That the cause
of elections integrity has suffered setbacks in some states in recent weeks
does not mean that Louisiana should not do more to strengthen its semi-lax laws
regarding voting.
Of course, recent judicial interventions
overturning state laws requiring forms of photo identification to vote, done largely
at the hands of appointees of White House Democrats and who tend to liberal
jurisprudence, represent a political strategy. By hoping to push these cases
into the Supreme Court next year, now equally balanced between justices who
make decisions on the bases of activism and of constructionism, in counting
upon a leftist jurist to replace the vacancy of the late Assoc. Justice Antonin
Scalia they hope to find a way to create a court to invalidate such
requirements. The left believes by degrading elections integrity it will gain
an electoral advantage as non-citizens and less-informed citizens who would be
less likely to make the effort to acquire photo identification typically are
more manipulable and more
prone to identifying as Democrats.
Scalia, probably the most brilliant member of the
Court over the past several decades, probably would have applauded the dissent
in the highest profile of these cases, Veasey V.
Abbott heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which pointed out
the majority’s politicized assumption that strict identification laws
automatically connoted discriminatory intent. The problem is activist judges
routinely commit such errors in pursuit of a political agenda, and his
replacement if of that sentiment likely would send the entire Court in that
direction on this and many other issues.
That giant sucking sound you heard came from film
industry locusts extracting money from Louisiana’s taxpayers. But after that
happened, a model for the future of the state’s Motion Picture Investor Film
Credit had
its debut recently in Shreveport.
In less than a month from the Jul. 1 reinstitution
of the state’s buying back of these tax credits, the amount eligible, $239
million, got vacuumed up by largely nonresidents. Program reforms put a
moratorium on the state’s repurchase, 85 cents on the buck, for the previous
fiscal year. Relatively low demand for this break’s use against state income
taxes meant only $121 million got applied against each fiscal year’s $180
million cap, so that amount left over rolled into this year’s.
This starkly reveals the program’s past use: as a
tool to siphon taxpayer dollars into financing the making of movies in a
one-off fashion, contrary to policy-makers’ intent that it serve as an
incentive to develop a homegrown filmmaking infrastructure. Otherwise, more use
against taxes and less as transfer payments would occur.
The hair-splitting in Louisiana’s U.S. Senate
contest continues
its exponential growth, providing a clear indicator of all but one
candidate’s insecurities in making it to the inevitable general election
runoff.
With two dozen candidates on offer and perhaps
with 10 who actually can affect the outcome of the race, the scramble to get in
the runoff has all but one of them desperately searching for issues by which to
differentiate themselves positively to voters. Only Republican state Treas. John Kennedy, universally indicated in
polls as having a hefty lead over all comers, had abjured from this approach.
It began almost three months ago when Republican
Rep. John Fleming sent
out a press release accusing fellow GOP House member Charles Boustany of promoting higher
taxes and insufficient zeal against social engineering supported by Democrat Pres.
Barack Obama.
Focusing on one bill, H.R.
5055, Fleming contrasted his votes concerning it with Boustany’s.
As Louisiana looks to create a more fiscally-sound
budget, a welcome review of the scope and role of state parks should bring focus
to policy options that fulfill appropriately the function of government yet do
not forget the public service aspect.
With state revenues having difficulty in keeping
up with spending, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser
and officials dealing with parks, part of his portfolio as the state’s
second-ranked executive, have investigated
a number of ideas to draw in more and more stable receipts to fund
Louisiana’s 32 parks and historic sites. Among others things, hikes in entry
fees and rentals and awarding naming rights have come under study.
To save money, Nungesser’s predecessor, now
Commissioner of Administration, Jay Dardenne removed
personnel from lightly-visited historical sites, mostly war-related, but no
parks have closed for fiscal reasons. In fact, from fiscal year 2008, parks
have seen their budget increase from $33 million
to $35
million, so the expenditure side has driven the monetary pinch that parks
now experience.
If any blame needs distributing concerning the
impact of Louisiana’s dwindling solar installation tax credit, those wishing to
foist it should look first at themselves and then the firms that sold them the
solar energy bill of goods.
