The bill enjoyed overwhelming support in both chambers of the Legislature, passing the House with 70 votes and garnering 29 votes in the Senate. That’s enough support to override Jindal’s veto.
However, in an effort to head off the embarrassment of becoming only the third governor in modern history — Buddy Roemer and Edwin Edwards had vetos overridden — to be slapped with a veto override, the Jindal administration has been heavily lobbying Republican lawmakers, urging them to toe the party line. The effort will likely pay off as at least a few solons in each chamber have signalled they’ll stick with Jindal even after having voted for the renewal. Seventy is the minimum number of votes needed in the House to override, so if even one state rep who voted for the renewal votes with the governor, the override will fail. On the Senate side, 26 votes are need to override a veto, meaning Jindal need only peel four senators away from their earlier votes.
State Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, told The Advocate he believes some lawmakers, especially in rural districts where the governor’s support is vital for securing precious few state-funded public-works projects, are afraid to stick with their votes renewing the tax for fear of risking retribution from Jindal.
“Politics is still a contact sport,” Claitor told the Baton Rouge daily.
Read more here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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So what? I think that Jindal was crystal clear when he ran for Governor that he would not be raising taxes. He was crystal clear before the Legislature voted on this that he considered the "renewal" a "tax increase".
Now he's going to use every reasonable means at his disposal as Governor to stop a tax increases.
He was clear, he is now doing what he said he would do when he ran. Isn't that what everybody says they want from their elected officials? I wish Jindal were this committed to everything ELSE he said he'd do when he ran.