Edwards food stamps neglect costs taxpayers

Besides dysfunction in child protective services, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration has left another negative legacy in the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services – high error rates in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program that cost both federal and state taxpayers.

Heads rolled in DCFS when shockingly lax casework endangering children was uncovered. The condition persisted for years under Edwards’ purview, and fortunately now appears to be on the mend.

But another casualty from neglect there deals with food stamps. Both major error rates in benefits distribution soared during his second term, indicating both the federal government particularly upon Democrat Pres. Joe Biden entering the White House turning a blind eye towards fraudulent, whether intended, successful applications and Edwards’ indifference in preventing waste of the federal dollars which entirely comprise the payouts.

Desperate LA left rooting for conservatives

Behold the panic setting in with Louisiana’s leftist chattering class that it actually roots for a conservative Republican to get into the governor’s race that to this point looks to be GOP Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry’s to lose.

Landry scares the mainstream media and its derivatives, because of all elected officials in the state to date he most effectively has articulated and acted upon a full-spectrum conservatism. He is the closest thing in Louisiana to the left’s biggest bogeymen in state government, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

These politicians worry the left to no end, because they take the fight to it. They challenge and expose for what these are the left’s core beliefs, which highlights the disconnect not only between those beliefs and reality but also that these beliefs majorities in society repudiate, which in turn activates electorates and other elected officials to thwart the left’s ambitions for power and privilege, if not to reverse leftist policy gains.

Nungesser deferral causes shifts in other races

Trickle-down impacts from statewide contest choices continue to ripple through Louisiana campaigns, but finally the fields seem to be settling down.

When Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser announced a reelection bid rather than a run for governor, this upset plans of a pair of potential successors. One, GOP former Rep. John Fleming, switched his attention to the treasurer post being vacated by Republican John Schroder as he set his sights on becoming governor.

Fleming announced formally this week, bringing his congressional experience, background working in the GOP Pres. Donald Trump Administration, and private sector business achievements to the table. In the last he has been highly successful and as a result can bring a lot of resources to bear in a campaign, and it shows on his 2022 campaign financial disclosure where he raised about $100,000 and then threw in over $200,000 of his own loaned money.

Landry can escape move to outflank his right

In Louisiana’s gubernatorial sweepstakes where opponents seek to stop the juggernaut GOP Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry candidacy, Republican state Sen. Sharon Hewitt put forth something that she hopes could help her muscle into the conservative space he has so effectively occupied.

Meeting with representatives from the energy industry, last week Hewitt said as governor she would disengage the state immediately from any litigation attacking energy producers over their past activities in coastal areas, criticizing this as a legally-unsound form of retroactive law-making and suggesting any actual violations under law go through the usual process of citation and adjudication. Some parishes have engaged counsel to sue firms on the basis that companies degraded land to cause problems such as flooding, despite companies having permission from the federal and state governments to engage legally in various acts such as dredging canals.

The state intervened in one of these suits, between several parishes and Freeport-McMoRan, to settle on behalf of four parishes dissatisfied with the arrangement, with that effort led by Landry. Conservatives in particular see such suits as little more than an unjustified money grab by certain parishes and trial lawyers that harms the economy and discourages economic development. Thus, the perception becomes Landry complicity with old-school jackpot justice.

Bossier City should sink too risky water deal

In present form, the water deal proposed by the Port of Caddo-Bossier is all wet that the Bossier City Council should sink.

This week, the Council will take up the offered cooperative endeavor agreement that would allow the Port to pass on the cost of a water distribution and treatment facility to the city which would operate it and generate sales from it to the Port and its tenants over a period of 99 years. The city also could use capacity beyond that required by those entities for its other customers.

Last week, the Council met in a workshop to allow for councilor and public questioning about the deal. Port Executive Director Eric England fielded inquiries about the terms and financial aspects of the arrangement.

One last mistake greets Wilson on his way out

Apparently on the cusp of his declaring for the Louisiana governor’s race, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards cabinet member Shawn Wilson received an unwelcome parting gift that only adds to the ammunition against such a foray.

This week, the Department of Transportation and Development that Wilson departed shortly thereafter announced the results of bidding to build a new four-lane Jimmie Davis Bridge over the Red River connecting Shreveport and Bossier City and to retire the old two-lane structure into a linear park. This treatment came as a result of the span’s deteriorating condition and takeover by endangered birds, meaning neither extensive refurbishment of it nor its demolition could occur and requiring a new structure.