The New Orleans
Times-Picayune decided to poke
around for reactions to the effects of the 2015 change in the credit. Once
the nation’s most generous, until the middle of last year it essentially gave
back 50 percent of an installed system. Better, the credits were made
refundable, so to pay for much of the system many buyers would take out a loan
from the installers interest free for a period as long as reasonably expected
to have the refund show up after filing income taxes – in addition to the 30
percent federal tax credit. And if the buyer still could not manage the several
thousand dollars still owed, installers
would lease it or price it for sale in a way to eat the difference, with
the lucrative government giveaways still allowing them to profit.
But Act 31 of 2015
changed the game, capping the previously-unlimited program that had given
away hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars at $10 million distributed in
each of fiscal years 2016 and 2017, and $5 million for the first half of FY
2018, then ending the subsidy permanently. This created a class of buyers who
paid for systems in the first half of 2015 – FY 2015 – but only could file for
the credit on their 2015 state income taxes starting the second half of FY
2016. Filings so far this calendar year, for systems installed in 2015, not
only blew straight through the FY 2016 amount, but also the FY 2017 amount and
all but $1 million of the truncated FY 2018 amount.
A good rule of thumb: whenever “activists” tell you
to do something, do the opposite. That seems verified by comments some trendy
folks made concerning policing tactics in Louisiana.
Last weekend some
individuals weighed in on police shootings in Louisiana, contrasting events
of this year in Baton Rouge with the high-profile shooting death of Alton
Sterling, collector of multiple arrests over the previous two decades. A
federal investigation will render a judgment in the next several months on the
appropriateness of police actions concerning that incident.
These same individuals represent organizations
that have brought suit against Baton Rouge police for their handling of
protests against the Sterling shooting, which they allege involved too much use
of force that denied free speech rights. They made remarks at the Louisiana
Green Party convention contrasting the relative hands-off approach they perceive
practiced by New Orleans police, noting no such excessive force complaints
against NOPD so far in 2016.
With the simultaneous acquisition of the Republican
nomination for president by businessman Donald
Trump and entrance into Louisiana’s U.S. Senate contest by former state
Rep. David Duke, naturally voices
opposed to conservatism had to make strained efforts to connect the emergence of
Trump and resurfacing of Duke as related representations of the political right
in general. Yet this demonstrates only tone deafness to the genuine linkage that
has more to do with liberalism’s failure to articulate a vision that genuinely inspires
and benefits all people.
The boilerplate that comes from both state
and national
sources is that Duke’s
belief that his time has come stems from the success of Trump’s prominent
nationalism as a campaign theme, which on some
occasions has led to accusations of Trump stereotyping minorities and
foreigners, most recently regarding
parents of Muslim army officer killed in Iraq. Of course, Duke stopped
apologizing long ago after failed attempts for statewide office for displaying unvarnished
white supremacist views that fit as a subset.
But to allege Trump harbors nativist sentiments
that connect to Duke’s racism through some current national mood on the right misses
the crucial role that the follies of liberalism have contributed in making this
linkage. Properly understood, naïve populism nurtured and sustained on the left
has acted as a Colistin-resistant E. coli
crossing over to the right.
It’s not so much that a resolution
by the Louisiana Republican Party’s State Central
Committee to prevent convicted felons and racists would be an empty
gesture, but that it promotes unenforceable mischief.
In the wake of disgraced former state Rep. David Duke running again for the U.S.
Senate seat up for grabs this fall, Republican officials appear set to consider
at their next meeting this ban on candidates qualifying for office using the
GOP label. According to preliminary reports, if two-thirds of the RSCC vote
accordingly, this change in bylaws will disallow individuals fitting these
categories from running as Republicans. Had not the judiciary
recently struck down the state’s ban on felon participation in elections
for a period after end of sentence, Duke could not have qualified.
It won’t work. The American system drafts parties
as instruments to conduct elections and, like other states, Louisiana defines
what parties to recognize for registration and candidacy purposes. Party bylaws
can’t change that. In Louisiana, candidates who meet
qualifications for an office must employ their party designation according to
their elector registration, paying an extra filing fee if they registered as a
member of a recognized political party that has chosen to impose one. Pay the
fee for the particular office consistent with registration, and legally that
affiliation appears on the ballot next to the name. A party cannot change that
law unilaterally, and only change in statute would make such a restriction
effective.
