Where’s the plan? Tuesday, Jul 20 2010
The state of Louisiana is in an economic meltdown. If you don’t think the state is in an economic meltdown, don’t bother to read any further.
In reaction to the meltdown, I’ve been hearing people around the state say “I hope someone is working on the problem.”
News flash! They aren’t!
Blame whomever and whatever one wants, but fixing our economic meltdown is the sole responsibility of Louisiana. It cannot be fixed with press conferences and photo ops.
There are some public officials addressing the results of the problem, but not the problem. The problem has been a long time in the making and was not only predictable but has been predicted since the 1980s.
Louisiana’s current approach to the economic meltdown is the equivalent of working to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico without a plan to stop the oil from flowing from the well.
Two-part approach needed
There is little to no dispute that 85% to 95% of all economic growth in Louisiana will come from existing businesses.
Louisiana is currently hemorrhaging existing businesses and their accompanying jobs. Instead of suturing the wound the politicians are merely buying extra Band-Aids with funds that we don’t have.
Those Band-Aids take the form rationalization of the irrational and feeding the public false hope. Those same politicians daily criticize their colleagues in D.C. for doing the exact same thing when it comes to address the national financial crisis.
As with the oil spill, there must be a two-part, simultaneous, plan to address our state’s economic meltdown.
We need a plan to make sure we don’t have another economic meltdown or if we do have one it will be less drastic than the one we are currently experiencing.
It’s time to do what everyone who knows anything about our state’s tax code has long known. Otherwise both the private and public sectors of our state will perish.
What to do?
Here’s a simple 4-step plan offered in my capacity as a life-long resident and extremely concerned citizen of Louisiana.
1. The governor must immediately call a special lege session.
2. All business taxes and fees must be reduced to the lowest in the nation.
3. All regulations, not Federally-mandated, must be repealed.
4. Adopt a new State Operating Budget for the current fiscal year based only on the available, recurring funds generated by the new tax code. Down-size state and local governments to fit the budget.
Don’t like the plan?
Many state and local politicians will find flaws in this plan.
Fine, but remember “shooting messengers” is not a plan to stop economic meltdowns in Louisiana.
Come up with another plan. Whatever, don’t keep ignoring the problem.
We can appoint commissions later to find out whose fault it was that the economic meltdown occurred. For now, we need a plan to stop the meltdown and prevent it from happening in the future.
I await a plan from those we have elected to run our state.
C.B.
1 5:45 pm
