The Press-Herald column, Feb. 28, 2018

Bossier City’s downtown project is mired in lack of planning, follow-through
http://press-herald.com/bossier-citys-downtown-project-is-mired-in-lack-of-planning-follow-through/

Sources:
http://bossierpress.com/city-council-consider-special-permit-open-containers-festival-plaza/
https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2018/02/21/bossier-citys-alcohol-downtown-plans-hit-snags/359710002/
http://bossierpress.com/city-council-adopts-festival-plaza-region-open-container-provisions/

Fracking leading LA, US to reap energy benefits

How do an autocratic Russian ruler, some misinformed European governments, and fear-mongering environmentalists together make life better for Louisianans?

The state ‘s economy got a lift when last year Poland’s state-owned gas company agreed for the next five years to buy liquified natural gas shipped out of Cameron Parish. Tired of having Vladimir Putin use its gas supply to their country as a foreign policy cudgel, last summer the Poles began importing LNG from Louisiana. From its facility Cheniere Energy began exporting to 18 countries last year that could bring into the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

This bonanza comes courtesy of greater domestic gas supply derived from hydraulic fracturing. Most of Poland’s nearby neighbors with gas deposits have outlawed this process that pries open subterranean gas seams, as have two states with ocean-going ports, New York and Maryland, and several counties in California. Removal of these potentially lower-cost suppliers from the marketplace allowed Louisiana to scoop up Poland’s business.

Edwards inaction surely would scuttle reelection

Louisiana’s House of Representatives Republicans seem to have gotten it together, to the point that Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards may allow sabotage of the entire special session devoted to revenue issues.

Entering this potential two-week convocation, called as temporary taxes rolling off at the fiscal year’s conclusion would leave a deficit of nearly $1 billion at current spending trends, the GOP knew that Edwards would attempt to use this as an opportunity to increase taxes permanently. With his unwillingness to deviate from this conflation of tax reform and hikes, and with reform parameters ill-defined and incompletely confected into his call that triggered the convening, legislators could do nothing lasting and would have to leave genuine reform for the future.

Last week, at first some Republicans didn’t get it. State Rep. Stephen Dwight offered up his HB 23 that would have enacted a permanent tax increase of a half cent of sales tax. This would admit that government needed permanent expansion, ratifying state-sourced spending that rose at twice the rate of inflation during the first two years of Edwards’ term. Democrats sought to pile on with a pair of bills raising telephone taxes advancing out of committee.

Troubling claims also expose Democrat hypocrisy

Regardless of the merits of the allegations, a sexual harassment complaint against Republican Louisiana Sec. of State Tom Schedler raises questions about his fitness to serve, and on the side exposes the hypocrisy of state Democrats.

Last week, a departmental employee filed suit against Schedler for illegal discrimination, harassment, and reprisals. She alleges a decade-long pattern of behavior, stemming from the time he first became employed in the office, where she had taken a job three years earlier, through his appointment, election, and subsequent reelection to the post to the present. He maintains they once had a consensual sexual relationship, which the woman denies, and admitted he has remained separated from his wife for an extended period of time.

The suit broadly references episodes of Schedler’s reportedly intrusive behavior that occasionally resulted in personnel actions the plaintiff believed retaliatory in nature. While the document gives a few details here and there that in isolation could be interpreted as supporting the woman’s contentions, only a full trial can produce convincing evidence.

The Advocate column, Feb. 25, 2018

Louisiana property tax policy needs bigger reforms
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_27a4affa-1747-11e8-b96b-176b18f98f5b.html

Links:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_7dd6c9ae-11ba-11e8-b1b1-13ec256edc13.html
http://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/ExecutiveOrders/JBE16-73.pdf
http://www.lpb.org/index.php/publicsquare/topic/07_09_property_taxes/
https://files.taxfoundation.org/20171016171625/SBTCI_2018.pdf
https://files.taxfoundation.org/20170816154839/LA_Reform_Final_8-17.pdf

The Press-Herald column, Feb. 21, 2018

Gatti’s record may hurt his reelection
http://press-herald.com/gattis-record-may-hurt-his-reelection/

Links:
http://press-herald.com/reynolds-gatti-prep-for-special-session/
http://www.labi.org/assets/images/media/2016-Scorecard.pdf
http://labi.org/assets/images/scorecard.pdf

Temporary tax extension best for LA fiscal reform

The best alternative for Louisiana to deal with a looming budgetary shortfall lies in continuing to do the same thing.

Legislators began meeting earlier this week in the hopes of erasing a potential fiscal year 2019 spending plan deficit. Current spending levels less temporary taxes rolling off on Jun. 30 equals nearly a billion-dollar hole.

A number of proposals have surfaced to address this, guided by the parameters of the special session call issued by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. But the Republican-controlled Legislature, especially the House of Representatives, wisely seems unlikely to approve his first choice, increases on marginal income tax rates geared towards higher individual earners and corporations.

Speech signals Edwards knows his weakness

Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ address at the start of the Louisiana Legislature’s special session yesterday confirmed one thing: he’s in trouble, he knows it, and now so do we.

Edwards delivered a speech imploring that he and the legislative branch’s Republican leadership – although really pitched at the House of Representatives – to work together, yet was one relentlessly partisan and tone-deaf to real world data and experience. It strung together numerous talking points that don’t stand up to the glare of reality. Such as:

We addressed that [2016] shortfall by taking a balanced approach of revenue, strategic spending cuts, significant savings, and economic growth …. [S]ome want to argue that these weren’t real [spending] cuts.

Renegade Republicans threaten LA govt inflation

It’s not so much whether Louisiana’s House of Representative’s Republican delegation can unite to address immediate fiscal concerns, but whether some faction of it will defect to hand Louisianans a big tax bill for the foreseeable future.

As lawmakers convene for a special session that could last almost two weeks, five groups have coalesced over dealing with an impending deficit for next fiscal year’s budget. The expiration of temporary taxes, most prominently a one cent levy on sales, at the end of this fiscal year means current spending patterns exceed expected existing revenues by almost $1 billion.

A small group of Republicans don’t want to see any restoration of temporary taxes, much less new permanent ones, and hope a combination of efficiencies and user fees, plus revenue boosts from federal tax changes, make up the difference. Their opposite number of Democrats, also few, want to see only permanent income tax increases focused on corporations and on those individuals above lower-income status.

The Advocate column, Feb. 18, 2018

Gov. Edwards has made legislative special sessions another February tradition in Louisiana
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_20330df0-11c7-11e8-b58f-7b32fab3fd40.html

Links:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_a3cf534a-0dd9-11e8-b5f4-0799d9b5c79d.html
https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NASBO/9d2d2db1-c943-4f1b-b750-0fca152d64c2/UploadedImages/SER%20Archive/State_Expenditure_Report__Fiscal_2015-2017_-S.pdf
http://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/Proclamations/26-JBE-2018-Special-Session-Call.pdf