Leander Perez, the powerful boss of Plaquemines Parish who not only controlled people but also a wealth of mineral rights, refused to take the deal. Perez was a greedy man by all accounts '' he redrew entire city boundaries to move along personal business deals '' so it was no surprise when he held out for 100 percent of all royalties off Louisiana's shoreline.
"Give 'em Hell" Truman, as he was called for his tenacious political style, told both of the Bayou State politicos to stuff it, and other states snatched the deal. Today, Louisiana contributes more than $5 billion annually to the federal treasury from offshore oil and gas activity. As a result of those hardhead tactics 57 years ago, the state only gets back a measly $39 million each year.
Nearly three generations of congressmen and governors have tried to remedy the situation, but the issue hasn't budged a bit. Meanwhile, inland states like New Mexico get back upwards of 50 percent of the oil-and-gas revenue they send to the federal government ' but few deposit as much as Louisiana.
The most recent incarnation of this campaign came last month when Gov. Kathleen Blanco made national headlines for her comments about sticking it to the feds. "It's time to play hardball, as I believe that's the only game Washington understands," she told lawmakers at the beginning of the most recent special session.
What Blanco means by "hardball" is her refusal to sign off on future federal offshore oil and gas royalties from Louisiana's coastline. But Gary Strasburg, a spokesman for the Minerals Management Service, told The New York Times that Blanco's approval of the leases is only an "intergovernmental courtesy" and wouldn't stop the feds from getting their cash. If Blanco's refusal to cooperate ends up in court, there's no telling where her "hardball" tactics might lead.
Rep. Bobby Jindal, a Metairie Republican, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, a New Orleans Democrat, are taking a more practical approach in Congress. Seeing that block grants and one-time injections will only carry Louisiana so far during recovery, both have filed legislation that would raise all coastal states' shares of royalties to 75 percent for the area between three and 12 miles offshore, and eventually 50 percent further out.
Supporters from parish presidents and state representatives to congressmen from Virginia and special interest groups are backing the Jindal and Landrieu bills.
Another tactic is being pushed by Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican. He is talking with Gulf Coast lawmakers about adding a coastal restoration fund to his drilling bill, which would not exactly increase any royalty shares, but would provide a long-term funding mechanism.
Mark Davis, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, is pleased to see the momentum building, but he has seen it before. Although the state has sympathy on its side and a governor willing to play "hardball," Davis says the concept of greater revenue sharing is still a long way off and the state should be exploring other alternatives for long-term funding.
"Louisiana can't afford to tie its wagon to a national revenue sharing campaign," he says. "It's just one option. â?¦ I don't think we should assume anything about the political environment right now. We're still a long way from success, and there are some huge roadblocks. We've come close before, and we've never actually crossed the goal line."
The stage was set three years ago when former Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin '' as chairman of the House Energy Committee '' passed an energy bill through the House with language granting Louisiana $1 billion over a number of years. It failed in the Senate by two votes. Again in 2001, Tauzin had brokered a deal for $600 million in another bill, but it too failed.
"We had done a great job of delivering the right message and making the case, but it got caught up in politics," Tauzin says. "The objections came from appropriators who wanted to keep controlling the money every year."
Rather than just handing a lump sum over to Louisiana, and possibly impacting programs in other states, Tauzin says lawmakers chose to maintain control over the purse strings. So while Louisiana might have the sympathy of the nation thanks to Katrina and Rita, that political reality remains.
Additionally, there's always the danger that Louisiana's efforts will be viewed as a money grab, especially when Blanco put such a positive spin on the state budget '' even though one of the nation's worst natural disasters hit about six months ago. When the governor proposed her $20.3 billion budget last week, it was not filled with cuts or cautionary verse, but rather pay raises for teachers and professors as well as status quo priorities.
Davis says Louisiana needs to figure out a way to leverage its needs and show Congress that more money is required to recover and strengthen the coast. He refers to it as the "free milk and the cow situation," which isn't working out.
"Why should [Congress] feel any pressure to help us?" he asks.
Tauzin says the federal government will learn '' if they haven't already '' that paying to protect Louisiana now will be cheaper than paying to put the pieces back together again later. Until then, Louisiana needs a solid strategy, one not based on "hardball" tactics that could possibly backfire, he adds.
"I don't think Louisiana needs to threaten," Tauzin says. "I think Louisiana has the support and the sympathy of the nation. If we squander it, it's our own fault. The nation is ready to rally behind rebuilding and revenue sharing. I just don't think we need to threaten to get there."
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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