“Any tax increases on the private sector are going to jeopardize the state’s recovery,” Louisiana Association of Business and Industry Finance Director John LeBlanc stressed at this year’s LABI Legislative Issues Breakfast, a Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce event held Thursday morning at The Petroleum Club.
LABI executives kept the focus on the state’s fiscal position and federal energy policy at their annual pre-session gathering, pointing out the loss of one-time federal stimulus dollars in next year’s budget and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study that could slow natural gas drilling permits at the Haynesville Shale, north Louisiana’s natural gas hot spot that has carried natural gas production levels to the highest the state has seen in more than 25 years.
LABI President Dan Juneau says a five-year EPA study on the “fracking” process to tap in to natural gas found in shales was released in 2004 and found no environmental hazards. But new reports have EPA on guard, Juneau says, and “taking a second look.”
“If EPA takes over permitting for shale drilling from the states, it will likely be bad news for Louisiana’s economy,” Juneau says.
State Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, one of seven members of the Acadiana delegation who briefly spoke at the issues breakfast, warned that the sale of state buildings, such as two state prisons up for a possible sale, is another one-time fix for a budget crunch that will only increase the state’s spending in coming years.
According to The Advocate, Jindal’s administration is looking into the sale of two prisons in Winn and Allen parishes, which could bring in an additional $66 million to fill in budget gaps. The sale, however, would not stop the state from having to fund the feeding, clothing and care of the inmates, a cost factor that has not yet been determined.
“The sale of state assets has been championed, but that’s one-time money. It’s a lie, and it’s misleading the public,” LaFleur says. “What are we going to do next year? Sell the Cajundome? Sell Chicot [State Park]?”
Notably absent from the chamber’s state legislative table was state Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, whose F grade on the first legislative score card issued by the chamber's political action committee sparked an outcry from Michot and Acadiana business leaders, many of whom say Michot’s 16 years in the Legislature have proved crucial for Lafayette’s business interests.
Read more on Michot's scorecard here.
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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As well as the future political prospects of those who support them.