NO officials enable politicized police missteps

Increasingly it seems necessary for the gutting and reconstitution of the New Orleans Police Department, given the escalating rogue behavior it exhibits throughout itself, but that might require accomplishing the more difficult task of exchanging city political elites.

The ongoing saga involving a member of the department once assigned to Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s security detail on the surface seemed isolated to the officer involved. Both are under federal investigation potentially for defrauding taxpayer resources. That officer was suspended in April and since has filed to retire from the department.

But a twist to the apparently sordid affair, which includes alleged assignations between Cantrell and the officer on the taxpayer dime as she lived unauthorized on city property, a privilege recently revoked by the City Council, Cantrell filed for a protective order against a neighbor at that location supposedly out of pique that the woman had provided video recordings of Cantrell at a public venue that ended up in media reports and possibly as evidence in the looming federal indictments that could involve Cantrell. According to the woman, almost the entire filing was bogus, to which a civil court judge agreed in tossing the entire thing.

Independence Day, 2024

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 Wednesday, Jul. 4 being Independence Day, I invite you to explore the links connected to this page.

Political shuffling to benefit Court, maybe NSU

The political musical chairs that may commence with a new Northwestern State University presidency in the near future could lead, with voters ratification, to a quality lineup in the state’s Supreme Court – but at the cost of refreshing a questionable tendency in governance of Louisiana’s higher education institutions.

At the end of May, NSU Pres. Marcus Jones announced he accepted an offer to be kicked upstairs in the University of Louisiana System. The ULS just prior to statewide elections last fall swiftly moved to put former Grambling State University Pres. Rick Gallot into the system presidency, but then hit the brakes when Republican incoming Gov. Jeff Landry asked to meet with Gallot prior to any final contract offering.

Landry has no control over such a hiring decision. But he does have control over appointments to the ULS Board of Supervisors, almost half of whom come up for that at then end of the year, and most of them before Landry’s term is up (and all of them if he serves another). While because of the political allegiances of some they will not return, many have a decent chance of reappointment and not acquiescing might have mooted that.

LA must support efforts to bring EPA in line

Either by legal action or election results, the run of politicization of science that has marked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory regime on emissions looks to wither away, bringing relief to a major Louisiana industrial concern punished for political reasons.

As of the middle of last week, things weren’t looking great for Denka Performance Elastomers in LaPlace, the country’s only producer of neoprene. For over a decade, Denka and its predecessor have been in the crosshairs of the EPA that alleges production of neoprene emits too high levels of chloroprene that supposedly causes cancer. The EPA has tried to impose emission strict standards even as the company has instigated a huge decrease in these amounts.

That battle escalated in a rule proposed in April and made final in May that broadly changes the emission regime, but specifically for Denka creates a level that the company has said is impossible to meet by an Oct. 15 deadline. It has gone to court to suspend this implementation.

Next Ellis term may feature choppy waters

Fresh off a successful four years and convincing reelection, Monroe independent Mayor Friday Ellis looks to face a different – and possibly less tractable – set of challenges through 2028.

This week, he took the oath for a second term, along with new terms for Republican Councilors Doug Harvey and Gretchen Ezernack and Democrat Juanita Woods. In 2020, Ellis, who is white, shocked the political world when in a city with black voting majority and Democrat voting majority as a novice candidate he defeated black long time mayor Democrat Jamie Mayo.

Proving this no fluke, he overcame Mayo again earlier this year, more than doubling up on him with 63 percent of the vote, an improvement of about 10 percent in the rematch. Ellis credited his victory to taking largely a service-oriented approach deemphasizing ideology that focused on attention to constituents, which seemed to resonate among black voters as he captured at least a quarter of the vote in a number of supermajority black precincts.

Consequential election frees Bossier legislators

Persecuted in past years, if not attacked for reelection purposes, Bossier Parish-based legislators saw their efforts flourish this year.

The 2023 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature brought adversity for the likes of Republicans state Sen. (then Rep.) Alan Seabaugh, Raymond Crews, and Dodie Horton, as well as GOP state Rep. Danny McCormick who prior to reapportionment that took effect this year also represented parts of the parish. That’s as they advocated reining in spending, favoring the use of surplus dollars to pay down unfunded accrued liabilities and other measures to stabilize state finances, which meant leaving in place a spending cap.

