Between The Lines

Can GOP's Arceneaux win again in Shreveport?

2026-08-10T10:36:39.532-05:00

Perhaps obviously the Shreveport city majoritarian branch elections will make a big splash in northwest Louisiana, with the largest question of whether surprising results from 2022 can replicate.

The Shreveport mayor’s contest tops local office tussles in the region. Four years ago, Republican now-Mayor Tom Arceneaux upset Democrat then-state Sen. Greg Tarver to win in the majority-black city electorate. He accomplished this by making small but significant inroads into the black vote beyond the baseline city-wide Republicans had come to expect, which came as a segment of the black vote simply found Tarver unpalatable.

Since then, Arceneaux’s mission became how at least to hang onto black voters willing to give him a chance under those circumstances and perhaps capture more while hanging on as much as possible to his Republican base. That has produced a mixed bag of results: generally competent leadership but having to navigate consequences of crises he inherited especially up against a hostile Democrat-led City Council, and from time to time scoring own goals.

But having a half-million dollars in the campaign kitty as of year’s start and largely lightweight opponents, perhaps with other quality potential candidates having been mindful of that haul and his incumbency, helps. Those who did qualify largely are minor candidates, three of which deserve some mention.

Democrat Michael Williams held Caddo Parish Commission office years ago, but a jail term for embezzlement limits his upside considerably. Democrat Stormy Gage-Watts currently serves on the Commission, but is fairly much a lightweight politically in the shadow of a more serious choice from her party. Also on the Commission, Republican Jean-Paul Young serves kind of the same role on the more conservative side, precisely because on some prominent votes he has sided with Democrats that push the largest part of the GOP vote, consistent conservatives, into Arceneaux’s camp.

The incumbent only can be threatened by a quality black Democrat who has shown the ability to win in a district of significant size and proven to have inroads into resources, and the only qualifier matching that description is state Rep. Tammy Phelps. Terms in the Legislature, including a bruising win in 2019, not only shows she has the chops for campaigning but also that she can tap into financing and connections. As a bonus, as one of the most leftist populist members of the Legislature (her Louisiana Legislature Log score averaged for the past five years where 0 is a perfect liberal/populist score and 100 a perfect conservative/reform score: 3), she should have no trouble rallying the far-left activism that has taken over Democrats in the state and especially nationally.

Expect her and Arceneaux to outpace the field, but with the lesser candidates earning enough votes to push them to a runoff. Any other combination is far less likely.

Whoever wins will face a City Council gerrymandered to favor Democrats. Interestingly, the only one who will walk in is rookie Republican Tim Euler in District D, who was defeated for a spot on the Commission three years ago. However, District A Democrat Tab Taylor, who will have a chance to serve past two terms as a previous interim appointee, and District C Republican Jim Taliaferro should have no problem swatting away token opposition.

District G Democrat Ursula Bowman might have a little more trouble than she did in her initial run four years ago when she defeated democrat community organizer Derrick Henderson in a runoff after a narrow miss to close out in the general election. He’s back, but Democrat Steven Hall, a local minister, also jumped in. This might drive her to another runoff but the Bowman name carries a lot of weight in that part of town.

District E Democrat Alan Jackson, because at one time he was an interim appointee, gets a chance to serve more than eight years if he can defeat repeater Democrat Alvin Oliver, NAACP president, and Democrat community organizer Francine “Monro” Brown. Jackson is vulnerable because of his recurring negative publicity ranging from ethics accusations to support of controversial measures to controversial statements.

District B Democrat Gary Brooks also may have a stiff fight on his hands. He’s the only white Democrat on the Council representing a district with a large black majority, facing four challengers, the most prominent of which is serial candidate Democrat community activist Craig Lee who running as an independent failed to make the runoff in 2022. While Brooks, a wealthy owner of entertainment venues, is criticized for being out of touch with the district and demographics are against him, his connections and incumbency keep him favored against a lackluster field.

Finally, a free-for-all will occur in District F with four newcomers. The two most extreme candidates appear to be the two no party contenders, Billy Ray Anderson and Decarlous Muntaqim, but they will miss the backing of Democrat activists who would be expected to line up behind NAACP official Lester Smith (who ran for state representative in 2019) or businessman James Sneed. That pair probably has the edge to make what seems to be an inevitable runoff.

Reject Monroe school taxes for future lower rates

2026-08-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

About the only thing that makes sense coming from the split among Monroe City School Board members over looming property tax renewals/reductions is the Board majority scheduling the vote in December when it has the best chance of passing.

Last month, the Board voted to put the propositions of 13.93 and 5.94 mills for operations and maintenance on the Dec. 12 ballot after renewals of 14.41 and 6.15 mills failed in May elections headlined by party primary votes for the U.S. Senate. These proposed are the current millages being levied, after the Board eschewing rolling forward rates to their maximums allowed since 2016, which then were levied at the rate that failed the voter test. The current levy expires at the end of the year.

Putting an election on a date with much less stimulus for voters to turn out is an age-old trick of local governments to pass taxes. Disproportionately supporters, who may be government employees whose agency directly benefits from the tax that also incite their families and friends, turn out for these. Delaying the vote from Nov. 3 also avoids at the same time that three supportive board members would have their names up for reelection on the same ballot as a tax.

But some Board members may upset the applecart by working against the measures, if for confusing reasons. No party Jennifer Haneline and Republican Bill Willson publicly oppose it, saying both they didn’t like it because Superintendent Sam Moore hadn’t recommended rolling forward beforehand but had wanted a renewal at roll forward rates. Haneline said greater efficiencies should be pursued but aren’t, while Willson proposed a lower combined 16.50 mills

Willson further alleged that some large landlords would jack up rental rates on each of their units $25 to $100 a month if the levies passed at that combined 19.87 mills, but not at 16.50. Yet it doesn’t make sense that if the rate had been there for the past couple of years that economic changes would have occurred so dramatically since then that suddenly rental rates would have to increase so dramatically, as the difference on every $100,000 of value only would be $33.70 a year.

As well, it’s odd that these members would complain that a higher level of past taxation was too low but now a lower level should be voted down. Regardless, it’s clear both believe the measures setting the maximum rate at the current rate peg it too high and that voters should have another crack at lower rates. That could be possible, since a jurisdiction can levy a tax at any time before year’s end and collect it for the entire year, so another 2026 failure but a 2027 success could restore most of the funding.

Still, as an option a Dec. 12 failure could trigger budget cuts in the second half of the school year to guard against if a 2027 vote also failed, which is a cudgel supporters can use to entice voter support at the end of the year. Moore claims that student instruction and school safety would be priority areas, but non-instructional programming, such as athletics, athletic facilities, extracurricular opportunities, transportation and non-instructional staffing likely would be negatively impacted.

However, the numbers indicate a rethink on reducing rates further is in order. Willson’s proposal would cut ad valorem taxes from about $12.6 to $10 million a year, and the system has about $20 million in unrestricted reserves that could tide over for years if that drop would become so critical. And this doesn’t consider a likely and hefty sales tax bounty from economic activity that has swept across other nearby school districts to date that promises to last at least a few years. That probably will reflect also in property value hikes, thus more total such taxes paid even at lower rates, when reassessment occurs in 2028.

So, lower rates do seem justifiable. The departing Haneline and Willson are on to something, and Monroe voters should follow their lead to set up another attempt, if even needed, in 2027.

Restrict, not ban, license plate readers in LA

2026-08-06T13:50:00.000-05:00

There’s no question that automated license plate reading cameras need increased scrutiny. The only question is by how much.

Recently, Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, over social media and the airwaves, served notice that next year he would introduce a bill to ban such cameras. He declared the Legislature had momentum to do so after last year banning traffic enforcement cameras in all areas except school zones and the city of Opelousas. As well, the presence of reader cameras has irked privacy advocates worried that this has become another big data source ripe for exploitation, if not a breeding ground for constitutional violations of probable cause for searches.

However, he should expect some resistance. Law enforcement agencies have found the technology, which captures plate images that a private vendor collates into a database that law enforcement may access, helpful in tracking down suspects, even almost in real time that improves apprehension and conviction rates. Simply, this pits privacy rights against public safety.

To complicate matters, it’s not that cut and dry. Rogue government officials, from street-level law enforcement up to high-ranking elected officials, could use the database for illegal (such as tracking an individual that another one has a vendetta against) and/or political purposes (such as spying on people with associations or viewpoints opposed by the abuser). Some argue the presence of such databases simply provides too much temptation for abuse and so it becomes necessary to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Yet surely all parties can attain a middle ground that allows camera use but sets strict limits. Several issues define the controversy.

First is retention period, where the shorter the period, the less likely privacy could be violated, which where state have legislated ranges presently from three minutes to five years. Second is who keeps this data and limiting their use, as private firm storage makes it more likely that it could be used for non-law enforcement activities. Third is a warrant must be issued to place a vehicle on a list that alerts when its plate is read, that require probable cause for vehicles owned or operated by someone subject to an active arrest warrant, or vehicles determined to be involved in the commission of a felony pursuant to a warrant. Fourth, to investigate more broadly such as checking on vehicles that were identified around a crime scene, a warrant must include strict limitations on both the geographic area and time period. Finally, audit trails of searches must be made available to defendants as well as the opportunity, if possible, to mine the data to buttress exculpatory claims.

Although some states have laws that reflect these safeguards, Louisiana has exactly zero. A good start that covers most of these considerations comes from the Institute for Justice. Additionally, a limit of one week should be placed upon data retention by any camera located in Louisiana, which should provide ample time to obtain a warrant and run an initial search.

While a serious issue, sufficiently strict guardrails should obviate the need to do away completely with such cameras, achieving benefits both of enhanced privacy protection and better crime-fighting tools.

LA should conduct study to increase JP relevancy

2026-08-05T11:50:00.000-05:00

A little-known new law might serve as the start of the answer to making a superfluous, anachronistic office more relevant in the 21^st century.

Starting last month, courtesy of Act 950 passed this year, East Baton Rouge Justice of the Peace Districts were extended into Baton Rouge. That means they overlap with the Baton Rouge City Court, but only concurrently on one piece of jurisdiction: evictions where rent is fewer than $5,000 monthly.

