Edwards bungles rollout of budget
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/14917408-123/jeff-sadow-edwards-bungles-rollout-of-budget
Links:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/education/2016/02/12/accrediting-body-says-louisiana-colleges-seriously-risk/80304062
18.2.16
Use Edwards' hospital cut request to exit charity model
Building on yesterday’s
post, can liberal Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards
also become the one who finally frees Louisiana from any vestiges of its
archaic charity hospital system?
Until a few years ago, Louisiana
insisted on continuing its outdated model where anybody could walk into what
then comprised a system of ten hospitals, mostly in urban areas, and receive
free treatment for whatever ailed them, regardless of severity. That system
delivered subpar medicine, in no small part because, as the laws of human
behavior dictate, make something free and people engage in overconsumption of
it. This produced queued care as hospitals became treated like primary care
centers and for any ailment, no matter how minor or even fictional, squeezing
out the more serious cases and promoting wasteful resource use.
Unfortunately, way too many
policy-makers preferred this inefficient use of taxpayer dollars because it
provided superior symbolism, if inferior service delivery, of some asserted commitment
to the “poor,” and also because this could act as a patronage sink and job
machine that politicians in these areas could crow about to secure reelection.
So it took another misfortune, Congressional
repeal of a law that favored Louisiana’s Medicaid funding (ironically
because of the economic bump resulting from the heavy influx of federal aid
from the hurricane disasters of 2005) to shock them out of their complacency,
and former Gov. Bobby
Jindal wisely used this leverage to exit halfway the system.
17.2.16
Legislature should run with Edwards' TOPS budget
Is liberal Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards the
guy conservatives have been waiting for, at least as far as reform of the
Taylor Opportunity Programs for Students?
Last
week, the Edwards Administration announced that for fiscal year 2017
Edwards would budget the program that pays full tuition for students with
mediocre-and-above credentials at only about 20 percent of its predicted demand,
using only funding dedicated to it. It forecast that would mean that instead of
an American College Test score of 20 to qualify, the standard would go as high
as 28. This would occur unless a combination of cuts elsewhere and tax hikes
freed up money, with the more pledged the lower the ACT cutoff score until it
reached the legal minimum of 21.
To which those who care about
efficient use of taxpayer dollars and rewarding quality should respond, “Please,
can we?” TOPS, with its four-ninths
dropout rate as a consequence of allowing marginal achievers to capture free
tuition to attend a state university (guaranteed admission as the TOPS
standards exceed entrance requirements for most state universities), acts much
more like an entitlement program than a true scholarship program and thereby
carries the same ills: it discourages more than marginal achievement, 40
percent or more of it gets wasted, and it forces taxpayers to subsidize a number
of indifferent students who might better serve society and themselves through
not attempting collegiate work. Even worse, unlike most entitlement programs,
its façade of merit standards – so low they hardly meet the definition – ends up
having taxpayers subsidize higher-income families, who defend it by saying they
pay enough in taxes and ought to have at least one program that directly
benefits them.
16.2.16
Edwards' budget promotes ideology over real solutions
Rather than construct a budget
putting Louisiana first, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards
built the executive fiscal year
2017 document based on pursuit of liberal ideological imperatives.
His strategy of no pain, no gain –
in other words, he cannot gain expansion of government without dishing out as
much pain as possible to frighten people and their representatives into tax
increases to fund a bigger state – calls for some roughly standstill spending
for some parts of government and bigger drops in others, with the notable
exception of a huge increase in health spending, most notably on Medicaid given
his decision to expand it.
That alone actually boosts the
budget much higher than the amended FY 2016 version
currently limping along by over $1.5 billion higher to reach over $26.5 billion
total. While a good chunk of that comes from increased federal funding that raises
the amount of national debt each Louisianan owes, forecast at $2.2 billion
more, some of it also comes from the state. A 2013
study, now understood to underestimate
actual costs to the state, including administrative
costs already consented to by the Edwards Administration not part of the
research, forecasts net change for FY 2017 caused by Medicaid expansion to cost
$41 million extra.
14.2.16
11.2.16
Edwards promotes panic, false choices to grow govt
Viewers of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ televised
speech to the public prior to the start of the Louisiana Legislature’s 2016
First Extraordinary Session should not let the transparency of his tax-and-spend
agenda and the insufferableness of the way he pursues it distract them from
what needs to doing to resolve the state’s current and future budget
difficulties.
