Budget deal moves closer to right-sizing LA govt

It seems like things don’t change: the University of Oklahoma just keeps on winning gymnastics and softball national championships.

But things do change: Oklahoma’s winningest football coach of all time – consider this at a school with seven national championships – Bob Stoops is stepping down after 18 seasons.

At no time in its history has this tension played out more significantly in the Louisiana Legislature than in this month of June, which has featured one rearguard action after another by big government advocates to keep the good times rolling to inflate the budget. But when a budget agreement crystallizes sometime today (asseems inevitable), it appears another milestone in right-sizing Louisiana government will have been attained.

Essentially, transforming bloated government that takes too much to do unneeded things into one that fulfills only genuine needs while letting people keep more of what is theirs follows three steps. The first demands a change in attitude, from thinking of government as a vehicle to redistribute power and wealth to something that removes obstructions to give people the opportunity to acquire power and wealth on their own. This means ridding government of both corruption and inattentiveness in steering dollars to best uses.

Tax reform dead until Democrats relent on tax hikes

If we learned anything from the Louisiana Legislature’s stab at tax reform during this regular session, it’s that key Democrats mistake tax increases for it, denoting a harmful unseriousness about it all.

As the 2017 session draws to a close, it will end with no fundamental change occurring to the state’s tax system. This came despite a big buildup over the previous year, with a special panel created to study the issue. It produced a report that emphasized both creating a more efficient system that would spur economic growth yet somewhat contradicted by its desire to increase overall taxation levels.

A raft of proposals came and went, dominated by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ package that hewed more to hiking taxes collected, in net effect raising taxes on individuals somewhat but taxes on corporations substantially. These went nowhere, precisely because of the overall tax increase these would trigger; as such measures require a two-thirds majority in each chamber to pass, well more than that proportion of legislators, almost entirely Republicans, felt restraining the growth of government, if not putting it on a diet, would work to solve any projected budget deficit for the next fiscal year.

Milkovich hopes meritless suit distracts from record

After northwest Louisiana’s Republican state senator afflicted with political schizophrenia had a rough go of it by proxy this spring, his Democrat counterpart upped the ante in wackiness.

Senate District 36’s Republican Ryan Gatti found himself covered by the spotlight shone on his brother when Robbie Gatti made a failed bid for state representative. Ryan Gatti squeaked into office in 2015 by emphasizing social conservatism, deeming education reform overreaching, and alleging adherence to “true conservative principles of fiscal responsibility.” Apparently, he understood that to entail voting for a raft of tax increases and increased regulation on business, and as a result in 2016 earned a score of 22 out of 100 on the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s business-oriented legislator scorecard.

Fairly or not, that pro-government, anti-growth reputation blew back on Robbie Gatti, but he lost more over doubts about his espoused social conservatism than on whatever sins Ryan Gatti was thought to have committed in office by his voting. Still, his brother’s unsuccessful run highlighted Ryan Gatti’s as a catspaw for big government advocate Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards, a personal friend of the Gattis whom they assisted in his campaign.

Veto bill to reduce LA penchant for overregulation

Louisiana’s penchant for overregulation strikes again, in this case concerning new car sales, that a governor’s veto can correct.

SB 107 by state Sen. Bodi White, ostensibly to facilitate delivering specialty law enforcement vehicles, went uncontroversially to Gov. John Bel Edwards. But in the process state Rep. Tanner Magee slipped in an amendment that clarified language regarding direct sales of new vehicles.

State law mandates that motor vehicle dealers obtain a license, and promulgates a long list of qualifications necessary, such as having a fixed location with adequate space, that it has a positive effect on the economic well-being of the state, and specifies what it sells. However, statute creates an exception to a violation of direct sales for “operating a dealership” without defining “dealership.” SB 107 changes the language to grant an exception only to “an existing, licensed, and franchised motor vehicle dealership.”

