forgotston.com

In Sunday’s Baton Rouge newspaper, Michelle Millhollon does a good job of analyzing the recommendations of The Roads Scholar’s streamlining commission. ( See story here.)

Michelle points out the difference between budget cuts and rhetoric.

Rhetoric is not going to get the job done. That said, whatever the commission recommends is irrelevant. It has zero power over the state budget.

In the end, the state’s revenues and expenditures must match. Making sure the budget is balanced falls solely and only on The Roads Scholar.

The process

LA Constitution, Article IV, Section 5(D) requires the governor to submit to the leges an operating budget.

Article VII, Section 11 of the constitution requires that the budget so submitted by the governor be balanced, i.e., expenditures cannot exceed revenues.

Article VII, Section 11(B) of the constitution allows the governor to submit measures to raise revenues, (i.e. taxes and fees) to provide for his proposed expenditures that exceed the estimated revenues. However, Article III, Section 2(3)(b) prohibits increases in taxes during the 2010 Regular Session.

Finally, Article IV, Section 5(G)(2) of the constitution requires the governor to use his line-item veto power and other means available in the budget legislation once returned to him by the leges to make certain that the proposed expenditures do not exceed the estimated revenues.

Buck stops here

The Scholar has the sole discretion to submit the budget to the leges as he chooses as long as it is balanced.

Once the leges finish nibbling around the edges of the budget, The Scholar must make sure the budget remains balanced.  How he does that is solely his responsibility.

We will then know exactly what are the fiscal priorities of our Roads Scholar.

Bobby can’t hide from the public or the media on this one. However the budget ends up, it is his.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

As The Rhodes Scholar-in-chief (a.k.a. The Roads Scholar) travels the country, he brags about the jobs he has “created.”  Other than government jobs, The Scholar has not “created” a single job.

Saving jobs

The Scholar also brags about the jobs he has “saved.”  How does one calculate the number of jobs “saved”?

Based on The Scholar’s methodology, the fact that I didn’t lay myself off today means he “saved” a job.  In other words, if you have a job today, The Scholar will take credit for it.

Tuesday, The Scholar was in North Louisiana crowding the Agriculture Commish on the stage to take credit for assisting some farmers with money sent to our state by the Feds.

Lost jobs

What The Scholar never mentions is the NET number of jobs on his watch.  The losses keep exceeding the jobs “created.”

Another 190 souls will lose their jobs next May. ( See story here.)

Where’s the plan?

What we don’t hear from The Scholar are his specific plans to prevent anymore Louisiana businesses from closing.

How about some business tax breaks and government red tape elimination?

We don’t hear plans for saving all existing businesses because that would mean our bloated state government would have to go on a fiscal diet. That would require political courage which to-date has only been exhibited by State Treasurer John Kennedy.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

Recently, in comments about the state’s Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Board, Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Ruston, said the following about its staff:

[T]he staff [of the ethics board] must act more independently of the [ethics] board, and be willing to question board decisions.

“The staff I believe is totally and completely adhering to the will of the board,” Gallot said. Monroe News-Star, December 6, 2009.

Purpose of boards

As I understand the purpose of any board it is to set policy and oversee the activities of an organization or entity.

LA law specifically sets forth the duties and responsibilities of this board.  Among those duties are:

LA R.S. 42:1134 (A)(1). [E]nforce rules and regulations in the manner provided by the Administrative Procedure Act to carry out the provisions and purposes of this Chapter and any other law within its jurisdiction.

LA R.S. 42:1134 (A)(2). [P]rovide for procedural rules governing the establishment and implementation of time periods for the dismissal of a complaint, the filing of a formal charge, the notification of the parties of the rendition of a decision, and the assessment of penalties.

Advocating mutiny?

Gallot appears to be suggesting that the ethics staff ignore its board, the law and, in effect, mutiny against those appointed to oversee their activities.

How would Gallot feel if I suggested that the lege staff do likewise when it comes to things done by the leges?

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am