At different
points in the address, which probably few people saw, Edwards said “nor
would we falsely claim ‘the sky is falling,’” “I don't say this to scare you,”
and “These are not scare tactics. Then he proceeded to try to say things
exactly to frighten viewers, by describing all sorts of scary scenarios that
bear only passing resemblances to reality, framed by a distortive statement at
the start that the state faced its largest budget deficit in history.
Correct in absolute numbers – but only
representing about 4 percent of the budget this year and 8 percent next year.
When former Gov. Buddy
Roemer took over in 1988, the roughly $900 million shortfall stood at 12
percent of a budget then only 30 percent of the size of today’s that led to
cash flow problems the state today is nowhere close to experiencing. As
Louisiana slogged its way through the crisis then, this on face indicates the
situation does not merit the doom and gloom Edwards assigns it today.
LA must pursue laws safeguarding firearms rights
Even as a special session generally
devoted to fiscal matters – more specifically excuses to raise taxes – looms,
the Louisiana Legislature’s regular session approaches and presents the state a
chance to follow the lead of other states this year in safeguarding Second
Amendment rights and the additional public safety benefits that come from that.
Some states, in light of the
occasional but all too regular occurrences of shootings on college campuses,
will review legislation this year to allow concealed
weapons carried on school property by qualified registrants, not just by public
safety personnel. Prior to 2012, Louisiana legislators typically filed similar
but unsuccessful bills, yet that seemed to dry up with a new set of lawmakers.
The case to enact a law like this remains
as compelling as it has in the past. At the theoretical level, human
psychology and, at the empirical level, data continue to bear out that if those
who intend to bring harm against others see the chances increased that they
could face firearms in opposition, the less likely they become to use deadly
force. Poorly-reasoned inferior analysis trying to assert the opposite fails
to pass muster.
10.2.16
Edwards' weakness invites first big shark to eye him
Gov. John Bel Edwards has
held that office for less than a month, and already the first and perhaps most
lethal electoral shark has started circling his weakened position.
Previously having faced
setbacks in terms of House of Representatives leadership and committee
assignments with his inability to place favored allies in positions of
power, Democrat Edwards also suffers from another clipping of his authority:
the assertive posture adopted by new Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff
Landry. It began innocently enough with Edwards proclaiming that he would
ratchet down the practice of recent governors in using outside counsel through
the Governor’s Office and other executive branch agencies to pursue certain
legal matters, leaving Landry more unopposed discretion in dealing with these.
Landry has espoused a novel implementation
of the constitutional
powers of the attorney general. Historically, when other parts of the
executive branch, through their defined statutory powers, engaged in legal
action, the attorney general stayed out of the way. These past heads of the
state Department of Justice also shied away from using their constitutional
authority to initiate or intervene in civil matters outside of largely legal questions
like suing
drug manufacturers for misrepresentation involving state contracts.
9.2.16
Caddo tries reform for second time in 20 years
If last week did not contain in
aggregate the most momentous shift in Caddo Parish Commission policy in its
history, it must rank up there, generating plenty of controversy and optimism
for the future.
Four tremendous breaks from past
policy occurred, beginning with discussion
but no action on whether the parish will have its administrator Woodrow
Wilson serve as its representative on the Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments.
By federal law, that organization coordinates activities among local
governments relevant to federal government grant activities, among other
things.
Wilson has served as that official
until last month when new Commission Pres. Matthew Linn assumed the
position himself, with the power to designate a substitute. In a letter to
commissioners, Wilson complained about the move, saying that it would reduce
expertise and effectiveness of the organization and on the behalf of the
parish.
8.2.16
Fayard candidacy invites LA Democrat crackup
On cue, here comes the crackup of
Louisiana Democrats.
Former lieutenant governor
candidate Democrat Caroline Fayard
announced
she would enter the U.S. Senate race contested this fall. She already joins
three quality Republicans, in the form of Reps. Charles Boustany and John Fleming and Treasurer John Kennedy, and two others that would
be competitive only in the absence of these from the GOP, former Rep. Anh
“Joseph” Cao and former Senate candidate Rob
Maness.
To reiterate
what has appeared in this space, Fayard’s social liberalism, association
with prominent liberal Democrat elected officials past and present, her trial
lawyer background and backing, questions surrounding her previous campaign’s
financing, and the case of athlete’s mouth she contracted then when she
infamously declared that she “hates” Republicans that will resurface in ads
again and again over the next nine months, make her unelectable against any of
the top shelf Republicans running, if not all running. But if she were the only
quality Democrat running, given the electorate’s dynamics due to the size of
the Republican field she would make the runoff subsequently to lose to the
highest GOP receiver of votes.
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