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Perhaps it is just coincidence, but it seems that there is a relationship between the growth of the public sector in LA, the decline of public services and the decline of the private sector.

Despite what Rep. Charlie McDonald, D-Bastrop, and other politicians may say, the state budget continues to growth exponentially. From 1812 until 1996, the state budget grew from $1 to $10 BILLION. From 1996 through the current fiscal year, the state budget grew from $10 BILLION to almost $27 BILLION. Even worse the recurring expenditures are dependent upon one-time money as a result of catastrophes.

Return on the investment of our tax dollars:

1. LA remains last or next to the last in every positive category in comparison to the other states and first or near the top three in all the negative categories.
2. Individual and business taxes are in the upper levels among the states.
3. Spending on the poor increases yet poverty continues to rise. Perhaps hand-outs are not the answer.
4. While the level of effort to improve public education may have increased, public elementary and secondary education is failing us.
5. Colleges continue to graduate students qualified enough to find good-paying jobs in other states, but not in LA.
6. Insurance rates are rising to the point of being un-affordable and in many cases unavailable.
7. Availability and quality healthcare continues to decline.
8. Roads and other infrastructure, except state offices and office buildings, continue to decline in quality and quantity. The state just took on another guaranteed money-loser, Hodges Gardens.
9. Out-migration of our “best and brightest” not only continues, but has increased in the past year.
10. Since this time last year, estimates are that the overall state population has shrunk by as many as 400,000. Yet the size of government and government spending has increased.
11. In all likelihood, LA will lose another Congressman after the 2010 Census. While that does not in and of itself mean a net population decline, it is certainly an indicator that LA is not growing as fast as our sister states in the Sunbelt.
12. Businesses and their jobs continue to leave faster than they come in. Saturday, we learned of another business and its 167 jobs in Alexandria will be gone by early next year. (Story here.)
13. Corruption continues unabated. The leges idea of stopping corruption is to make legal what was previously illegal. More exceptions are made to the state’s Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Law while the Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Board finds loopholes where there are none or at least none intended through which politicians and those with influence can escape.

More questions

How long will be continue to pour more of the hard-earned tax dollars of fewer and fewer taxpayers into the growth of government while the private sector shrinks and the return on investment is so dismal? Making an investment is one thing. Pouring money down a rat hole is quite another.

When are we going to stop accepting platitudes and promises from our elected officials and start demanding accountability?

When are we going to demand that our public officials fix some the problems of the state before they ask us for more money? If one manufactures defective widgets which because of the defect nobody will buy, one does not improve profits by raising the prices of the widgets.

How long will we accept government growth while the population, businesses and jobs shrink? If the past is any indication, until we decide to vote against it by moving elsewhere.

Don’t worry; be happy; leave when you’ve had enough.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Due to the catastrophes from the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita most of us in South LA were given a reprieve from filing our 2005 Personal Income Tax Returns until this October.

Wednesday, I met with my CPA to go over my 2005 Federal and State Income Tax Returns. Until I was attacked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers I had, thankfully, never had a major casualty loss. Having lost my house and all my possessions in the flooding following Katrina, I have a MAJOR casualty loss. The Feds provided us with some decent Personal Income Tax options in the effort to regain some of losses.

One of the more onerous features of the Stelly Nightmare was the loss of our itemized deductions on our State Personal Income Taxes. You guessed it. Casualty losses are one of those deductions that we lost. As a result, instead of getting money back from the state, those of us who continue to work for a living get zero break from the state for our losses.

Apparently, forgotten by our leges during the recent special and regular sessions was the impact of the Stelly Nightmare on our casualty losses. Had we gotten a break on our income taxes, we might have been able to pay for the additional premium on our homeowners’ insurance.

Government in LA is a government for the government. The citizens, unless they work directly for government have been forgotten.

It’s not too late for the leges to correct their failure. Legislation can be passed, retroactively, to apply to the casualty losses of 2005. Additionally, prospectively, some protection should be provided for such losses on future catastrophes whether natural or government-aided natural disasters.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

In Tuesday’s Baton Rouge newspaper is a story about a $1 Million gift from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge. The money “brought MRI testing to Baton Rouge’s poor and uninsured.”

According to the paper “LSU Earl K. Long Medical Center, … has a 200-plus backlog of patients needing the specialized medical test.” “Before Hurricane Katrina, local charity patients had to travel to New Orleans to get MRIs because the local charity hospital did not have the expensive equipment…”

While this gift should be most appreciated by the people of LA, it does raise some questions about the spending priorities of our state government. The state Operating Budget just ballooned to almost $27 BILLION. Of which included almost a billion dollars in new state funds. Approximately, $32 Million was spent by individual leges on projects that if they weren’t “pork barrel projects” certainly were of a lower priority than MRI testing for the poor and uninsured.

America rightfully claims to be the “greatest nation on earth.” Despite the vast oil riches of Saudi Arabia, shouldn’t it be a bit embarrassing that LA had to use this gift to supply what is a basic need of its people?

What’s wrong with this picture? What other unmet needs (as opposed to wants) are there in our state for which go begging for the kindness of strangers? At a minimum it shows the poor judgment of those we choose to spend our hard-earned tax dollars.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am