forgotston.com

During the terms of former governor “Big Daddy” Foster many of us beat him up because he refused to travel, even in-state, to land any significant economic development projects.

During the term of former governor Kathleen Blanco many of us beat her up because she traveled worldwide, but failed to land any significant economic development projects.

It was simply a case of some of us not knowing what was best for us.

It is turns out that Foster and Blanco were visionaries who could see what a problem something such as a auto manufacturer plant might be for our state.

The vision

The visionary plans of our former governors, for the first time, has been revealed.

In a story in today’s Baton Rouge newspaper about a possible downturn in the national economy, Dr. Loren Scott dons his rose-colored glasses and points out the good news for Louisiana.

Professor Scott opines:

“If you were to lose your job tomorrow, or thought you were going to lose your job, what’s the last thing you’d think about buying?”

This, Scott said, is why automobile and electronics manufacturing ­ and the cities dependent on them ­ tend to get hit the hardest. Think: Michigan.

Other than Shreveport, which has the state’s only automobile manufacturing facility, Louisiana is fairly safe on this count.

Had the two governors been successful in landing manufacturing plants, we’d be sitting around fretting about the potential loss of jobs. Not having gotten those jobs, we literally have nothing to lose

Professor Scott goes on:

Then, there is the recovery effort spurred by the 2005 hurricanes, which is pumping billions of dollars into the state economy independent of economic trends.

Scott said the federal GoZone program alone is responsible for $6 billion in investment in Baton Rouge and $18 billion in New Orleans.

“There is just a humongous pile of construction activity under way or planned for the next three years,” he said.

Instead of traditional economic development Governor Blanco brought of new form of economic development based on natural and man-made disasters. This is a cutting edge form of economic development not yet in even the most modern economic textbooks.

Genius not madness

I now see the method in what appeared to the uneducated eye saws as madness. The failed economic development efforts of our most recent governors was sheer genius.

Having been shown the silver lining in the dark cloud, I’ll be able to weather the economic downturn in fine style. It could have been much worse. If I had gotten a good-paying job at some manufacturing plant, I’d be sitting here fretting that I might lose my job. Fortunately, there was no job to get and potentially lose.

Further, I no longer fear man-made and natural disasters. They are the basis of Louisiana’s economy.

I feel much better now.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:57 am

Transparency is the “in” word for those in the reform movement in LA.

Transparency is often used by Governor Jindal to describe his planned (but not detailed) reforms.

A hallmark of the Jindal Administration is to replace smoke signals used by us old-timers in favor of new high tech, Internet communications to let us see what is going on in our government.

I poured water on my signal fire and hopped on the Internet with my trusty, but aging computer.

I went to Governor Jindal’s highly-touted website to get some contact information for the governor’s staff.

The first day, there was no listing for the governor’s communication/press people. I mean nothing. No names, no phone numbers, no fax numbers, no mailing addresses, no office locations and no email address.

The next day, the names, phone and fax numbers of the governor’s staff was listed, but still no email addresses.

The Office of the Governor’s Executive Counsel was listed as “Executive Council.” What do I know. I’m an old lawyer and not hip to the new legal jargon.

Ask Louise

I used the feature on the state website called “Ask Louise” to inquire about email addresses for the governor’s staff. “Louise” responded saying to contact the governor directly and gave me the link to contact Governor Jindal directly.

Bobby and me

I filled out the form including the name of the state in which I lived.

Needing all that information was kinda of surprising. All during the campaign for governor, I thought Bobby and me were buds. Almost daily, he would send me an email, telling what had been happening with him that day. So, I figured that all I needed to tell him that it was his friend C.B. was trying to contact him.

But I digress.

Turns out Bobby and me weren’t that close after all. Bobby insisted that if I didn’t answer all the questions the mail wouldn’t get to him. Well, I answered all the questions and sent the governor an email asking or his staff’s email addresses. No response.

Press Secretary and me

I sent a email using an address from the Jindal campaign to Jindal’s press secretary. I got an automated message saying that she no longer checked email sent to that address. It provided a state email address for her.

Good enough.

I sent an email to the new email address asking to be placed on the distribution list for press releases and for email addresses for the governor’s staff. No response.

Maybe because I don’t have press credentials, being she’s the “press secretary,” she didn’t feel the need to respond to a mere citizen and taxpayer.

After all my efforts, I am not on the distribution list and still don’t have any email addresses for the governor’s staff despite the fact that I pay for them to have these email addresses.

Transparency or invisibility?

All of this has caused me to wonder if “transparency” is synonymous with “invisibility” when it comes to the Jindal Administration.

Hello! Anyone out there?

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Based on yesterday’s action by the LA House of Representatives, there is further evidence that spending our tax dollars is their top priority.

On Tuesday, the House voted to expand the size of the House Appropriations Committee from 19 to 25. The vote came without dissent.

Now, almost one-fourth of the entire house membership will be on the committee whose primary purpose is to spend our money on government.

Background

Back in the “bad old days” of the 70s (before enlightenment in LA), the Appropriations Committee consisted of 15 members. Of that number 7 were appointed by the Speaker of House and the other 8 were elected by the other members of the House to represent the then-8 Congressional Districts.

The purpose of the configuration of the committee (the only one so configured) was to provide independence from the governor in making spending decisions. That made sense to those who ascribe to the theorythat the lege is a separate, but equal branch of government.

Later, during an even more enlightened period, the House expanded the membership of the committeento include 4 more members appointed by the Speaker of the House. Since the Speaker of the House is indirectly appointed by the governor, it gave the governor control over the state spending which is the only real check in the system of “checks and balances” afforded the lege branch.

Spending accelerates

The result of the leges abdicating control of the spending to the governor has been to bloat state government even beyond the anticipation of a world class cynic.

State spending has grown exponentially while the overall population of the state and the public schools (one of the largest areas of spending), in particular, have declined, both in terms of raw numbers as well as in relation to the other states.

The current makeup of the spending committee includes 7 members “representing the taxpayers” (we lost a Congressional seat back in the pre-enlightenment period) and 18 representing the governor.

Priorities and campaign promises

This expansion of the spending committee begs the question of what are the priorities of our elected representatives. Clearly, it is on spending our hard-earned tax dollars which are being extracted in larger amounts from fewer people.

During last fall campaigns I recall promises of better ethics, economic development, better education (or at least higher teacher pay), fixing our exorbitant insurance rates, fixing our coastline, helping with the recovery from the hurricanes in South LA, making LA more businesses-friendly and just about everything else except larger committees, more spending and world peace.

However, despite all the promises, none of the standing committees in the House that deal with any of the promised solutions have been beefed up.

Governor Jindal has made ethics reform and changing the image of LA his top priority. The House of Representatives and Jindal’s hand-picked Speaker of the House, apparently didn’t get the message. They have decided that their top priority for improving the state (all agree it needs improving) is spending our money.

The message

Apparently, the thinking in expanding the spending committee is that because so much more money than was needed has been taken from the taxpayers that more people are needed to help find ways to spend it on new and expanded government programs.

In any case, that is the message that I have gotten.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:32 am