Area legislators successfully advocated for the measure in order to reduce the backlog of eviction cases piling up in City Court. Ordinarily, within their jurisdictions as well as with evictions JPs deal with bail for minor cases (with an amount in controversy fewer than $5,000 or not with hard labor as a potential penalty), litter abatement, movable property abandonment with parish approval, and in a few parishes immovable property standards and nuisance cases.

Decades ago, with the state’s much more rural nature and people’s less mobility to travel to courthouses, JPs made more sense. But today and particularly in urban parishes, they are superfluous; many and their officers of the court, constables, do little according to their filed financial statements. Most parishes have at least one city with a city court (and a few a similar parish court) that is an aggrandized version of a JP with much more jurisdiction within city boundaries, and an aggrandized constable called a marshal who also has much more extensive duties that overlap with local law enforcement.

The system’s potential for idleness also lends itself to abuse. In Caddo Parish, one constable tried to build his own law enforcement unit, while in Jefferson Parish a JP and his constable worked together to defraud taxpayers.

However, the model in East Baton Rouge holds out promise as a way to make the JP system more useful and relieve congestion at the city or even district court levels. Where identifiable backlogs exist, JP jurisdiction could be expanded.

Yet rather than in a piecemeal fashion, an organized effort should be put forth. Last year, the Legislature requested a performance audit of JPs that earlier this year demonstrated their largely dormant nature. The Legislative Auditor also noted in an earlier report that some marshals raked in big bucks (one, Baker’s who also served as police chief of the city with around 12,000 residents, recently drew in nearly $500,000 annually which would make him the highest paid elected or appointed official in the state).

This information can be used, along with annual reports made by city and parish courts, to determine where overloads exist, and further analysis conducted as to whether jurisdiction in other minor matters might extend. As JPs can handle evictions at present (there are professional education requirements that must be met to serve as a JP, even as a law license isn’t required), that could be a good area of extension, but new areas of jurisdiction might be added which also would require changes for more training.

At the very least the Legislature should set up study of this possibility, with the potential for legislation to follow should the idea merit pursuit. State and local governments chip in to JP and constable operations (although these largely operate in self-funded fashion when they choose to do so), so this would help taxpayers get more bang for their bucks.

Bossier Parish restroom ordinance appropriate

2026-08-04T13:55:00.000-05:00

Again, it’s important to remember that when on the losing side of the argument, delivering distraction and non sequiturs becomes the order of the day, as recent squawking about a proposed ordinance in Bossier Parish illustrates.

Last month, the Bossier Parish Police Jury passed along a measure that creates a framework to ensure and enforce that in parish-owned or run buildings those of a biological sex only use restrooms and dressing rooms designated for that biological sex, unless the facility were designated family/single occupancy. Essentially, a parish employee if discovering or alerted to a violation may issue two warnings (first, exiting the facility, then exiting the building, which could be the same) if not heeded then makes the person subject to arrest and criminal penalties. Essentially, it adds criminal enforcement to existing state law.

The ordinance bends over backwards in other ways. It exempts actions pertaining to a parent assisting a minor child., assistance provided to a disabled person, emergency medical care, law enforcement activities, custodial or maintenance services, and emergency evacuations or disasters.

Perhaps predictably, this elicited a howl from a special interest group that backs privileging transgender individuals, or individuals of one biological sex who wish to take on behavioral patterns typically associated with the other biological sex. Individuals who choose to identify this way often contend that they should be treated by society, if not under law, as being of the sex opposite of theirs, including using these facilities in a manner congruent to their choice, not their biological sex. The ACLU of Louisiana also objected to it.

A spokes(wo)man from the group Louisiana Trans Advocates argued that the ordinance at the very least duplicates existing law which seeks to prevent people from being subject to “bad things” and “truly harmed.” Note the sidestepping going on here: while the ordinance covers that aspect of safety, it also explicitly details a consideration for “privacy” of individuals that would include the reasonable expectation that, especially in the case of females, they not have a someone of the opposite sex on the premises except if appertaining to one of the exceptions. Some won’t mind, but some will, and they far outnumber the males who wish to invade this space.

Perhaps the only helpful argument advocates of this invasion can draw upon is that crossdressers when using restrooms (data seem absent on dressing rooms) of their actual sex in 10 percent or fewer cases are hassled. However, it’s quite possible that crossdressers using the restroom of the sex they aren’t would be hassled even more, particularly in the case of crossdressing men (women encountering a crossdressing man in a female-designated restroom might feel too intimidated to complain) – another omission in advocacy against the ordinance. From an instrumental standpoint, transgender identifiers are better off using restrooms of their biological sex.

Yet it shouldn’t come to the calculations when understanding the principle. The indisputable fact is if somebody wants to appear in the manner of how typically one sex does which is not their own sex, that is their choice. There’s nothing genetic driving people to appear one way or another, and when you make choices, you accept consequences.

In a perfect world, nobody would hassle anybody over their appearances (with the exception of when it’s unambiguously threatening). It’s not Christian (ironically, some may resort to professing Christian beliefs as to why they oppose such appearances) and, religious belief aside, just plain boorishly bad form. Unfortunately, some people are going to do it. But far more people (especially women) likely are going to feel violated, if not actually threatened (and while very small in number, crossdressing males do threaten, if not visit violence upon, women in restrooms) when having someone of the opposite sex in a restroom or dressing room designated for their sex without good reason.

Thus, we have pitted the rights of a tiny sliver of the population to not have greater hassling (if you can apply that term to an employee asking for that person’s exit) as a consequence of a choice they made (which distinguishes them from the exceptions when opposite-sex individuals are allowed to be present, because those are nonvoluntary situations) against the rights of a segment magnitudes larger who legally according to their sex must use that facility that finds the behavior unsettling. Since neither group has a greater moral claim than the other, it makes sense to give primacy to the involuntary large group than the voluntary tiny group.

The public hearing and final passage is scheduled for Sep. 2. The Jury has every reason to pass it into ordinance.

Miscreant top judge not wrong on clarifications

2026-08-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

You can be right and wrong at the same time, a recent flareup at the Louisiana Supreme Court proves.

No party Chief Justice John Weimer keeps getting on the wrong side of his colleagues. In 2023, upset at how they thought Wiemer ran the Court – the senior-most justice legally becomes chief regardless of the desires of others – that they formed a committee to administer the Court, leaving only ceremonial duties for Weimer. Republican then-Assoc. Justice Scott Crichton was appointed to lead it.

He almost found himself out of a job years early (he will surpass the age limitation disallowing reelection in 2032) when in 2024 almost all of those then on the Court backed a reapportionment plan that would have changed his district residency. He survived when a subsequent plan kept him in place.

Then he had only one supporter against the sidelined plan, Crichton, due for retirement for hitting the age limit before 2024 election outcomes. The eventual plan rejiggered Crichton’s northwest Louisiana district so that Republican Assoc. Justice Jay McCallum gobbled up a chunk of it and the rest went to an unopposed rookie that year, Assoc. Justice Cade Cole, for which the new district seemed drawn.

Weimer previously also had had engaged in another spat involving Crichton. For years, he has criticized the Court for its management of the Judges’ Supplemental Compensation Fund. He long has contended that his colleagues take advantage of an erroneous legal interpretation of distributing the fund to pad judicial salaries without first paying its expenses that instead come from the state’s general fund. He also claims colleagues took a judicial stipend illegally in upfront lump sums, including Crichton, to increase retirement pay, as well as his accusing him of taking per diem pay for meals in addition to stipends they receive for expenses

He's not wrong, according to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor on the fund issue which has cited this practice as a recurring questionable theme. On civil cases presently $31.50 is collected to fund this, which is run by a five-member board that includes the chief justice and four other lower-level judges. The board consistently has allowed the practice to continue. Whether the other practices he identified break the law seems murkier, but from an ethics standpoint they appear to be taking advantage of the letter of the law rather than its spirit.

This carping began coming to head last month when Weimer penned notes laying out his accusations. These accruals didn’t sit well with the six other current Court members, who in response issued a document that suggested he played fast and loose with rules when it suited his interests. That document went even further by its forcing Weimer’s recusal on a case where Crichton served as a lawyer, although not a blanket forced recusal, in pointing out he broke the Court’s procedural rules by engaging in what it typified as a vendetta.

Weimer reaps what he sows, with entirely unprofessional behavior. But that doesn’t mean the fund issue he raises isn’t legitimate, and it’s incumbent on the Legislature to provide absolute clarity here (as of May, the board declared it would begin taking expenses out of the Fund) as well as on the others of whether a per diem can be paid in addition to the set-aside and whether any special disbursements can be sped up to have the effect of boosting retirement stipends (there was an attempt in 2023 to accomplish some of this that would have abolished the Board, but it went nowhere). Resolution of these at least might calm down matters somewhat.

Trump and Landry defuse Luddites on data centers

2026-07-31T11:30:00.000-05:00

It’s not as important that another Republican Gov. Jeff Landry win tamped down discord among some over data center spillover costs, but that it deflated the rearguard action conducted by climate alarmists.

Already having set the stage with his recent executive order that said costs passed on to power and water consumers as a result of data center creation and expansion had to be matched by benefits conveyed to consumers in other ways, Landry received an assist from his ally Pres. Donald Trump upon the latter’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge recently drawing the signatures of heavy hitters in the data center universe. Governors also were invited to sign off, and Landry assuredly did that which crept a bit more forward than his executive order.

Essentially, the pledge says entities involved will not pass along exclusive data center added costs to the general public. All major Louisiana power utilities have signed it as well as a number of entities building, overseeing, and operating, or planning to do so, data centers in the state. A framework to restrict this already exists with the Public Service Commission, although a dissident Democrat on it claims this should occur more specifically.

Deploying this framework seems inevitable with the additional public pressure that Landry and Trump have placed on the issue. Concerns had arisen about the two biggest power providers, Entergy Louisiana and Southwestern Electric Power Company and whether they would try to offload solely data center expenses onto ratepayers. A consultant has tagged an Entergy PSC filing for a generator purchase as due to the Hyperion project near Monroe being something that could be passed along, and a similar scenario could occur as SWEPCO is snapping up or converting to gas generation sites due to an increase in its parent company’s American Electric Power’s expansion of data center servicing.

