Independence Day, 2013

This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday after noon (sometimes even before; maybe even after sundown on busy days) U.S. Central Time 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 Independence Day or Christmas when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, there are six of these: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas.

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

Ruling encourages adopting defined contribution plan

It’s not exactly back to the drawing board for the next phase of pension reform in Louisiana, but at least the opportunity to come up with something better presents itself, all the while recognizing that doing nothing is not an option.

With only a slight amount of stretching the state Constitution, the Louisiana Supreme Court last week declared that passage in 2012 of a cash benefit plan for new hires into state government did not have the requisite votes, and thereby invalidated the law that was, after an instrument passed in this year’ session, to take effect a year from now. The Constitution says that any actuarially change predicted as negative, even if really indeterminable and largely guesswork, to retirement fund solvency requires a two-thirds vote of the seated membership for passage in each chamber, and the House fell a couple short.

Using a bit of creative license – despite the Constitution’s not specifying that this applied to future plan members, the Court strung some statutes together and tortured the mix to say that it somehow did – to wipe the statute away, this eliminated a minor but useful means by which to defuse the ticking time bomb that is the state’s unfunded accrued liability, now in the neighborhood of $20 billion and costing taxpayers an extra $1 billion or so a year to finance.

Court error on formula decision comes back to haunt it

The lack of logic in the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision that invalidated the state’s funding formula for schools got exposed by a suit of a school board and union representatives that could cost the state a couple hundred million dollars – but gives the Court the opportunity to fix its error.

Earlier this spring, during the legislative session, the Court ruled that the funding formula from last year was unconstitutional, partially on the basis of when it was dealt with by the Legislature. Each year, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education concocts this formula, where a majority passes it on to the Legislature that only has the power to approve or disapprove. If disapproving, BESE can try again, but if no concurrent resolution encapsulating it is passed by both chambers, then the formula last enacted continues to get used.

The Court declared the 2012-13 version void on the basis that the instrument presented as the vehicle for the formula, even if designated as a concurrent resolution, was really not, but took on the characteristics of a law because, in its opinion, the instrument acted like a law, because most of the time historically its path to legislative approval replicated that used for laws (even though evidence it presented to substantiate that, such as a trip to the Legislative Bureau, is not defined in the Constitution or by statute, unlike what are bills to become laws and what are resolutions). This is despite the fact that it creates no statute, which mimics appropriations bills that way that are considered laws but differs from them in that it does not apportion specific amounts but creates a formula that may be adjusted by specific amounts.

Strain deferral signaling Vitter in for governor's race?

In a sign that perhaps Sen. David Vitter has come to an affirmative decision that he’ll make a gubernatorial run in 2015, Agriculture Secretary Mike Strain announced he would seek reelection to that post.

Strain posted through social media the decision, significant because he was the only prominent principled or traditional conservative candidate putatively in the contest. Others at the state level who have announced interest in the job to succeed term-limited Gov. Bobby Jindal represent different political bases – Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne seems positioned to appeal to moderates on the right and independents, Treasurer John Kennedy for years has spouted issue preferences that appeal to populist conservatives, and state Rep. John Bel Edwards reliably parrots lines that liberal Democrats love.

As far as this group went, Strain could find room to try to capture that constituency with the only potential competition from state Sen. Gerald Long, who also expressed some interest. But Long raised hardly any money in 2012 although he retains almost $300,000 in the bank. Strain did much better, raising over $200,000 and left with nearly $400,000 in the same time period, so it seems highly unlikely that Long, if the distant kinsman of two past governors even still contemplates making the race (at one time saying a crucial factor in deciding to go for it was his ability to raise money), chased him out of it.

Bossier City voter apathy sabotages good governance

Attentive Bossier Citians got a rude reminder with its recent inauguration of its next government. In a democracy, ultimately we get the government we deserve. That’s Bossier City citizens have allowed about $100 million of their money to walk out the door over the past 15 years, because, as the recent city elections showed, they just don’t care enough.

The latest folly performed by city government was a needless $26 million giveaway of land, cash, expenses, and promises to a local developer. What prompted it is unclear, as it resulted from a legal settlement, but it appears that Bossier City’s government negotiated in bad faith with the developer, which became public only over a dispute about curb cuts. That cost each citizen about $414 that could have been avoided.

Yet even with this latest reminder of a string of bad decisions over those years, with many of the same people who made them running for reelection this time out – comprising six of the seven council districts and the mayor’s office – only one council member opted out, only one drew a challenger, and the only other one with competition saw a rematch of a previous special election that did not feature an incumbent, plus another challenger this time. This in and of itself was a sign of apathy that only two competitions out of eight occurred, and only one featured a politician who played a part in the bad decision-making.

Amnesty reliance may backfire on budget reformers

As the state's fiscal years concludes, again one must wonder whether the penchant for the group of budget reformers known as the “fiscal hawks” to put style over substance is going to lead to worse fiscal problems for Louisiana.

