one of the facilities in question maintained, obviously ignorant of the literature on the subject, said “From the information I've been provided, I don't see how this is a good deal. I can't support anything that's going to cost my parish jobs…. I can't support anything that's going to result in jobs with a lower rate of pay.”

Often, fewer personnel and/or at lower pay are outcomes of contracting, being one reason why it reduces costs even as research shows quality does not decline. Which is why dinosaurs like Johnson, who care more about padding the state’s payroll than letting taxpayers keep more of what they earn and/or spending more efficiently on other important priorities, make the fate of the sales uncertain – because by adopting his government-before-people approach he can find a way to take credit having the jobs there and argue his “creation” of them merits his reelection.

To win over enough of these relics, the Jindal Administration will have to stress the long-term savings over the one-time cash infusion, a strategy made easier by the tough budgetary times plaguing the state, countering demagoguery with the facts. This makes connecting reducing the rate of incarceration in favor of alternative sentencing and correctional practices to this even more helpful, because these same individuals tend to favor fewer/shorter jail sentences (because it’s difficult to mobilize your voters when they’re in the clink). A comprehensive correctional reform plan of this nature stands a great chance of enactment, much to Louisiana’s benefit.

Jindal puts winning big fights ahead of convention

Now entering the home stretch of his first term as governor, Bobby Jindal has begun to get majorities of appointees onto a large number of state boards and commissions. Most exercise miniscule power but not those dealing with higher education, which distribute over a billion dollars a year and supervise nearly 50,000 employees through its appointees on five separate boards. Perhaps because these stakes are so high, desperate opposition has arisen focusing on Jindal’s appointments in general to them.

When Jindal announced he would like to see a merging of the University of New Orleans and Southern University New Orleans, simultaneously signaling support that the state boards be merged into one, shortly thereafter former U.S. Rep. and state Sen. Cleo Fields brought a suit that temporarily halted the process by which a recommendation would be made on the school consolidation matter, the first step of the process to make any changes to any part of the state’s extant higher education structure. At first succeeding in drawing an injunction, when overturned Fields announced he would drop the matter in favor of direct lobbying of the Board of Regents.

A lawyer backed by unconventional sources of funds, Fields based his complaint on the fact that Jindal’s nine recent appointees to the Board of Regents failed to “diversify” sufficiently the board.

Proposals increasing fiscal flexibility need passage

It’s three-quarters of a loaf, but certainly better than nothing, that Gov. Bobby Jindal and like-minded legislators have proposed to deal with future difficulties that loosen many parts of the straitjacket afflicting Louisiana’s fiscal structure.

Jindal announced that legislation will be introduced at the upcoming session that would increase flexibility in budgeting for periods of projected deficit. Beginning next fiscal year, during periods of deficit the proportion of dedicated monies that may be moved from one purpose to others would double from five to ten percent, interest collected from funds holding these monies could be removed additionally during deficit conditions, and a review of funds on a regular to basis to determine genuine need for their existence.

Some of this has come up before, this history clouding its chances for passage.

Ambitions hinted at for term-limited LA legislators

To their brethren in office, term-limited politicians are like veterans of wars prosecuted by undemocratic states in order to distract people from their lack of freedom: no longer combatants but trained for action, their persons forever altered by the experience to accept combat as normal, they seek ways to use their acquired skills, even against their comrades in power. Just so Louisiana now faces this situation in this election year.

While some members of the Legislature understand how extended service could cause deterioration of their accountability and impoverish truly representative government, which leads to their retirement, others do not and, like mercenaries, scour the landscape for another battle to fight. This cycle, seven senators and 11 representatives find themselves in this situation.

Their annual reports, required of anybody with a non-zero balance in an active campaign finance account, can give some hint as to future intentions.

Latest GOP win suggests permanent LA Democrat minority

The historic nature of the outcome of the Louisiana Senate District 26 special election is not so much in that it gives the Republican Party a majority in both chambers of the Legislature in 135 years, but that it suggests that Democrats may have become a permanent minority in the state.

Republican State Rep. Jonathan Perry defeated Democrat Vermillion Police Juror Nathan Granger in this contest triggered by the resignation of the former holder of the seat, Democrat Nick Gautreaux. Despite the fact Granger poured a considerable sum of money into the race (having spent 10 days out from the election over $172,000, and had lent himself $217,000), had national Democrat operatives assisting him, and ran about as far to the right ideologically as a Democrat can in this day and age, it was not enough to hold it for the party.

Perry has voted as one of the most reform/conservative members of the House (possessing a Louisiana Legislature Log reform/ideology index score for the past three years of close to 80), so, in other words, if there was any seat with demographics mirrored those seen at the state level that the Democrats could win short of a Republican opponent tarnished by scandal, this was the one.

Commitment may give Chaisson more post-Senate options

Perhaps not coincidentally, state Rep. Walker Hines the day after annual reports were due for candidate’s campaign finance confirmed he would run for secretary of state, maybe suggesting the future direction of another, much higher profile sitting politician.

Hines, who recently switched to the Republican Party, challenges unelected incumbent Tom Schedler, calling himself a “reform candidate.” However, he faces an uphill battle because, prior to assuming the helm at State, Schedler had been a term-limited member of the Senate with good government credentials of his own. As such, his more extensive fundraising contacts and long time association with GOP not only limits support that Hines might get, but also (even though he reported raising no money in 2010) his potential to raise funds is much better than Hines’, who reported $21,390 bankrolled for his campaign at the end of 2010.