That seems off the table with the pledges signed by both companies involved, who in doing so know they have put themselves under a microscope and would face punishment should any deviation happen. That should satisfy consumers, who will expect the PSC to veto any actions contrary to do that. (The New Orleans City Council, which regulates power provider Entergy New Orleans, is poised to restrict the size of data centers, ensuring minimal to no such activity within Orleans Parish.)

Yet this isn’t enough for the climate alarmism crowd, such as the leftist special interest group the Alliance for Affordable Energy. Its top officials keep calling the latest evidence of consumer protection meaningless or even disingenuous to Louisianans, as a method of trying to keep troops rallied against data center power provision approval not on their terms.

But their terms are infused heavily with climate alarmism. They don’t so much object to costs passing through to consumers as they do to the build out concentrating heavily on increasing fossil fuel – mostly gas – generation capacity that violates their ideological imperative. Because of this sudden demand increase, combined gas cycle turbine building costs have hit a 15-year high – except that when factoring in dispatchability these costs on average still are below the cheapest renewable source, and especially when removing subsidies, so to save ratepayers the most it makes sense that providers have headed in this direction. These activists know rapid renewable source generation can’t hope to keep up with demand and at a price lower than gas, so what the market won’t do for them they want government to impose.

So, understand that opposition to data centers from these folks on the basis that consumer costs will rise really is an attempt to manufacture fellow travelers to put political pressure on curtailing centers as a method to burn less in the way of fossil fuels. Don’t be fooled by these Luddites who leverage mythical catastrophic anthropogenic global warming into empowering government at the expense of people.

Suit may make BC Marshal Whitman next victim

2026-07-30T15:20:00.000-05:00

The Bossier City political establishment’s worst nightmare is back and, even if tangentially and somewhat accidentally, about to threaten another of its member’s political careers.

Last month, in Merriott v. Bossier City, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals thoroughly embarrassed former city councilors Republicans Jeff Free and David Montgomery and no party Jeff Darby, along with current City Attorney Charles Jacobs with a ruling handing an almost total victory to SOBO.live website operator Wes Merriott. He sued the city after what the panel described as a series of egregious abuses of power by the majority then on the City Council, goaded by Jacobs, in its violating Merriott’s free expression and due process constitutional rights.

Although a district court initially dismissed much of the case, the panel revived almost all of it with instructions that will make it all but impossible not to rule in his favor and potentially invoke damages against the city (the individual defendants will escape penalties on the basis of a technicality). The city failed to appeal by its deadline to do so this week, so the case will resume in Judge Terry Doughty’s Western District Court at some point in the future.

This means Merriott can continue to gather evidence about what went on during and behind the scenes concerning remarks he made to the Council in 2023 meetings, including the taking of depositions. The most significant will depose Montgomery, who appears to have provided the motive force for and organized efforts to deprive Merriott of his rights. But as part of that, plans are to depose also Republican City Marshal Jim Whitman, because part of the issue revolves around an alleged illegal meeting of Montgomery, Darby, Democrat former councilor Bubba Williams, and Republican current Councilor Vince Maggio for discussing how to thwart Merriott’s (and, as the Circuit panel noted, the entire public’s) rights.

That meeting came to light when the Bossier Watch political commentary team received recordings of it, reported on it, and then passed it along to other requestors. Allegedly, as the marshal’s office provides Council security, it was a deputy marshal who surreptitiously made the recording. Merriott may wish to gather evidence concerning an alleged hours-long interrogation Whitman conducted on a deputy he suspected.

Evidence so gathered could open Whitman up to a charge of violating whistleblower statutes, which likely will confirm that the meeting (because a quorum’s worth of councilors were there) was illegal and this would have been commonly known by Whitman. The recording itself possibly would be legal if at some point the recorder joined the conversation for whatever reason.

Whitman potentially flubbing his job, if that become known in the near future, would prove for his political aspirations highly inconvenient, as he is running for reelection this fall. Politically connected to Montgomery, Darby, Free, Williams, and Maggio – all but Maggio of whom lost their jobs in part due this to this incident with Montgomery, Free, and Williams forced into retirement and Darby losing reelection (with Maggio barely surviving) – and with his wife having been a member of the latest Charter Review Commission that served with those councilors’ blessing as nothing more than a cudgel to prevent a strict term limits imposition by voters onto the Charter (which was the subject of Merriott’s remarks that the Council attempted to censor), Whitman has drawn opposition from Republican Councilor Brian Hammons, who was one of two councilors who had resisted all along the reckless abusive path the then-Council majority insisted on following against Merriott.

Depositions become an open record at a trial, and it’s anybody’s guess what could show up in these. But if they do become public prior to the election Nov. 3, chances are that their contents will be less flattering than more flattering for Whitman, which will not help his chances for reelection. Merriott’s persistence contributed to ending the political careers of four councilors; adding another assist to that list may be forthcoming.

Obamacare disenrollment benefits Louisianans

2026-07-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

More good news continues to come Louisiana’s way as policies to improve verification for taxpayer subsidization of government-backed health insurance take hold now aided by the expiration of bonus dollars for it.

Disguised as a Wuhan coronavirus pandemic palliative but in reality a mechanism to encourage more dependency on government and to acquire a greater taste for getting free stuff from government, until starting this year the federal government subsidized on average almost 90 percent of the premium paid for health insurance purchase under a state or federal government market, known as Obamacare. Cooler heads prevailed to remove the extra gift so now the typical exchange user pays closer to 30 percent.

This partly is responsible for a decline in exchange enrollment, although the stepped-up verification also contributes as it catches out disingenuous or inattentive people to prevent them from qualifying for subsidies (roughly a quarter, estimated at around 6 million) which have income means tests. Louisiana so far has seen enrollment numbers drop by more than a quarter, and also has experienced fewer annual enrollees maintaining coverage since signing up at the start of the year. Both the decline in aggregate enrollees and enrollment drop off are among the highest of states.

Understand that only a minority of individuals dropping out in fact are of sufficiently low income that they forgo insurance. Because of the tiered system of subsidies, they proportionately lose fewer dollars’ worth, so the average absolute amounts are skewed upwards by the relatively larger proportion subsidized to higher-income clients.

Aside from the other minority improperly enrolled, this higher-income cohort constitutes the remainder, whose members either decided that with the (on average for that income level) $122 more a month needed it was cost ineffective for them to have insurance compared to other uses to which they could put that (likely as they have excellent health) or that plans in the private market now had better pricing (likely the majority). Disenrollment because of ending subsidization means for most those choosing either they continue to have insurance or shouldn’t have qualified in the first place.

This benefits Louisiana in that, in a state where insurance in all forms generally comes in higher than in most other states, the more subsidization that occurs, the greater pressure accrues to push pricing artificially higher as the system is gamed by sellers and less directly by providers. These dollars can be spent on more economically productive activities if left in the hands of consumers, both in the forms of lower premiums and lower taxes paid/government debt that they must back.

So, with its higher rates of program exit, Louisianans benefit more than most states from this. It’s a good thing for ratepayers and especially for those who pay state taxes.

Promoting marriage would bring benefits to LA

2026-07-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

Louisiana has made stellar progress in education. But what may temper these gains more than anything else something almost entirely out of the control of educators.

Soon to be published is an analysis of the impact that marriage has on children’s academic achievement. Researchers note an enormous gulf in achievement between children in married households with both parents present as opposed to, at the most extreme, single parent-led households. They caution this can be confused with other associated indicators such as race, leading to incorrect policy prescriptions that too enthusiastically declare that racial considerations are at fault for poor outcomes when in reality something else is at work.

It long has been observed that children from higher socioeconomic statuses achieve educationally at significantly higher levels than do low SES children, and marriage plays a part in that as it denotes a future orientation of a life planned together that includes measures to earn better incomes that typically come later, allowing devotion to children of greater resources and for greater homelife stability. Unmarried couples tend to have children at younger ages and in a more cursorily, if at all, planned fashion more oriented to present gratification than in striving for more economic and emotional security for offspring. Staying married usually, although not exclusively, reinforces the same future-oriented attitudes into children that spawn academic success.

Thus, marriage status – as a reflection of attitudes – comes causally prior to SES which in turn affects children’s academic achievement. A commitment to marriage stems from the same worldview as these other attitudes. That means the policy question becomes how to inculcate those values that translate into this.

Unfortunately, with policy more often emanating from culture that the reverse, it becomes a tough row to hoe. And Louisiana faces the problem of children in non-married households more than almost any other state, with a bare majority of its children in married households, the fourth-lowest proportion of any state – even as there are some marriage-friendly laws on its books, such as mandating family impact statements for relevant proposed regulations and a Children’s Code that tries to frame its laws and statutes around the best interests of children and their families.

It has left some salutary measures on the table. This year Republican state Sen. Rick Edmonds sponsored a bill that would have included in educational instruction on what is termed the Success Sequence, or a rendering to make students aware of the benefits of finishing high school, securing employment, and getting married before having children, with research showing significant positive effects in avoidance of poverty. The bill made it out of committee but never received a Senate floor vote; possibly the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education could issue regulations to enact it.

Schools also could go further by curricula focused on emotions and healthy dating and on communication, conflict resolution, and avoiding toxic behaviors, as is done in Oklahoma. That state also has versions for those applying for public assistance, families involved with child welfare, military families, as well as inmates in prison, and also makes it generally available to the interested public.

Another possibility is premarital counseling beyond the little-used voluntary covenant marriage choice. Some states hold out incentives such as reduced marriage license costs for couples to undertake this, with research noting that this increases marital satisfaction that presumably keeps marriages together.

Postmarital tactics also may be employed, since a portion of couples that initiate divorce proceedings remain open to reconciliation. Increasingly offered in therapeutic settings, discernment counseling attempts to guide couples to patching up things prior to divorce. Such services are offered by numerous licensed counselors in Louisiana, but judges may not know to use this as an option in divorce proceedings. Potentially, that can be rectified through continuing education courses.