The “hawks,” who forged an identity by declaring jihad against “one-time money,” or recurring funds collected from sources outside of the state general fund and nonrecurring money from things like asset sales and legal settlements, made the use of a tax amnesty program as the centerpiece of a plan to wash away a lot of one-time money from the recently-passed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This was despite the irony and hypocrisy that amnesty proceeds either were nonrecurring in nature or one-time money themselves.

Of greater concern, and richer in both irony and hypocrisy, is that the use of amnesty now is defended on the basis of it being a more “stable” funding that will hit the $200 million mark inserted into the budget. This notion fails both conceptually and quantitatively, with history showing in fact the state is unlikely to collect that much this year (this is supposed to be drawn out over almost three years).

Vitter, Jindal plotting on job swap would serve both

Given that I was asked about it on a radio program yesterday and an opinion writer pondered about it recently, it’s a good time to review the possibility that if Gov. Bobby Jindal has political aspirations beyond Louisiana, that these may include if needed an attempt to land in the U.S. Senate next year.

Since my previous post on the matter right after his reelection and another a few months ago, several things have happened. The 2014 contest is shaping up with the entrance of Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, the heaviest-weight opponent Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu ever has drawn. A year down the road from then, it is looking more likely that Sen. David Vitter will pursue, and if so would become the favorite to succeed in, the chance to replace Jindal. As for the governor, he doesn’t seem to be making much progress if he wishes to capture the 2016 nomination for the presidency among Republicans.

As a result of the 2012 elections, the decision about the presidency was forced more onto Jindal. There would be no GOP incumbent running in 2016 so he either has to go all in now or not at all. But that means his next opportunity could be as far away as 2024, which would make for him sitting out nine years unless he finagled a cabinet slot in a GOP presidency if that chance presented itself – out of sight, out of mind is not a good recipe to win the White House. And with his uncertain prospects for a 2016 nomination, only the Senate provides a quick opportunity as he would have to wait until 2019 to run for governor again because of term limits and probably would face an incumbent for a difficult comeback.

Even with improved odds, override session unlikely

While threats of a veto override session may ring in the air from a relatively wide swath of legislators, even increased chances this year of one occurring mean instead of being extremely unlikely to happen, it’s merely very unlikely to occur.

The Constitution provides for an automatic override session held by the Legislature, unless a majority of members in at least one chamber calls it off by sending in a ballot to their presiding officer stating as such within 35 days after the end of the regular session. This never has happened in the four decades under this version of the Constitution.

Two factors tend to discourage the impulse to have one of these sessions. One is the override requirement of two-thirds majorities in each chamber. With just a pair of vetoes ever overridden during regular sessions in these 40 years, governors have shown they have figured out when to cast vetoes that stick because of the extra votes needed beyond passage or those needed that allow an override session to happen. So even as it matters to have a majority wishing to override vetoes, unless they know they can pull in additional supporters for the override votes that are unlikely to come from those who sent in ballots to cancel the thing, having an extra session is useless.

Breakaway govts proper response for better performance

Supporters of a new independent school district in southeastern East Baton Rouge Parish figure perhaps the third time is that charm in upping their ante by exploring the possibility of creating a new municipality, which may create desirable ripple effects beyond just that objective

In 2011, advocates of district creation first tried but failed to get the Legislature to do so. To do this, two things must happen: a law must define the district and its governance structure, and the Constitution must be amended to include it in the Minimum Foundation Program for funding. This year, they got halfway by getting the law passed, but the amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority in each legislative chamber and then an affirmative vote of the state’s people, didn’t get to a vote in the House after the Senate moved it on.

Some legislators publicly stated they had qualms about doing the unprecedented act of dividing a district built around a single local governing unit. While most local school districts in the state have the same boundaries as parishes, the few that don’t either have boundaries coterminous with municipalities or with parishes minus those districts built around municipalities in that parish. The same issue had arisen in the early 2000s with the desire to create the Central Community School System. After some failed attempts to get the district established, the city of Central was created, and the district passed legislative muster two years later.

Legislators to fumble adding new disability spending?

Unfortunately, caught in the crossfire of budgetary struggling between the Gov. Bobby Jindal Administration and the Legislature is funding for several programs dealing with the developmentally disabled, and regardless that one institution remains more culpable than the other,  some potential progress on increased service provision likely is lost as a result.

With Monday being the deadline for gubernatorial decisions on regular and line-item vetoes for legislation passed late in the 2013 regular session, on Friday Jindal announced line-item vetoes for the state’s operating budget HB 1. Although altogether they totaled about $6 million, they involved more than half of all such vetoes cast.

These vetoes were of five kinds. One set, totaling $950,000, excised money from each of the nine human service districts that was earmarked to fund Individual and Family Support Programs, which provide assistance not available from any other of the several other Department of Health and Hospitals programs to help people with developmental disabilities to live in their own homes or with their families in their own community. Another set removed the addition of 200 New Opportunity Waiver slots (which would create a recurring annual commitment of around $25,600 per slot) to allow for the same.