Future reprieve from LA seat loss unlikely

It looks like Louisiana won’t drop any more congressional seats this time around on the census. But the way things are going, expect that to change in 2030.

That’s the conclusion you can draw from how reapportionments appear a year out from digestion of census data to be collected Apr. 1. Alabama, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia look poised to lose at least one seat in the House of Representatives, while states seeming ready to gain at least one include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas.

On a per capita basis, Louisiana has been the biggest loser since 1990. It has shrunk from eight to six seats, although states with much larger populations have lost more seats. And there’s a reason for shrinking populations, a review of fiscal data shows: policies that damage state economies, which consequentially puts state finances under stress, discourage residency compared to states with sounder economic agendas.

The Inquisitor column, Jan. 3, 2020

Amphibian casinos unlikely to boost Shreveport / Bossier coffers
https://www.theinquisitor.com/columns-opinions/amphibian-casinos-unlikely-boost-shreveport-bossier-coffers

Links:
https://apnews.com/b020c2af512e95005964d501c1cbdba1
http://dpsweb.dps.louisiana.gov/lgcb.nsf/ddb20cf421af536586256e9b0049df46/1286bea61bf4a67d862584d5005f8aed/$FILE/NOVEMBER%202019%20-%20Riverboat%20Revenue.002.pdf/NOVEMBER%202019%20-%20Riverboat%20Revenue.pdf
http://dpsweb.dps.louisiana.gov/lgcb.nsf/ddb20cf421af536586256e9b0049df46/2cb2240d1a98329286258369005b2fc1/$FILE/NOVEMBER%202018%20-%20Riverboat%20Revenue.002.pdf/NOVEMBER%202018%20-%20Riverboat%20Revenue.pdf
http://dpsweb.dps.louisiana.gov/lgcb.nsf/ddb20cf421af536586256e9b0049df46/97bcd36f46b9afd78625843b00582054/$FILE/JUNE%202019%20-%20Riverboat%20Revenue.002.pdf/JUNE%202019%20-%20Riverboat%20Revenue.pdf
http://lgcb.dps.louisiana.gov/docs/2019_Annual_Report.pdf
http://press-herald.com/not-so-fast-diamondjacks/
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2017/07/bossier-city-squanders-without-term.html

Maximum legal carry needed in LA churches

As recent tragic events remind, some spiritual leaders in Louisiana must act to increase the safety of their congregations.

At last year’s end, a gunman opened fire inside a church in the Metroplex area. In a few seconds, those bullets killed two worshippers. But that was all, because armed members visited the like on the shooter.

Texas recently relaxed requirements to enable churches to provide their own security. In essence, any individual with a concealed carry permit may take a handgun into a house of worship, unless the organization with responsibility over the church explicitly bans these. Not only does this event punctuate that broad Second Amendment rights can save lives, but it also signals to other malevolent people that in states with such laws houses of worship may not offer soft targeting, thereby discouraging these acts of violence.

More proof of expansion's wealth redistribution

It keeps getting worse for Medicaid expansion in Louisiana as further research fortifies the conclusion that it operates largely as another form of welfare designed to redistribute wealth.

Earlier this month, the Foundation for Government Accountability issued a report highlighting the facet of expansion its advocates desperately don’t want the larger public to know: a significant portion of those made eligible and enrolling in it already had or could afford insurance, and in enrolling merely relieved themselves of that expense which they transferred to taxpayers, many of whom must foot their health insurance out of their own resources. And in that document, Louisiana figured prominently.

That research focused on the segment of the population most likely to take advantage of the sweet deal, those families earning 100 to 150 percent of the federal poverty limit. Any under 138 percent qualify for expansion, but from 100 percent up to that – about 85 percent of the total cohort – they also can qualify to receive (very generous, often on the order of 90 percent or more) premium support to buy insurance through exchanges. However, the law forces them into Medicaid if they qualify for it.

Next excuse up: surplus needed for the children

That the explanations keep changing surely indicates the inherent dishonesty by those forwarding the rationalizations, Louisiana’s Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards keeps reminding.