Stronger families lead to increased school success for their children. Louisiana could offer a number of inexpensive policy options at least can nudge towards that, with fiscal and societal dividends likely to follow.

Cassidy unfitness reinforced by voting views

2026-07-27T13:05:00.000-05:00

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy gave us another reason why it’s a good thing he’ll be out of a job soon: he doesn’t understand the basics of one of the most crucial policy aspects of it.

Recently, Cassidy was quoted musing about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and, even though he sponsors the one and only version of it, would like to see changes to it. Basically, insofar as the act of voting it requires official government-issued identification in order to vote, and it restricts the use of mail-in ballots to certain special cases that prevents mass-mailing.

However, Cassidy isn’t on board with control that tight. Moreover, he wants to encourage participation, which he imagines would come from not restricting mail ballots but expanding their use such as Oregon’s practice of mailing ballots to all who were registered to vote with that vast bulk coming from driver’s license interactions. Indeed, he claims having closed primary elections constitute an impediment to voting, even as the majority of states restrict voter choices when selecting a particular political party’s nominee for offices, and tried to back this sentiment by noting that voting turnout for the GOP closed primary in May that announced his defeat had significantly lower turnout than his 2020 general election victory.

There is much ignorance in these comments. While mail ballots do in fact generate increased turnout, this causes the quality of democratic decision-making to decline and opens the door to tactics coercive or capitalizing on indifference. This is as people don’t vote not so much because they don’t like their choices, but more because they weren’t interested enough and too busy even to the point they forgot. Over two-fifth of nonvoting registrants in the 2024 election expressed this while not even half of that said they were turned off or faced some impediment. (The remainder cited reasons such as being out of town, illness, or others not related to disinterest, dislike, or barriers.)

The reason why well over half of nonvoters cited reasons that, summed up, they couldn’t be bothered is because they essentially were satisfied with their choices presented. Fewer than ten percent cited some kind of barrier that presumably Cassidy had in mind that mail ballots or primary type would resolve. Overwhelmingly, nonvoting is summarized as you can lead a voter to the polls, but you just can’t make him vote, because forgone opportunity costs in alternative activities are greater than any benefit he would perceive from making a choice.

His views on primary type particularly are half-baked. Whatever degree to which a primary nomination process restricts the input of non-party members, no one is turned away from voting in these elections. If necessary, a simple administrative change allows a voter to cast ballots for a preferred candidate. Nor is his supposed evidence on turnout in any way validating. Evaluating turnout results from a party primary held in the spring stood up next to a general election in the fall with a presidential election on the ballot compares apples with oranges. Again, lower party primary turnout is even more prone to the satisfaction effect – many registrants don’t care who the nominee is because they know they will prefer whoever over the other party’s – and the refusal to spend the minimal time necessary to make a choice makes perfect cost/benefit sense.

That’s why increasing mail ballot access (which only one-sixth of all countries permit in some form) degrades democratic decision-making. It encourages to add input into the process those who put so little thought into the most important thing a citizen can do, those most prone to be swayed by emotion, demagoguery, pressure, or coercion – all of which reduce the quality of the decision, if not cedes power to special interests that mocks one man, one vote. It brings all of the foibles, if not illegalities, of ballot harvesting to the fore that subverts the quality and sanctity of democratic choice.

As the data show, Cassidy’s mail-in suggestions marginally should increase voting rates, but nothing more and would decrease the quality of democracy, and his jihad against political parties having at least some control over the most important decision party members can make, party nominations, will do nothing to boost turnout. Given the absolutely fundamental nature of voting to the republic’s health and that policy-makers elected from it should have a firm grasp of the issues involved, Cassidy clear fails at it and provides another reason he deserved to get booted from office.

New Orleans clowns invite tough love punishment

2026-07-25T19:46:56.799-05:00

You mess with the bull, you get the horns, politicians in New Orleans as the city comes to potential reckoning through tough love.

The saga started at the beginning of the month when a grand jury out of thin air lodged an indictment against Republican Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill. It charged her with multiple counts of malfeasance and public intimidation, whereupon a special prosecutor was appointed. The basis for that came weeks earlier when the city attempted to contravene new statute that abolished one of the clerks of court by merging it into another, but was shot down by the judiciary. Murrill had warned city officials that those actions violated state law and threatened legal action to remove officials from office if they proceeded.

That indictment was halted almost immediately by the state Supreme Court, citing perverse legal logic, conflicts of interest, and procedural errors. It said the case essentially was dead in the water on the basis that Murrill’s actions amounted to her discharging legally her duties.

That in hand, a couple of weeks later the city threw in the towel, asking for dismissal from Democrat Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams. However, in the interim the series of events leading up to and after the sham indictment came under question for illegal coordination contrary to law in steering the indictment. As a result, at a news conference on another matter both Murrill and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry made clear the matter wasn’t over and that Williams, Democrat Mayor Helena Moreno, and others could face criminal charges

Supposedly, a criminal complaint had been forwarded to federal authorities. Murrill said it was necessary because of allegations that the jury had been led to produce the fraudulent indictment and this manipulation of the justice system needed to be discouraged.

None of this had to happen. First, the attempt by Moreno and the City Council to subvert the law was, to any outside observer, completely asinine. But if they had just stopped there, that would have ended matters. Instead, they cheerlead Williams taking up the indictments.

Their inanity perhaps began to dawn upon them when the city, plagued with poor fiscal management and deficit spending that has led it to desperate schemes such as gimmickry to advance rent payments for operation of the Caesars Superdome, had wanted to issue revenue bonds to plug gaps in a looming budget deficit, which requires State Bond Commission approval. That body, with representatives all of or appointees by Republican elected officials including Landry and Murrill signaled it would reject the request over concerns that revenues to pay off the bonds would come up short. Moreno then withdrew the request and claimed an alternative had been found, begging the question why the request had been made in the first place. And this after the city already is on the hook for over a hundred million dollars to the state.

This is punctuated by the point man on all of this, Williams, already in a different kind of debt. To help stem the city’s high violent crime rate, the state using its own resources has sent in state law enforcement and prosecutors. His spearheading the progress of the indictment, along with allegations he coached things along to secure the indictments, threatens dissolution of the agreement for extra law enforcement and prosecution aid.

Yet begging an even larger question, why did all of these elected officials so stupidly bite that hand that feeds them, leading to poisoning the well with those to whom they are supplicants? The answer lies in the general invalid moral certitude common to the political left spurred by one-party rule in the city.

No office in the city, not even School Board nor constables and judges, is not a Democrat. In fact, in the most recent elections for each office outside of the Council and mayor only five non-Democrats even ran. As for those city elections, Democrats either won the general election outright or in the case of runoffs two Democrats advanced. Even in the Legislature, there are no Republicans elected whose districts are completely within Orleans Parish.

A combination of voter learned helplessness that acquiesces to if not embraces leftist rule and GOP malaise has created this situation of a bubble existence that forms politicians who get too big for their britches but too clueless to understand their views and agenda are widely rejected outside the swamps of Orleans. They become so used to having their uncontested way in their little pond that they mistake this omnipotence for reality outside of it and so they think they can get their way regardless of elections and the law.

This mistake has reaped the whirlwind. Landry now threatens a special session that will place even more constraints on present Orleans government that will bring it into line more like other parishes in terms of offices per capita and even exert more control over city fiscal affairs, which he might not have felt necessary had city officials just taken their medicine and not blown up everything.

Hopefully, a little more essential right-sizing, if not greater state control over a failing city, will come of that. It’s part of the needed tough love to make Orleans officials understand that it’s they who put their city into a predicament and to shed ideology for reality to start correcting their misrule.

Stats don't back Stewart getting tougher on crime

2026-07-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

The “Seabaugh effect” keeps progressing on Democrat First District Attorney James Stewart, a recent review of data reveals.

Stewart will face off against Republican state Sen. Alan Seabaugh this fall to try to win reelection. Demographics slightly favor Stewart, but Seabaugh has shown a terrific campaigning ability in his runs for the state Legislature.

In his challenge, Seabaugh, picking up on some disgruntlement within the parish, has emphasized an approach that will lead to more charges filed and more cases going to trial. Stewart has come under criticism for being too much in the mold of a “progressive prosecutor,” or one who tends to dismiss lower-level charges or pleads down too aggressively because supposedly prosecutorial resources should go to more serious crimes and lower-level offenses are allegedly an offshoot of a disadvantaged background that are committed disproportionately by racial minorities.

Leftist special interests had high hopes for Stewart in this mode, backing him to the tune of nearly a million dollars in this initial run for office to fill an unexpired term. Yet in that term he followed marginally at best that role, leaving no special enthusiasm for him by those previous backers for his first reelection attempt in 2020.

However, he changed his tune heading into that year. Over his second term for most of it, even as crime rates shot up his criminal charging rate went down, while trial average remained about where it had been since 2008, well before his arrival. Further, in the previous two years 70 percent of the 81 people arrested for murder already had previous arrest records. This pattern caught Seabaugh’s attention, who months before his formal announcement last fall had circulated the idea that he would challenge Stewart.

Stewart then began changing his ways, talking up his willingness to impose the death penalty. He also took about 50 percent more cases to trial last year than the historical average of just over 40, which would indicate pursuing more charges and less willingness to plead down. Recently, Stewart touted a high conviction rate above 90 percent, according to documentation not available publicly. But the total number of cases filed was about 20 percent fewer in that year than a decade previous, just before he took office, while the violent crime rate actually inched up about 3 percent from the last six months of 2016 to the last six months of 2025.

In short, Stewart understands that a skilled campaigner like Seabaugh can exploit that record, who can raise enough money – much less of it coming from the local legal community than in Stewart’s case – to get the word out that Stewart is too soft on crime. So, he must pull whatever statistics he can to try to counter that, adjust his practices on the margin to reflect a harder on crime approach, and he also benefits from the nationwide secular decline in criminal behavior.

But the facts and data continue to be out there that paint him as more kindred to progressive prosecution than being tough on crime, leaving him vulnerable.