Simply, Schedler doesn’t leave Hines much financial or political oxygen for this contest, but, if following political ambition, Hines needed somewhere to go after conclusion of his term in the House as his reelection chances became dimmer, if after reapportionment he even would have much a district anything close to what he has at present. But perhaps his attempt does open up room for a more prominent legislator to serve on after term limits.

Sen. Pres. Joel Chaisson’s report shows an impressive haul of over $100,000 but even more spent in 2010, largely doled out to a number of charitable causes, fellow legislators (mostly Democrats but a couple in the GOP), and Democrat party organizations of which he is one. Despite his term-limitation, he has nearly $180,000 stashed away for “a statewide office.” In other words, this indicates he is as likely to run for higher office as to retire in the short term from politics.

Might secretary of state be his target in 2011? Heads up against Schedler, he would appear to be an underdog, given that Schedler is as experienced a politician as he and has the Republican label and reform reputation going for him, plus incumbency even if unelected. But throw Hines into the mix to divide the GOP vote and his chances improve. Then get another identified liberal into the race, like former lieutenant governor candidate Caroline Fayard and he might be better off still more.

The calculus might go as follows: Chaisson can make himself appear centrist in relation to Fayard, whose appeal during her first run was she was a reformist outsider and nonpolitician. But as a result of her try last year, the bloom came off her rose: trying again so quickly makes it hard to claim you’re not a politician, and during that campaign plenty of publicity called into question whether her issue preferences were much farther to the left than she admitted and whether unethical means were being used to buy, in essence, her way into office. This might allow him to get moderate votes he otherwise couldn’t get, still leaving him more than the liberal who would back Fayard. Hines also might be able to position himself more to the center and take votes from Schedler by the same dynamic. If Chaisson can get the 27-year-old Hines into a runoff, then he uses his superior contacts, fundraising, and experience to win.

Absent that, if Chaisson wished to extend his elected shelf life, his logical target is attorney general, having been held by Democrats until just weeks ago when incumbent Buddy Caldwell switched to the GOP. That avoids the base-splitting problem of the secretary of state’s race (all four potential and actual candidates mentioned here being from the southeast part of the state) and Chaisson by profession is a trial lawyer, but it also creates additional problems beside the obvious that he would be taking on an incumbent that is not unpopular. Caldwell won last time despite his base being in a relatively unpopulated part of the state, was a district attorney, has been intending reelection (in part explaining the switch) with the funds (some $466,000) to back it, and whatever warts he may have, so does Chaisson (such as both pushing for contingency fee contracts to be let out by the state).

So maybe Chaisson will ride off into the sunset, at least for now. But Hines’ announcement may have given him more options to keep his elected career going uninterrupted.

Blueprint must go beyond echoing, embrace publicizing

As it did four years ago, Blueprint Louisiana has released a list of recommended public policy for the state to pursue over the next few years. However, should it wish to exercise influence in favor of these, it has to go beyond echoing advocacy.

The group came together in advance of the 2007 state elections with the goal of creating an agenda to which candidates for office could commit, thereby giving them a kind of seal of approval from prominent members of communities statewide. A number of candidates sought the imprimatur by pledging to follow the agenda, names dutifully noted by the group through publicity measures largely based upon its website.

However, Gov. Bobby Jindal and most other statewide candidates did not sign on, even as Jindal’s stated policy preferences of those of some others were pretty close to the group’s. Whether he and others who seemed pretty compatible with it did not because they felt they didn’t need such assistance to win their races and/or they did not want to tie themselves to the group and its agenda in an inflexible way, this snubbing subsequently revealed a flaw in the group’s execution.

Return of blanket primary retards LA's political maturity

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice gave thumbs up to the state for its change away from a closed primary system, where candidates vie for a party nomination that parties can limit only to those registered under their labels, for federal congressional elections, returning to the blanket primary system, where all candidates regardless of label run together, employed for state and local contests. Too bad the state gets thumbs down for reverting back in the first place as it perpetuates ills of Louisiana government and the politics it exports to Washington.

For decades, even centuries, complaints have arisen about Louisiana politicians as less accountable than they should be. Particularly, the populist heritage of the state creates, and in turn is created by, a system of personalistic politics where electoral merit get judged not by how well government pursues policies that benefit the state as a whole or in apportioning rewards and costs to citizens on an anonymous, generic basis, but instead on how well a politician divides spoils from taxpayers and in performing service to allied supplicants. Thus, the populist persuasion, rather than emphasizing minimal government involvement to allow maximal non-interference in individuals’ lives, conceives of government built around key individuals who become mini-despots in their abilities to bestow and withhold favored treatment.

In recent decades, the blanket primary system has contributed to this system’s extension.

Confusion distracts from stricter, merit-based TOPS

Louisiana legislators finally show signs of grasping the need for reforming Taylor Opportunity Program for Scholars grants, but conceptual confusion about the purpose of these prevents them from offering the proper policy solution – a situation they caused themselves.

The state took over the original program, founded when the late Patrick Taylor about a quarter century promised junior high students at a school serving a poor New Orleans neighborhood he would pay for their college tuition if they could get admitted into a university with a B average on a college preparatory curricula, on the basis that it was a needs-based program. Then, about a decade after that pledge, the Legislature decided to make it a scholarship-like program by removing any needs test. As a result, the cost has grown substantially to an estimated $135 million a year.

But the error made was that it never was a true scholarship program.