The Advocate column, Jun. 4, 2017

Republican pretenders — or RINOs — really serving Gov. Edwards in legislature
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_a1b27e48-464c-11e7-9927-fbda1d83117c.html

Links:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/05/john_bel_edwards_has_serious_r.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_754da098-d924-11e6-86e4-a38765e2b7c7.html
http://senate.la.gov/JudiciaryB/Assignments.asp
http://senate.la.gov/JudiciaryC/Assignments.asp
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1039845
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1042912
http://senate.la.gov/Senate&Government/Assignments.asp
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_c3ec9214-3a44-11e7-a2b8-df666da8d331.html
http://senate.la.gov/Documents/Rules/Default.asp
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/louisiana/articles/2017-05-16/black-louisiana-lawmakers-condemn-confederate-statue-bill
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_c3ec9214-3a44-11e7-a2b8-df666da8d331.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_d0259cb6-456f-11e7-847b-47b3a101bbd8.html

Lawmakers botch lukewarm LA convention attempt

Given an opportunity to concoct corrections to fiscal flaws in Louisiana’s Constitution, lawmakers flinched earlier this week.

HB 456 by Democrat Rep. Neil Abramson would have appointed a panel to assess whether the state needed a limited constitutional convention, originally focusing on revenue and finance, local government finance, retirement systems, and higher education organization and finance. If deemed wise, the panel would join delegates elected from House of Representatives districts to work on a document incorporating any changes that voters could approve.

While the bill covered appropriate subject matter, it erred in stumping for the 27 superdelegates representing special interests, elected officials, and academia both to set the agenda and to participate in deliberations. This passed along too much power to entrenched interests. More appropriately, it could have replaced them at the convention with additional delegates elected from the 39 Senate districts. Further, delegate election could have excluded any state or local elected official who had served in the previous six years, to ensure, unlike the last such effort in 1974, that those with ties to government organized along the lines of the present arrangement that has proven lacking do not have outsized influence over the product.

Angelle moves on from LA, leaving mixed legacy

It seems that former Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle has ended his long career in Louisiana politics, frustrated by a decision he made which reverberates statewide to this day.

Before assuming his position on the PSC, Republican Angelle had logged time in a number of positions in local and state government in a career progression pointing to the Governor’s Mansion. The time seemed best to take that step after his previous boss GOP former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s second term ended.

However, a significant obstacle presented itself in the form of Republican former Sen. David Vitter, who had wielded more influence over the state’s politics than any other politician over the previous decade. Throughout his career having articulated almost entirely undiluted conservatism with a dash anti-big-government populism, Vitter would present a formidable obstacle.

Bad LA film tax credit fix better than none

Louisiana seems set to test, in the case of the Motion Picture Investors Tax Credit, whether bad legislation is better than no legislative solution at all.

This week, the House of Representatives likely will take up and approve of SB 254 by Democrat state Sen. JP Morrell. It tinkers around the margins with the film tax credit program that independent study after independent study has demonstrated costs Louisianans far more in income tax rebates paid out than in revenues supplied to government as a result of its existence.

Besides this transference of a large amount of wealth from taxpayers that could fund other priorities such as higher education and health care to a relatively small number of individuals, mostly outside the state and/or wealthy, the law has attracted a number criticisms at which the bill hardly addresses. It establishes a cap of requests for credits at $150 million a year and a payout of $180 million annually, which can be rolled forward or backwards for years with excess requests, for the next three years which then declines to $150 million for the next five. This period of higher paying takes up slack from credits banked from previous years.

Memorial Day, 2017

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 29 being Memorial Day, I invite you to explore this link.

The Advocate column, May 28, 2017

Is Gov. Edwards irrelevant in Louisiana? Lawmakers appear to think so
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_99d55c22-40c5-11e7-8c23-6770d90c9c96.html

Links:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_004d91be-4016-11e7-9f73-1b15202a0e6c.html
http://gov.louisiana.gov/news/2017-legislative-agenda
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_e4e7bca8-3a69-11e7-b6ef-3b6f9bd29967.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_3d457e5a-3b17-11e7-93cb-57b099943184.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_a3b31818-3014-11e7-8709-0b271bf5610b.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_c7dc789c-3fd7-11e7-b61d-73a72a993975.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_b3be2eb0-408a-11e7-af63-3b1da2add447.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_c263cd72-3cd3-11e7-8d99-f343a6521dbe.html