Property tax amendments could shake govt finances

2026-07-21T14:05:00.000-05:00

In light of what happened this spring and what’s going on in other states, it’s not too soon to talk about Louisiana’s property tax amendments placed in front of voters in fall elections.

Four came as a consequence of the last regular session. Act 274 would add to the homestead exemption for the special assessment level as applied to owners 65 and older up to $30,000, Act 272 would put an exemption in place for rehabilitation of blighted properties, and Act 39 would transfer the special exemption for surviving spouses of veterans one time. These would decrease non-municipal (and including New Orleans) local governments’ property revenues. Potentially raising it, however, is Act 273 which removes a quirk in adjusting millage rates that would allow them to increase within the four-year assessment period after a decrease, so long as the maximum authorized rate isn’t exceeded.

But perhaps the greatest impact would come from Act 220 of 2025, which bumps up the income eligibility level for special assessments (mostly owners 65 and older which freezes their aggregate taxes paid) from $100,000 to $150,000 (which in the case of the Act 274 amendment would add even more leakage). Given the large numbers of unknown such as qualifiers, there is not an estimate of the total cost to local governments, other than it’s assuredly fewer tax dollars rolling in.

Similar moves will appear on several other states’ ballots this year, although some would have far larger consequences, and perhaps with good reason. A Florida item would raise its homestead exemption in an environment where in the past dozen years total property tax collection locally have risen over 2.5 times.

With the exception of the millage raise possibility, the recent run of play in Louisiana favors passage of these. In spring elections, of the 81 local propositions that dealt with new or renewed taxes, 45 failed, demonstrating a willingness to extend more breaks and by implication depriving local governments of revenue.

To date, no public alarm has been raised by local governments that would be affected by passage of the four that would cut taxes. They may make public complaints in the future. About nine percent of homeowners, and a fifth of all homestead owners, fall under the special assessment, so the amount forgone by passage, especially in high-tax parishes, could be significant.

No doubt that, as echoed in complaints from Florida, property taxes have become a huge windfall for local governments. From 2005 to 2025, in Louisiana their collection increased from around $28 billion to $79 billion, 2.5 times the rate of price inflation over that period. Whether carving out greater exceptions instead of wholesale reform would solve for excessive local government growth from this source perhaps is the better question about whether these should pass.

Govts must not forfeit NE LA economic surge

2026-07-20T15:40:00.000-05:00

It's a new world in northeast Louisiana with Meta plopping down in rural Richland Parish what now may become the world’s largest data center, pumping in $50 billion in economic activity over the next decade, it was announced recently. I experienced a symptom of that with this traffic jam at rush hour with vehicles returning from the construction site over a road that never used to see anything close to that volume.

Anecdotal evidence like this now has empirical confirmation. The economic development group Grow NELA has inaugurated a web site displaying data it collected on general sales taxation across the 10-parish region. In some cases, the numbers are astonishing.

Every parish showed sales tax growth from when Meta first announced the Hyperion project at the end of 2024. Only a couple have a pre-Meta quarter that was higher than any of the quarters in their Meta era. Ouachita from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of this year was up 17 percent, compared to only 14 percent from the first of 2021 to the same in 2024. For all of 2026, sales tax growth in on track to increase 19 percent.

The most stunning numbers come from Richland. For the first quarter of 2026 it collected $38.7 million in sales taxes, over 2.5 times the amount collected in that quarter last year and over three times the amount collected two years ago in that quarter. It only collected $4.2 million in the first quarter of 2021. Sales taxes going to the Richland Parish School District exploded upwards 734 percent first quarter over first quarter, leading it to distribute bonuses for four-year-or-more certified teachers of $50,000. Even non-teachers on the job just a year received over $4,000.

Hotel tax revenue numbers also show the tremendous impact the project is having on the headquarters area for Hyperion professional services, Ouachita. These are up 68 percent first quarter over first quarter.

Best of all, the scale of the project is so huge that the benefits will continue for many years to come. Normally, the construction jobs last only a couple of years and the permanent full-time jobs may number only in the dozens. Yet this is so huge that construction work will continue for a decade and leave a thousand high-paying jobs.

The extended period of near-guaranteed boom increases the latitude for local governments to decide wisely what to do with their new-found revenues and how to leverage them so that when construction is complete the bounty continues, but in other forms. Tax and regulatory policy can’t be such that it dampens enthusiasm for spinoff businesses which add more revenue. Spending can’t be all outdoors for new programs with ongoing commitments or Santa Claus capital outlay, but instead focuses on infrastructure to support the new economic growth and/or socked away in savings to generate a future revenue stream or rainy-day fund.

What has happened in northeast Louisiana is generational and transformational, if government doesn’t get in the way. Let’s hope policy-makers have the good sense to understand that.

Ill-timed tax votes waste bucks, disserve public

2026-07-19T13:35:00.000-05:00

The Bossier Parish Police Jury is pursuing one of the most hackneyed dodges that a Louisiana local government can do, wasting, and maybe collecting too many, tax dollars in the process.

Last week, the Jury voted to send a couple of property taxes out for renewal. One is a 1.99 mill dedicated to roads and bridges, currently with only 1.95 being collected, and the other is a 0.82 mill dedicated to running the parish health unit as established by statute which the parish must maintain with only 0.81 being collected.

It’s difficult to argue against the presence of either. Infrastructure is a constant concern, and the health unit is a legal obligation on behalf of the state. But the manner of renewal is craven, if not cowardly or even duplicitous.

The Jury set up the election for Dec. 12. That’s the general election runoff date for (temporarily) U.S. House races and all local elections in the parish – School Board and law enforcement and judicial (and an alderman’s race in Haughton). Which means, practically speaking, that across the entire parish it may be the only item on the ballot.

Consider that the judicial races often draw only one candidate, occasionally two. Even in the rare instance that more than two run, usually it’s decided in the general election. School Board contests have a little more competition, but recently not much more. In fact, the last time there was a runoff for that in a regular election was 16 years ago, and barely at that as the leading candidate finished exactly at 50 percent. Since then, only a constable’s contest and a Plain Dealing alderman’s race went to a runoff. Certainly, no statewide or legislative election (unless something unusual happens in the meantime) will share the ballot.

This almost guarantees extremely low turnout. The Jury never has scheduled any proposition on a fall runoff date before that wasn’t on the national off-year general election day in Louisiana, but the last time statewide constitutional amendments showed up on a runoff date turnout was below 10 percent parish-wide. Lower turnout particularly favors tax renewal because, as their jobs depend upon these, parish employees disproportionately show up, along with families and whatever friends they can drag along, to vote in favor.

After all, the parish has been burned before by rolling the dice on piggybacking on higher-stimulus contests. Just on two decades ago during the general election its attempt to raise property taxes 6 mills for infrastructure narrowly failed (my minor contribution to that is recounted here). And then there’s the Bossier Parish School District’s risking property tax hikes in a spring, 2019 election that voters decisively binned. Even those these proposed are not new taxes but renewals, jurors don’t seem to want to take a chance.

Yet it’s not just the putting of a thumb om the scales that is cringeworthy. Worse, these elections will be more expensive than they needed to be precisely because they may be the only ones, certainly one of the only ones, anywhere on a parish ballot. Statute crates a formula that increases the costs to local governments the more of a ballot proportionally they take up. The judicial and district attorney contests particularly could have increased subsidization by the state on which the renewals could have hitched a ride on Nov. 3. Instead, as perhaps the only items on the Dec. 12 ballot, they parish may have to pay the entire one-half due.

There’s still another underhanded aspect to this election. The extant millages last through 2027. Practically speaking, this means an election could have occurred at the regular general election scheduled Oct. 9 that would have maximized the state picking up the tab. But even if the Jury wanted to be devious, it has three dates in 2027 that would cost more but have less stimulus. And then if the measure(s) failed, there still would be all of 2028 to adjust and attempt passage (because property taxes aren’t due until year’s end so anything passed before then would count for the entire year).

Instead, the Jury is a year early. A buffer of a year prior to the first year a renewed tax would have to be on the books is a good idea in case voters reject something that can be adjusted to satisfy them, but this is two years early. Additionally, jurors may have made this choice knowing 2027 was an election year for them and they may have worried a tax item on the ballot might damage their chances for reelection. This earlier date isn’t optimal because it removes a year’s worth of data for voters to know whether the tax is set at an appropriate authorized maximum millage or is needed at all.

For example, almost all of the revenues coming into the parish’s health unit come from the tax (a pittance coming from the state), but in terms of total revenues that proportion falls somewhat because over 10 percent comes from investing idle balances, which are considerable. At the end of last year, the Health Unit Fund contained about $3.5 million, increasing by $800,000 because only half a million was spent. In the last half of the teens deficits were run because of some capital outlay costs and increased expenditures for unspecified public safety reasons several times the 2025 amount, but also including a 2016 transfer out of around $300,000 for an unspecified purpose, another in 2013 for $15,000 also unspecified, and a nearly $600,000 one in 2009, likely in part to capital spending (throughout these years “public safety” expenditures varied considerably, and one year a small transfer in was made).

Prior to then, the fund balance never was very large in part because the tax took in much less – about a quarter to a third – of what it does today because of lower property values, fewer properties, and a millage that sometimes was substantially below the maximum authorized. The balance now is the highest since at least the turn of the century, with the only time it got close being the year of the huge withdrawal in 2009.

Thus, it would appear in the past few years the tax has over-collected. Unlike in past years, the Jury hasn’t rolled back the rate more than a pittance, although back then it also showed a penchant for periodically draining the fund (and keep in mind it ran a big general fund deficit last year). Another year of data would have been helpful for the people’s needs to determine whether the 0.82 rate is structurally too high, but instead jurors focused on their needs, so voters look set to face early, if not inflated, tax items costing them more than necessary on a likely lonely ballot.

LA must stop subsidizing viewpoint discrimination

2026-07-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

In recent years, Louisiana has taken the lead in protesting viewpoint discrimination by government proxy through the private sector. Its policy-makers should do so again and expand those efforts in covering when the private sector does business with state government.

