The headline “La. plunges to last in income” on the front page of today’s Baton Rouge paper screamed outrage. (See story here.) Once again, Louisiana leads the nation in terms of bad lists in comparison to the other states.

Contrast the fact that the per capita income in LA plunges to the fact that the Blanco Administration has increased the state’s spending to record levels. Contrast both to the over 300 bills filed by the leges to increase fees (alias for taxes in a even-numbered year).

The bottom-line is without the increase in the budget and increased taxes the current level of taxation in LA will take a larger portion of our income to fund government at the state and local level.

It’s bad enough that we cut another notch on LA’s Misery Index. What’s worse is the effect is to make the poor people of our state poorer.

It’s time to cut taxes and the budget not increase taxes and spending.

C.B.