The winning bid of two came in a shade under $362 million. But the state estimated a cost of only $223 million, and with the lowest so far in excess of the state’s guess the whole process stops not only to conduct a review of the state’s numbers which may trigger starting the bid process over but also warns that more money likely will have to be corralled for this to come to fruition.

Consent decree support part of leftist gamble

Next week the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear a Louisiana case that could have vast ramifications for how elective judicial districts are drawn, with potentially some unintended consequences for those seeking to change the system in a way that would boost Democrats’ presence on the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Chisom v. State of Louisiana fights the state’s effort to end the consent decree that forces the state to maintain a majority-minority state Supreme Court district. A district court ruled against this last year, maintaining that the state, represented by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry, didn’t show that the problem of voter discrimination had been solved completely without the decree in effect and the situation – presence of the district creating significant malapportionment – hadn’t changed significantly to jettisoning the decree. (Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards by virtue of his position was party to the request, but he failed to participate in its defense.)

Landry had argued that three decades of having a black jurist serving in that district proved the problem of discrimination solved, in that a change from the previous geographically larger district that elected two members at-large in a majority-majority district with a large number of racial minority residents to splitting it essentially into two single-member districts, as the other five across the state were, had done the trick. Further, he argued the present arrangement sustained severe malapportionment, with a deviation spanning over 50 percent, that dissolving the decree could reduce substantially. But Democrat Pres. Barack Obama-appointed Louisiana Eastern District Judge Susie Morgan found the reason wanting, despite the fact that the SMD district as opposed to its MMD predecessor made it extraordinarily difficult not to have a M/M district, especially with districts not malapportioned.

Bossier officials finally in compliance, for now

At last, after a year both the Bossier Parish Police Jury and Parish Administrator Joe Edward “Butch” Ford got on the right side of the law.

Their legal missteps began early last year when the Jury promoted Ford from parish engineer to administrator, running afoul of the law in the process. State statute requires that the chief appointed officer of a parish also be a registered voter in the parish, and for nearly four decades Ford had been registered at a Caddo Parish address – facts surely inescapable to any juror.

Ford remained illegally employed for about 10 months, until just after this space published Oct. 19 details about the law and records showing Ford remained registered in Caddo when he changed it to a Bossier address on Oct. 21. This, however, created another problem in that state law mandates that a voter had to register at his homestead, if he had one, and Ford continued to declare his homestead at the Caddo address, a fact brought out in this space published Nov. 15. In fact, Ford’s Bossier registration address was at property apparently not owned by him nor was a declared homestead.

Panel jockeying reflects electoral politics

Intrigue, backtracking, if not hypocrisy all featured in the latest Louisiana State Bond Commission meeting driven by election year politics.

This special meeting was called to consider whether to institute a process that could ban financial institutions adhering to so-called environmental, social, and governance criteria in their investing and lending decisions from competing for state bond business. Both Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry and GOP Treasurer John Schroder, two SBC members, have spoken out publicly about the inappropriateness of the state using these firms for a variety of reasons, including conflicts with state law, higher costs for taxpayers, and their discriminatory behavior towards lawful business sectors including some large contributors to the state’s economy.

It didn’t follow through. Landry, who had a representative at the meeting, had led the charge to disqualify such firms, but didn’t find any backing. Republican Sen. Pres. Page Cortez took the lead to shoot down the proposal, saying while his polling of legislators showed sympathy for the goals of the proposal, at the same time they also didn’t like the idea that this would restrict free enterprise in a fashion and might drive up costs.

Sour grapes hopefully won't cost taxpayers

Sour grapes aren’t reason enough for taxpayers to make up for the choices made by whiny Louisiana university faculty members, and hopefully the legal system won’t put taxpayers on the hook to gratify them.

A couple of such individuals have filed suit to reverse their participation in the state’s optional retirement program (ORP) and force their transfer into the long-existing, heavily underfunded defined benefit program (DBP). This has come after legislation to accomplish the same has gone nowhere in the Legislature.

With good reason. The ORP takes both the employee’s portion of salary that goes to retirement, typically eight percent before taxes and matched by the state, and allows these to be invested by the employee in vehicles chosen by the state’s contracted investment advisers from which the employee typically has several choices. This may follow the employee to other employment and upon retirement then may be drawn like an individual retirement account from principal and investment earnings.