In the Murthy v. Missouri case, Louisiana played a major role taking up the cause of one of its then-citizens whose viewpoints on health decision-making were discriminated against by social media companies, which in isolation was uncontroversial except that government actively steered the companies in that direction. The judiciary held this to be state-sponsored speech suppression, but it also determined that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. A narrower case, without the state’s involvement, then filed brought a settlement where certain federal government agencies could not engage in that discrimination.

There are other ways in which Louisiana has fought viewpoint discrimination. A few years ago, the State Bond Commission, then led by then-Treas. John Schroder, declared it would not do business with entities that discriminated by viewpoint, specifically with those that refused to do business with gun manufacturers. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry the year he took office issued an executive order covering higher education institutions, which prohibits state agencies and public institutions from discriminating against students, faculty, or staff based on their political ideas and aims to foster a culture where individuals do not face retribution for their speech or political beliefs.

Unfortunately, Louisiana state government now, unknowingly and indirectly, subsidizes viewpoint discrimination. A cottage industry has developed where firms that “rate” media outlets for alleged “disinformation” proclivities offer this data to advertisers, who may use this in decisions determining in which outlets to advertise.

The problem is that “disinformation” often becomes conflated with ideological preferences unmoored from objectivity, if not reality. Two such agencies, the American-based NewsGuard and Britain-based Global Disinformation Index, show clear bias in their assessments by favoring leftist media outlets over outlets that run more stories where the facts lead to conclusions more in line with conservative policy preferences. Problematically, that creates incentive to suppress those viewpoints.

State governments employ advertising agencies by which to disseminate information appertaining to public relations campaigns. But by using those outfits that subscribe to the censorious businesses’ lists, in essence this creates a pass-through subsidization of tax dollars propping up those businesses and validating discrimination against ideologically-disfavored viewpoints.

Some states have recognized their role in stifling speech in this fashion and have acted to prevent that. For the past two years, Florida’s budget has disallowed state agencies to spend money on advertisers that do business with the censoring agencies. West Virginia has gone further by passing earlier this year a statute prohibits state agencies and public funds from being used to support or contract with advertising agencies, marketing companies, or media monitors that utilize ideological ratings, media “blacklists,” or fact-checking organizations to guide their advertisement placements.

Louisiana should join in this relief. Landry could issue an executive order replicating the West Virginia law. He also could sign next year a law doing the same, even expanding it to all local governments, and also a budget with language paralleling Florida’s. Without vetting every contract the state makes it’s impossible to know how much state advertising/marketing dollars are involved, but perhaps the biggest utilizer of such spending, the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, typically will spend annually at least several million dollars on that function.

Government dollars shouldn’t encourage viewpoint discrimination. Louisiana policy-makers should take the steps necessary to see that their taxpayer resources align with that sentiment.

BC district can't treat big boys preferentially

2026-07-15T13:25:00.000-05:00

Creating an economic development district that could help to revive the flagging fortunes of Bossier City’s Boardwalk might have merit, but it depends very much on execution that doesn’t have one set of private businesses subsidizing another.

In recent months, meetings have occurred attended by a number of business owners located from the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway north bounded by Hamilton Road, East Texas Street, and Traffic Street and inclusive of businesses along these routes. The proposed boundaries would include all casinos, the East Bank District, and the Boardwalk. General conversations have been held discussing the areas to include, revenue collection methods with an additional sales tax charged as the leading option, and uses of these proceeds such as using them to back debt issuance to pursue projects.

EDDs under statute may be created by a local governing authority, so the City Council would have to pass an ordinance doing this and would establish itself as the district’s governing authority, with, among other powers, has the power to tax. These could collect revenues by property (5 mill maximum) or sales taxation (2 percent maximum) or hotel occupancy taxes (2 percent maximum) and engage in a number of economic development projects, or even establish cooperative endeavor agreements to run the district with public or private entities.

The Boardwalk began struggling only a few years after its 2005 opening, which has vexed city leaders not only because of the outdoor mall’s plummeting sales tax revenues and eroding property tax values that hit at city coffers while the city must provide fire and police protection, but also because it unwisely plunked down over $20 million to construct a parking garage there that is useless without a functioning Boardwalk. Recent signs of improvement have occurred, and the city did try to jumpstart improved fortunes by establishing an open container district along the west side of Traffic, but if talk of an EDD including it has surfaced, then the prognosis still must not be all that rosy.

If the city heads in this direction, there are a number of questions to be answered about it. These focus on whether the district is an appropriate size and inclusion, revenues are collected in a fair manner, and projects pursued are equitable in nature.

Economic development districts can vary in size and composition. Some, like the North Baton Rouge EDD, sprawl for many square miles covering developed and vacant areas, perhaps tautologically encompassing much of north Baton Rouge. Other, like the Riverfront EDD in West Monroe, are very small and specifically targeting. West Monroe also demonstrates the gamut of EDDs. The West Monroe EDD hugs a portion of Interstate 20 featuring its civic center, while the Highland Park EDD basically has tried to lure development to a former golf course which at present is a recreational area.

But what all have in common is they try to incorporate a specific development vision to all components within the boundaries. An old Bossier City EDD firstly would have to carve out residential areas, schools, and churches, but even if it did that, the businesses involved are in very disparate economic places. You have the out-of-area interests owning the casinos and their hotels plus Bass Pro Shop, all doing well enough and dwarfing all other entities in terms of corporate size (and throw in another whale although locally owned, Red River Chevrolet). Then there’s the struggling Boardwalk (also owned by out-of-state interests). Then there are a bunch of relative minnows, the entertainment places (and a few non-entertainment) in the East Bank District and a few others scattered about.

The problem is these entities have disparate needs and interests. For example, the Boardwalk could use lifelines from public dollars, even though with the garage it already has the single largest public dollar investment in the contemplated area. Meanwhile, what could the entertainment venues, which received no public dollars direct to their businesses yet achieved successes anyway, receive from this arrangement, where, for example, they may end up adding two percent to their customers’ bills which will reduce demand for their services?

Worse would be differential treatment in revenue collection. For example, could the casinos use their clout to avoid a hotel occupancy tax levied, which also could help the Boardwalk’s next door neighbor hotel, another just off the East Bank, and supplement any future plans for motel properties recently in receivership just south of I-20? Combining favored breaks in collection for some and spending geared towards subsidizing the fortunes of some, this could create a very few winners and lot of losers (and then there’s the issue of one of the Boardwalk’s largest tenants, the Simple Church, which is not a business but would have to be included in an EDD because of its location, and whether because of that it receives preferential treatment).

Worst of all, this could be done in a way that bypasses procedure in statute, which requires a public vote of all electors residing in the district for a tax to be imposed. Except that if there are no electors, the governing authority unilaterally can impose the tax, so the district could be drawn to exclude any residence and give maximal leverage to the City Council. (This is a common tactic with Louisiana EDDs, with the Highland Park EDD a recent prime example.)

Note as well that drawing up the district with this in mind may interfere with the city’s recent efforts to come up with a comprehensive master plan that could require zoning changes. Drawing up the district this way could conflict with the eventual plan by its creating residential areas within the district and potentially discouraging optimal zoning in the plan by its presence.

If Bossier City is going to do this, it needs to be done in a manner fair to all businesses regardless of their sizes and current economic fortunes, and not as a redistributive mechanism preferring some over others. A transparent process will maximize an equitable outcome.

GIGO-hampered lists misinform on state of LA

2026-07-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

Louisiana policy-makers, businesses, and citizens are laughing all the way to the economic development and social livability banks even as a leftist news organization misreads the room.

Last week, cable business channel CNBC peddled two indices of where states rank. One overall index, alleging to capture state economic performance, put the state 46^th, citing its heavy reliance on federal dollars that may shrink – partly a consequence of the stupefying decision to expand Medicaid a decade ago at the behest of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards – tariffs, and slow economic growth.

The other was a subset of the first, supposedly capturing quality of life that factors in about a ninth of the overall. Here, the state ranked a place worse, with Vermont on top and Tennessee on bottom.

Which should tip off that this particular category, and so to a lesser extent the overall list, is unmoored from reality. Reading the fine print helps to explain why. In the quality of life category CNBC includes as positives “inclusivity” and pro-abortion laws, begging the questions of how greater ease in killing the unborn, allowing children to be mutilated, and creating inequity for females in sports, among other things, are positive policy preferences.

Removing the points for this nonsense only changes Louisiana’s overall ranking five places, and another several states also move up the ranks at the expense of other states scoring higher in this category. Clearly, recent gains in the state’s economic fortunes after eight years under Edwards featuring stagnation if not retrenchment will have to continue and will take time to show steady upwards progress.

Clearer and less susceptible to noise measurements come from other statistics, state gross domestic product growth and population growth. The former clearly captures economic fortunes while the latter serves as a good proxy for quality of life, because clearly people will move to states that promise them a better life and move away from those that don’t.

These illuminate more clearly that Louisiana has made much more progress than leftist-based indices will admit. For the last year for which there is data, Louisiana gained in population for the second straight year, reversing the six-figure net outflow under Edwards. And in the last quarter for which there is data, the state not only was one of the best performers in growth but in the latest month available also set a record for number of nonfarm jobs, surmounting a record set prior to Edwards’ terms.

In part, that came from massive industrial expansion during the first two years of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s tenure. Often, that source of jobs and growth when it comes from a surge in construction, as has occurred after Landry assumed office, proves temporary and may last a year or two. However, in this case that might go on for some time. This week, Meta announced that it planned to go all the way with its Hyperion data center east of Monroe, building it out all the way to its 5 gigawatt maximum.

This means what started out as a $10 billion project that became a $27 billion seeking 2 GW power usage completed in 2030 now will keep expanding to the entire 5 GW capacity by 2032, injecting $50 billion into the economy, much pumped into the state. That means six more years of job creation by the construction sector. Other centers elsewhere in the state are in the works, with a key tax credit for which Landry and others stumped ready to encourage more such development lasting through 2029.