Remember when Edwards insisted that Louisiana needed to keep, if not all, at least part of a sales tax increase to prevent emergent budget deficits? Instead, federal tax law changes made that retained increase superfluous and prompted a historic run of overtaxation.

So, he, his administration, and his allies searched for new justifications behind the tax increase that will hang around the people’s neck and the resultant over-funding government for the next five-and-a-half years. Several versions have come out since: the overflow can replenish the Budget Stabilization Fund and pensions funds, it can go towards capital outlay, and/or it would provide a buffer in case of a national economic downturn (to match the one already underway during Edwards’ term).

The Inquisitor column, Dec. 27, 2019

Tax and spend Red River cities face new reality
https://www.theinquisitor.com/columns-opinions/tax-and-spend-red-river-cities-face-new-reality

Links:
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2017/07/bossier-city-squanders-without-term.html
https://www.theinquisitor.com/columns-opinions/cross-bayou-deal-must-win-both-taxpayers-and-developer
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2018/10/tarver-assent-key-to-shreveport-mayors.html

LA public defense needs to help itself first

It’s a new year, but the same two stories for the Louisiana Public Defense Board and the system it oversees: a need for additional resources, but also a failure of its districts to help themselves.

This year, dire warnings of system collapse came in front of a task force set up to review criminal justice changes that went into effect last year. About 57 percent of all indigent defense funding comes from local sources, which comes from a $45 fee assessed to those convicted and those who forfeit bonds, a $40 application fee, $2 of a $15 fee for every bond posted in a district, a cut of bond license proceeds paid by bailsmen, another bond forfeiture fee, partial reimbursement by clients, and any monies provided by grants or local governments.

In recent years, system representatives have stressed the precipitous loss of fees from a decline in writing traffic tickets that go to court. With a growing number of jurisdictions opting for diversion strategies that bypass courts, the $45 fee has shrunk as a source for funding. In the 41^st District (Orleans Parish), for example, in the busiest jurisdiction in the state in less than a decade the number of such tickets has shrunk (through 2017) by almost three-quarters.

Christmas Day, 2019

This column publishes every Monday through Friday 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 Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Wenesday, Dec. 25 being Christmas Day, I invite you to explore this link.

Data reveal another Medicaid expansion myth

But, Medicaid expansion!

As the data pile up, that has become a less and less satisfactory answer supposed to solve for several issues facing Louisiana:

• It supposedly created greater access to care. It never did for many, because the proportion of clients having to wait to see a doctor on Medicaid rose by a factor of 14 after expansion
• It supposedly saved money. It never did, because it wasted so much on ineligible enrollees and the increased wait times still had people flooding higher-cost emergency rooms
• It supposedly paid for itself. It never did, not only because of the waste but also because it relied on tax increases that, beginning next year, won’t even cover additional taxpayer costs
• It supposedly brought economic benefits. It never did, because the alleged benefits have fallen far short of the money extracted from the people to pay for it that could have gone to more economically productive purposes
• It supposedly gave the uninsured health insurance. It never did, not only because of Louisiana’s anachronistic free charity care predated expansion, but that a third to a half of enrollees already had insurance

Clarify process to tame Edwards law breaking

As has become his habit, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards showed the Louisiana Constitution his index, middle, and ring fingers and said to read between the lines. Now it’s up to the Republican-majority Legislature to respond to that in a way differently from the past.

Just as he did earlier this year, Edwards last week declared he would ignore the state’s governing charter and said he planned to introduce a budget not conforming to its rules. This continues a pattern where Edwards consistently has tried to operate outside the law, only to have constitutional checks imposed by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry and the judiciary slap him down.

That happened last spring when Edwards tried to introduce a budget that included revenues beyond what the state’s official arm for forecasting these, the Revenue Estimating Conference, had established. Put into the Constitution in 1990 to ensure reliable budgeting that didn’t depend on fantasy numbers, the panel’s four members that include representatives of the governor, House, and Senate, and an independent economist must agree unanimously to change an existing prediction.