Bobby Jindal floor leader House Speaker Jim Tucker is sounding like a man breaking ties with the fiscally-irresponsible Jindal Administration. ( See story here.)

After carrying Jindal’s water to increase the state spending “cap” by a billion dollars in 2008 Tucker seems to have recognized the folly of that action.

Tucker blames Jindal and the state senate for the impending $2 Billion budget shortfall.

Tucker said next year’s looming $2 billion budget shortfall could have been mitigated if the Senate and Gov. Bobby Jindal had been willing to make more significant cuts in the current and previous budgets. Monroe News-Star, September 2, 2010.

Tucker apparently wants a future in Louisiana politics.  It remains to be seen how many of his lege colleagues feel the same way.

C.B.

In a fit of boredom this morning and not having seen the information as I skimmed the various media around the state, here is an analysis of the voter participation in Saturday’s party primaries for Congress and the U.S. Senate.

The overall turnout for Saturday’s was 10.4%.

In the Democratic Primary (Where Other and No Party registrants were allowed to vote.) the turnout was approximately 5.1%.

In the Republican Primary (Only registered Republicans were allowed to vote.) the turnout was 12.8%.

In the Libertarian Primary assuming only Libertarians voted (Other and No Party registrants were allowed to vote.) the turnout was approximately 70.8%.*

*Note: The total number of votes cast in the Libertarian Primary was only 2,479.  Even if some Other and No Party voters participated in the primary it would have a negligible impact on the Democratic Primary turnout results.

Good riddance!

More people tailgate and attend college football games on a Saturday in Louisiana than went to vote yesterday.

In conclusion, from a participation standpoint the experiment with “closed primaries” has been a colossal failure.  Additionally, it is a huge waste of the taxpayers’ money at a time when we can least afford for our money to be wasted.

C.B.

Apparently, the LA media missed this bit of good news about our state as I haven’t see it reported anywhere.

Yesterday, our “Roads Scholar” governor stated:  “[O]ur economic development department now reports that Louisiana’s business tax structure no longer is an obstacle to attracting new business investment and jobs to our state.” (Emphasis mine)

Very interesting, but that seems like his focus is on the tree and not the forest.

Since 85% to 95% of our state’s economic growth will come not from new businesses, but from EXISTING BUSINESS surviving and prospering, it begs the question:  What does our economic development department have to say about the current tax structure on the survival of EXISTING businesses?

C.B.

In a story in Saturday’s Baton Rouge paper ( see here) about the latest D.C. bailout for the states is found these statements from the Jindal Administration:

“We will not support any proposal to spend these dollars in a way that will make next year’s budget problem even worse.

“We know we face considerable challenges next year and we cannot afford to simply kick those tough decisions down the road,….”

Either the “Roads Scholar’s” fiscal policy is extremely flexible or the above comments represent a policy about-face.

“The Scholar” just spent over $2 BILLION in non-recurring (won’t be there next year), Federal bailout funds on recurring expenses for the current fiscal year ending.  That decision only serves one purpose; to kick those tough decisions down the road.

Does anyone pay attention to what “The Scholar” does versus what he says?

C.B.

In February of this year, Bobby Jindal presented to the lege the State Operating Budget for the current fiscal year. The total was $24.2 BILLION. The budget contained NO additional CUTS to healthcare and higher education.

When the leges finished going over the State Budget, by June it had ballooned-up to $26.9 BILLION; plus it contained significant CUTS to healthcare and higher education.

In other words, the leges added $2.7 BILLION to the budget but reduced funding to Healthcare and Higher Education.

In addition to the additional cuts to Higher Education, the leges increased the tax on college students and their parents.

It gets worse.  The current budget contains $2.8 BILLION in non-recurring revenues; meaning the funds will not be there at this time next year.

To put the non-recurring figure into perspective, it will require doubling the state’s 4% Sales Tax (8% plus local taxes) to replace those revenues.   Or the leges could increase the State Sales Tax to 7% plus reimpose the Stelly Tax via the Personal Income Tax.