(And, believe the hype that this is a game-changer for northeast Louisiana. Last month I was driving back home through Monroe on a weekday. Years ago, except for Louisville Avenue and maybe U.S. Highway 165 there was no such thing as rush hour traffic. As I approached on an increasingly-congested Interstate 20 not long after 5 PM the exit to Pecanland Mall, suddenly I had to come screeching to a halt where it became a parking lot. For the next 45 minutes, all stop and go, traffic crawled the 5 miles or so basically, crossing U.S. 165 in the process, to the bridge over the Ouachita River where it finally began picking up a bit. It was data center traffic merging with highway travelers and Monroe traffic.)

Oh, and how did the alpha and omega on the CNBC quality of life index fare on these measures? Tennessee’s population grew proportionally more than did most states and its economy grew middling compared to others, while Vermont’s economy barely grew and it lost residents. But, hey, there at least you can kill the unborn with impunity, lop off or sew up minors’ genitalia on demand, and punish private schools who eschew letting biological males run roughshod over biological females in youth competitions.

Finally, a research project at Tulane University last month also ranked Louisiana lowly, dead last, in an attempted global overview of the states. While less ideologically-determined than the CNBC efforts, it also suffered from some invalid indicators, principally in its inclusion of measuring greenhouse gases emitted in the state – which is a prime component to catastrophic anthropogenic global warming mythology but reality means little in the overall scheme of understanding global temperature variation – and a related indicator polling people about their “trust in science” – which deservedly has taken a beating in recent years precisely because of the bankruptcy of the CAGW religion and politicization of the overkill Wuhan coronavirus pandemic response, so such a shaky measure conceptually reveals nothing.

To summarize these assessments: garbage in, garbage out, making them suspect in telling us much useful.

BC bad past spending choices hamper development

2026-07-13T12:45:00.000-05:00

When peeling back the layers, the Bossier City Council’s recent decision to deny a rezoning request isn’t about accommodating a commercial enterprise at the edge of a residential neighborhood but illuminates a consequence of poor spending choices made in the city’s past.

Last week, the Council, contrary to the recommendation of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, voted 6-1 to deny the request – for a second time – to open a chiropractor clinic at the corner of Douglas Drive and Benton Road. South along the east side of Benton Road up to that point are a string of commercial establishments, but behind these are the older neighborhoods. The west side of Benton from just south of Douglas is all large-lot residences almost to Viking Drive.

Councilors introduced multiple reasons to deny the request again. One questioned why the owner, who lives nearby, wouldn’t buy a more suitable commercial property as the location to transfer his business, with speculation that he was trying to get a price break and then count on changing the zoning. Another noted that the city was in the process of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new master plan and any zoning decision should wait until after its completion rather than carving out what could be a last-second exception.

However, the main concern was over safety. Indeed, Assistant City Attorney Richard Ray gave a presentation showing a marked increase in accidents around that intersection since 2023. The planned change would have allowed the clinic to have parking around the back utilizing Douglas and patrons might have been tempted to park on the street. The traffic increase would have been marginal but it would have added to attempts to turn left, southbound, onto Benton across the two lanes northbound.

That Douglas acts as an east-west corridor between Benton and Airline Drive to the west, two heavily-travelled commercial arteries, through a residential area with only four other such direct connecting routes between the mile-plus mostly residential area between East Texas St. to the south and Interstate 220 to the north, exacerbates the problem. This draws traffic heading west on Douglas from Airline, with the southbound turn especially worrisome. That a bus stop operates close to that intersection also compounds matters that disrupts traffic and can block sight lines.

One possible solution could be to extend a median on Benton northward to Douglas, preventing a left turn. Yet this would inconvenience neighborhood residents and increase side street traffic off of Douglas heading north potentially to turn left off of a more northern outlet, which in turn would send more cars careening through the neighborhood, and in any event would have to be in place before the clinic took over. Another solution, making it a lighted intersection, defeats the purpose of having Benton serve as a high-speed corridor through that point.

And the reason why it must serve this role is a spending mistake made by the city many years ago. When the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway was completed to the then-city limits under the Jimmie Davis Bridge looping around the city’s southside (later extended further as the city became able to annex land heading south along the Red River to Sligo Road), plans began forming for the then-called ART Parkway North extension past E. Texas. Conceptually, it would head somewhat along the river northward, bypassing crowded intersections and over rail lines to empty out around I-220.

It began as a $24 million project but quickly spiraled out of control. Less than a decade later it had ballooned to $50 million before any dirt was turned. And then it became attenuated. Information presently publicly available doesn’t reveal when or why it happened, but sometime before 2021 policy-makers unknown decided the northern terminus would be a bit south of Douglas, just north of the location conveniently of long-time then-Councilor David Montgomery’s place of business.

Cost considerations surely drove this decision. Eventually, the cost of the Walter O. Bigby Carriageway would hit $89 million or about $50 million a mile. Another half mile to empty out just short of Viking Drive would have cost tens of millions more but would have been far more effective in speeding up travel and reducing Benton Road congestion, begging the question of whether it should have been built in the first place if it so cost-ineffectively addressed traffic concerns.

As well as, it would appear, would have avoided at least an association with the spike in accidents (the Carriageway opened at the end of September, 2024), if not the causal agent. Dumping more traffic just south of Douglas onto Benton appears to made that intersection less safe.

This left the Council with unpalatable choices: crowd even more a neighborhood with transient vehicles that create more hazardous conditions in and around it and might subvert future planning efforts, or stiff-arm a business asking for special treatment. It’s not unreasonable a majority chose the latter option even as the city tries to promote its economic development prospects.

The previous three decades of city governance featured reckless spending on unnecessary or negative cost/benefit, yet expensive, things. This episode exemplifies that the long-term costs paid by the citizenry can’t be measured just in dollars thrown away, but also in a legacy of degraded growth and quality of life.

Landry tries again to thread needle, on centers

2026-07-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

Just as he has found himself trying to thread a needle concerning carbon capture and sequestration, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has tried to do the same regarding data center presence in the state.

Last year, under growing popular pressure, Landry issued an executive order that had the effect of slowing down CCS projects in the state. It allowed only a few to go forward, rendered when increasing public and legislative opposition advised that the impact particularly of the sequestration process had not had sufficient study for the application of appropriate safeguards.

This issue has caught Landry between its two aspects of capture and sequestration. With federal tax credits (and, for now, carbon credits paid by foreign concerns) for capture enabling a profitable industry, Louisiana has a competitive advantage only because of its abundance of sequestration options. It has no leverage over capture policy, just sequestration policy, but it precisely is sequestration around which major opposition has coalesced.

Landry’s permitting policy from that order tried to please both sides. It may have slowed capture projects leading to sequestration, but with the competitive advantage this would not discourage demand (as long as the tax and carbon credits remained political realities), yet the delay would give opponents some comfort that slowing down things could lead to prevention.

Now, he must grapple with a similar situation. The mushrooming of data centers nationwide has swept up the state, which once again finds itself with a competitive advantage with suitors’ access to less expensive energy as well as lesser start-up costs. The Hyperion project in northeast Louisiana, for example, will pump tens of billions of dollars into the economy over the next few years.

However, along with others, that project also has stoked worries from residents both nearby and farther away. Principal concerns include whether centers will suck up too much water and whether their considerable electricity demands will cause rates for ratepayers to skyrocket. Hyperion’s developers, for example, along with power provider Entergy Louisiana promised the only additional charges would come from financing power lines that would aid all ratepayers and that even if the Hyperion agreement ended earlier than the lifespans of the additional generating capacity built these would obviate future capacity enhancement needs for the entire service area.

Thus, on the heels of a report to the Public Service Commission that indicated a contemplated purchase by Entergy of a power generation source that could be related to Hyperion that might have costs offloaded onto all consumers, Landry acted. His executive order attempts to leverage tax credits for economic development that centers could enjoy by making these contingent on their recipients fulfilling a series of criteria in aggregate that would elevate benefits above costs, even if this meant increased costs to ratepayers could rise.

While the usual suspects on the political left have dismissed haughtily the order, in reality it creates quite some commitments for data center operators. Not only must they pledge against transferring costs to ratepayers, they also are to have a hand in creating education programs to train their workers, strengthen the local tax base, conserve resources in their operations such water, invest in local communities, give preference to Louisiana entrepreneurial activities, and to maintain transparency and accountability in operations.

Further, the stipulations apply not just to new entrants but also to existing tax credit recipients. In short, no new deployment of credits will happen without showing some attainment of these criteria (to be specified in detail by the end of summer through promulgated rules) and if not delivered sufficiently by current recipients they will lose the credits going forward despite the amount of sunk costs associated with a project. It’s hard not to think the majority of operators and the worried public would be pleased in the main with this compromise.

Naturally, this raises the cost of business for operators, but Landry counts on market forces to continue to drive projects the state’s way even with this. If things turn out that way, once again Landry will have walked successfully a fine line to please most of the people most of the time.

LDH free condom giveaway strategy shift beneficial

2026-07-08T12:45:00.000-05:00

If you’re a dude (or you’re a gal who’s about to have an assignation with such a guy) who can’t keep it in your pants, go grab yourself a free state-issue condom. And here’s a map to help you.

Yes, Louisiana participates in an HIV (and, more generally, sexually transmitted and infectious disease) prevention program that, among other things, tosses loads of free condoms to nonprofits and businesses to distribute. For example, feeling randy in Bossier City but concerned you’ll pick up a gift that keeps on giving? Check in to any of four motels on East Texas St. and not only can you get a room for the deed (maybe even by the hour), but a free state-issue wrapper as well.

According to the most recent numbers, the state spent $3 million of federal money on the broader program in the latest year available; how much of this went to condoms and if there were state taxpayer dollars at work is unknown. And, before accusations arise about how this is a looney leftist politicized waste of money, it is a Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration initiative.

Those adjectives aside, it is a waste, because in reference to HIV transmission it inefficiently reduces that. You wouldn’t know that from the bleating emanating from some pro-homosexual activists upon learning that the Louisiana Department of Health has shifted policy to change the outlets where the freebies are distributed, shifting more towards official channels such as state agency sites and away from distributions ending up in the likes of barber shops.

The activists lament that this will cut down on casual, if not impulse, acquisition due to reduced access. And that’s precisely the tactic to use to reduce the incidence of HIV.