By contrast, Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards wanted to lard up the budget as much as possible in an attempt to bake in larger government prior to his departure at year’s end, knowing as soon as he left office his legacy of bloated government and redistribution to favored special interests would start to crumble. He found willing allies in a legislative Republican leadership of House former Speaker Clay Schexnayder – himself running for higher office where higher spending could leverage him more campaign support – and Sen. former Pres. Page Cortez who wanted to spread largesse to legislators, many of whom were running for election.

Landry veto encourages genuine Catholic action

As previously noted, while Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s line item vetoes reflected generally fiscal probity while signaling even more emphasis on that in the future, he also made a statement about unwarranted political activism within Louisiana’s Roman Catholic Church’s bureaucracy.

Landry’s vetoes in three appropriations bills followed a general guideline he included in accompanying messages: that gifts of state money had to fulfill state purposes. In some instances, projects he zeroed out were too narrow geographically or too disconnected from state priorities, while others didn’t provide information to determine that.

Not that he didn’t manage to use the power simultaneously to pull political benefits from frequent opponents. The best example of that came from the axed $250,000 from The First 72+, a charitable organization backed by several prominent election officials that seeks to aid the recently incarcerated. According to its Internal Revenue Service Form 990 from 2022, that would have exceeded the entire contribution from government grants, and represents around 15 percent of its revenues. But no request ever was filed, as by Legislature rules, so that made it easy for Landry to vacate.

Landry delivers warning on dubious line items

On a small scale with appropriations bills, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry gave warning he was going to party like it was 2008.

This week, Landry revealed his line item vetoes of HB 1, HB 2, and HB 782 – the general, capital outlay, and supplemental appropriations bills, respectively. The governor has the power to excise individual items in each, which historically never have been overridden.

He didn’t pare much. HB 1 lost four items worth $2.125 million, HB 2 had three items lopped off worth $1.75 million (although one item was a bureaucratic direction), and HB 782 saw 16 items off into the ether worth around $3.5 million.

Vax hesitancy, media mistrust related in public

The same reason why Louisianans appear to be a bit more skeptical about vaccinations generally is behind why Americans have fallen to just about record lows in trust of the media – with a perfect example recently teed up by the state’s largest newspaper.

Last week, the Baton Rouge Advocate ran a piece with scare headline “Anti-vaccine movement gains steam with Louisiana politicians. Here's why doctors are concerned.” It contended that “An unprecedented number of bills and resolutions aimed at weakening vaccine requirements are now law in Louisiana following a wave of successful legislation taking aim at public health authorities.” Hold on to your hernia belts, as “The anti-vaccine movement … is becoming more mainstream in the Louisiana statehouse, causing concern among doctors and public health officials who worry it is eroding decades of health policy and will result in more disease and death.”

Of concern, the article offers, is the drop in kindergarten vaccination rates from 90 to 86 percent, and similar drops in other age groups. The absolute number is small, but it’s contended even a little erosion can be risky to allow a breakout of disease. Charles Stoecker, a Tulane health economist, laments that if there comes something like this, “we'll have only ourselves to blame.” Dr. Mark Kline, physician in chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans said alleged “dismantling” of vaccine policies runs “counter to everything we know about the legitimate practice of public health. It jeopardizes all of our safety, and particularly the safety of people who have medical conditions that make them vulnerable to these diseases.”

Move now to fix LA fiscal policy, next budget

With a constitutional convention apparently off the table for the immediate future, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry appointee Department of Revenue Sec. Richard Nelson has a difficult task to lead in steering state fiscal policy away from deficit shoals.

The convention would have proposed transferring some revenue and spending imperatives out of the Constitution so that the Legislature in 2025 would have had more flexibility in dealing with the disappearance of a temporary 0.45 percent sales tax first imposed in 2016, as well as a 2 percent tax on business utilities purchases for fiscal year 2025. Only the political far left – ironically as it alleges to support lower income households yet sales taxes disproportionately hit those individuals – is advocating keeping the sales tax.

The sales tax generates about $455 million annually, the utilities tax generates about $211 million, and the estimated state budget shortfall without this revenue is $558 million for FY 2025. Landry and Nelson now hope to have a special session of the Legislature meet late this or early next year to tackle the expiration, after legislator fatigue of two special and a longer regular session this year that turned sentiment against a special session acting as a convention this summer.