Finally, for the really bad news; the governor and leges all know the above, but they have no plan to address the fiscal crisis or its impact on our economy and there is nobody even working on a solution.

C.B.

Millions of gallons of oil are flowing into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan due to a leaking 30 inch pipeline.  ( See story here.)

In keeping with the cautious decision by the Feds decision to stop all deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, all pipelines of 30 inches or larger criss-crossing the U.S. should be closed temporarily until the appropriate Federal agencies have a chance to inspect every pipeline in America.

It might cause a little inconvenience for for the people in America who depend on natural gas for cooking, heating and electricity.   I’m sure that everyone can temporarily switch over to other forms of energy such as propane or coal.

Anyone put out of work temporarily can just draw Unemployment Compensation.

I doubt that the price of gasoline will get much above $10 per gallon temporarily while we depend on 18-wheel tank trucks to deliver gasoline from the refineries to the retailers around the country.   The price of gasoline could rise higher depending on how many supertankers it will take to bring the foreign oil to the refineries in America.

A pipeline moratorium is the least that our government can do.   Why should Louisiana be the only state protected from oil spills.

C.B.

Below is an email that I sent to Rep. Fred Mills today.   The ideas are nothing, but the same type of common sense that we apply to our personal and business finances.    I don’t see why it won’t work for government.   It is only a matter of setting priorities.

C.B.

Dear Rep. Mills,

In today’s (Wednesday) Lafayette paper you said: “You have ideas that can save us money,” Mills said. “Bring it to us, and we’ll run with it.”

Here is a 4-step solution to the state’s current budget woes:

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.

This plan will not only resolve the fiscal “cliff” over which the governor and legislature are driving us, but it will jump-start our morbid economy.

I look forward to you running with my idea.

I’m taking the liberty of copying several interested citizens on this email.

Yours truly,

C.B.

C.B. Forgotston
Hammond, LA

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.

[S]tate Sen. Sherri Cheek, said it is not uncommon for legislation to become vehicles for multiple purposes. Baton Rouge Advocate, July 1, 2010.

Despite that, the LA Constitution Article III, Section 15(A) states: Every bill, except the general appropriation bill and bills for the enactment, rearrangement, codification, or revision of a system of laws, shall be confined to one object.

In other words, the leges pass laws all the time with multiple objects regardless that such laws are unconstitutional.

The leges knowingly do this and the governor knowingly doesn’t veto the legislation for one reason.  They know the average person in Louisiana doesn’t have the financial wherewithal to litigate the matter to the State Supreme Court.

Such practices are just another case of our lawmakers and our governor spitting in our eyes.

C.B.

Rep. Fannin and the reps driving over the cliff

The mirrors in the Capitol Building must be broken.   Either that or the leges think they are invisible.

Rep. Jim Fannin is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (The budget-writing committee.).   He is also the author of House Bill No. 1 which funds the state’s Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2010-11.

Here’s what Fannin had to say about his own legislation:

[Fannin] estimates that $2 billion in one-time dollars were plugged into the budget bill by the Senate. One-time dollars are funds that will not materialize again in future years, akin to using savings to pay monthly household expenses. Baton Rouge Advocate, June 23, 2010.

“I don’t see how the citizens of the state can be happy,” Fannin said.

He said the state missed an opportunity to start making decisions that will help manage the budget in the future.

“We really have a flood coming,” Fannin said. Ibid.

A central part of the House and Senate budget dispute involved planning for the “cliff year” ­ when the loss of a billion dollars in federal stimulus and Medicaid money and other one-time state revenue would leave a crater in the budget. Associated Press, June 23, 2010.

While acknowledging that the budget he passed is a disaster which will make the public unhappy, he pushed his colleagues to support it.

At least now we know who’s driving the bus as the state runs off the fiscal cliff — Jim Fannin and a majority of his House colleagues.

To see how your rep voted on the budget go here.

A Yea vote is to intentionally drive the state over a “fiscal cliff.”  A Nay vote is for a responsible budget.   Absents are counted the same as Nay votes.

A Yea vote by Republicans is further evidence that being registered as a Republican and being fiscally-conservative are not the same.

C.B.