While politically incorrect but devastatingly accurate, in America HIV is a disease primarily propagated and disseminated by male homosexuals’ sexual behavior, practitioners of which make up a tiny proportion of the entire population yet dominate in those having it. That outcome and why it came to that has long been known, brilliantly summarized by activist, author (and now filmmaker) Gabriel Rotello in his book Sexual Ecology.

To summarize, AIDS came about because of cultural mores (risk-taking) that developed in the couple of decades prior to the actual discovery of the disease. Until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of male homosexuals preferred trysts with heterosexual males or established long-term relationships with each other. But with the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the idea grew that there was a “gay lifestyle” to achieve that demanded voluminous encounters, preferably extremely casual if not anonymous. This high frequency of and often physically destructive copulation that resulted provided the perfect recipe first to develop the disease in humans and then its spread, a trend which continues to this day.

Thus, in this culture trying to amplify condom use is like throwing a bucket of water on a bonfire. It will prove somewhat effective, but not nearly as effective as cultural change that reduces the intensity of the fire.

That, hopefully, is what the LDH shift in reducing contractor distribution is all about. In response, one activist alleged that “HIV [incidence] is going to shoot through the roof.” No, it already is way too high among homosexual males, but keep shouting that from the rooftops.

Because that’s the kind of alarm needed to be raised to get through to those indulging in the culture of risk. Get that subset of males to stop their high rates of varied homosexual copulation, and their being in situations where they desire condoms and HIV incidence and transmission will decrease more than it ever could by condom provision as freely as California hands out mail-in ballots. If we have to spend our tax dollars on handing them out, handing out fewer and in a manner less encouraging of risky behavior is a better strategy to accomplishing the end result of much reduced HIV.

Groups oppose rule that would uncover true selves

2026-07-07T12:01:28.161-05:00

If you throw water on a dog and it yelps, the water must be scalding to the dog. The interesting question, as in the case of the hue and cry emanating from leftist special interests over a proposed Louisiana Public Service Commission transparency rule, is why what seems lukewarm to everybody else feels radioactive to them.

At its next meeting, the PSC is expected to approve a rule requiring intervenors in cases to reveal in broad terms whether they receive funding from entities outside of Louisiana including foreign governments and if so the proportion. Additionally, money from foreign governments or entities that they control received over the past five years would have to be specified, including whether domestic donors to organizations received money from these sources. The rule would apply to any entity that comments on a case, all the way from climate alarmist organizations to corporations, including regulated utilities, who have a potential monetary interest in an outcome, including lobby groups.

It's not like this information is hard to come by. Corporations or cooperatives have to file tax forms that draw upon this information, and nonprofits, even those designated as charitable, also have to collect information on donors to satisfy reporting requirements such as indicating sufficiently large donations or determining whether they meet a public support standard to qualify as tax exempt.

Even the pass-through foreign entity stricture poses minimal problems. If an entity receives a donation from another nonprofit, the appropriate 990 or other similar form of the donor will contain that information. For example, the Louisiana climate alarmist group Alliance for Affordable Energy (which fronts as a consumer protection agency) in its latest filing reveals it received about $2 million that year – interesting, about a third more than it lists in total donations – from 13 other organizations, only one of which representing about one percent of the intake comes from Louisiana. All 13 donors file similar forms from which money from foreign governments and their proxies may be traced.

This exercise takes little effort but has a big payoff. A recent report from the Pelican Institute in part about climate alarmist lobbying in Louisiana showed since 2020 at least $115.5 million flowed into the state from out-of-state entities going to groups sympathetic to that cause, with some passing through coming from a foreign adversary as defined in federal and state law (in fact, the proposed rule tracks state transparency law for third-party litigation financing and is less restrictive than statute’s prohibition of involvement by foreign adversaries).

In short, the rule illuminates whether intervenors have a financial incentive to serve as mouthpieces of out-of-state, if not foreign, entities whose agendas do not emanate from the genuine desires of Louisianans, regardless of the degree of association. That information can prove very informative to the commissioners when deciding on matters regrading Louisianans.

Which is why groups like the AAE screech about the potential rule, alleging it will have a chilling effect on their participation, impugn their credibility, and “trap” them in some fashion. But, how? It’s all dispersed information either already public or easily revealed made conveniently available at virtually no cost to the organizations, and, as noted above, for a relevant reason. And that should have no bearing on any testimony and filings that are factual in basis, where the inclusion of the disclosure merely alerts commissioners to the possibility that a dependency on funding on non-Louisiana interests may mean data received from these organizations may not be impartial and are shaped in a way incongruent to the best interests of Louisianans. Plus, there’s no favoritism as all intervenors would have to comply with this.

Such leftist protestations ring hollow. Bluntly, these groups fear being revealed as Astroturf organizations almost exclusively dependent on out-of-state or out-of-country money by donors with little interest in Louisianans but with a great interest in imposing an ideological agenda on the state. That information should be part of any decision calculus that the PSC utilizes.

Media outlet falls for reporting flawed narrative

2026-07-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

If you’re a special interest group basing your policy preferences on bad science that needs donor dollars, you must scare people, and a Louisiana media source bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

This year, the group Climate Central put out a report alleging that summers over the past 35 years have warmed in almost all of 243 U.S. cities and that anthropogenic climate change is the leading driver in nearly all of those. Then the group, which prides itself on fronting the fable that anthropogenic causes necessarily have triggered more extreme weather such as rising average temperatures and packages this for local media, snookered the Louisiana Radio Network into swallowing this line for a story about summer temperatures in Louisiana, blaming supposedly higher temperatures on increases in carbon emissions that eventually will lead to doom.

Chasing the story was defensible, given alarmist reporting about temperatures. However, swallowing the bilge whole proved a lapse in judgment.

That’s as a little research would have demonstrated that the report is fatally flawed that renders its conclusions worthless. It relies upon measuring stations severely prone to the Urban Heat Island effect. Basically, the effect comes about from relying upon data gathered at stations particularly prone to picking up microsite data that badly, if at all, captures the actual environment accurately which is possible even a short distance away. This is due to the fact that stations decades ago were placed in areas where continued urban development traps more and more heat. In using average temperatures, both day and night, this tactic (particularly when relying on nighttime numbers because of slowly dissipating trapped localized heat) overestimates actual mean temperatures caused by natural forces. Stations in the same area placed away from artificial heat sources systematically show significantly lower temperatures. Simply, these data mislead.

That doesn’t mean that human activities don’t contribute to rising temperatures – if they have risen at all, the point being these measurements are unreliable to determine even that. What it does mean is assertions such as those in the report can’t be made legitimately. But if flawed data are available that support your mission ….

Yet even the news story, to observant critical thinkers, carries its own seeds of destruction to the narrative being peddled. The group’s source claims that carbon dioxide emissions increases have caused this on the way to catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. Yet the national temperature change said to have occurred in urban areas since 1970 was 2.5 degrees while in Louisiana’s since 1895 it has been 1.4 degrees.

But hasn’t there been an enormous increase in carbon output by the U.S. in that span, 200 times a 3 percent national increase in temperature as measured in the study; in fact, output has declined 20 percent in the past two decades? And why would Louisiana cities, with the state especially prone to carbon output, lag the nation’s urban centers in increase by some 40 percent or more? These inconsistencies illuminate the fact that much more prominent factors – some influenced by man such as conservationist strategies, others not so such as sunspot activity – account for the lion’s share in understanding temperature changes, or otherwise there would be much greater association between carbon output and temperature change.

So, the whole story is garbage in, garbage out. And let’s hope LRN and other state media outlets – if they are committed to fair and unbiased searches for the truth of things – do a better job of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Monroe unwise to change mayoral veto standard

2026-07-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

A frustrated set of Monroe City Council Democrats are advocating the gutting of the intent and purpose of the city charter because the system works.

Last week, the Council addressed a pair of vetoes issued by no party Mayor Friday Ellis. He struck a measure that would have established a constitutionally problematic procedure for addressing allegedly discriminatory statements and actions among city employees, prompted when his chief operating officer Morgan McCallister hit back at baseless accusations of such alleged statements. Another denied ordinance would have had the city annex a neighborhood, against the decision of the city’s zoning board, with questionable liabilities involving a principal whose other project is stalled by the city, discussion of which in front of another government body was what prompted the accusation against McCallister.

Council Democrats complained that Ellis had the power to create an extra hurdle for things he didn’t support – in other words, carping about a venerable and basic check and balance in American government. Democrat Juanita Woods said she was bringing a reworded version of the investigatory ordinance one of which was introduced later, and she insinuated racism lay behind the annexation veto, while Democrat Rodney McFarland said the stated basis of the veto was “lies” and made the similar comparison that the largely-black southside area of Monroe was getting shortchanged; all Council Democrats are black while Ellis is white.

As a result, the majority also brought an ordinance asking voters to amend the charter to make the mayor’s veto power suspensory; that is, rather than a two-third vote required to override a veto, the same simple majority that pass matters would do – in essence, when all members are present three rather than four votes could override. Practically speaking, it would allow the three Democrats both to pass legislation and to make an Ellis veto merely delay enactment of something by a couple of weeks.

It's unwise to pursue this. While several states give their governors only a suspensory veto, the dynamics are different where those legislatures have sufficient resources to provide substantial input to decision-making. By contrast, Monroe’s Council has next to none, and certainly little compared to the city’s executive branch headed by the mayor that it depends upon for almost all its information and analysis. The proposed arrangement could lead the Council into uninformed actions that to which the mayor otherwise could provide some balance, while the current one still gives the Council an opportunity to be assertive, just with a greater majority that promotes moderation and coalition-building.

In fact, putting this into the charter ends up as a half-baked and inefficient way of creating a council-manager or weak mayor-council system of government, as opposed to the strong mayor-council system Monroe has already. A council-manager system has the council hire (and fire) a professional city manager to run executive functions (no Louisiana municipality has this), while a weak mayor-council system gives the mayor only ceremonial and very minor administrative powers, if even making him separately elected and not a member of the council.

Thus, if the majority wishes to arrogate more power to itself, it should go whole hog and scrap the strong mayor-council system. Yet also worth noting is law made on the basis of exceptions is bad law. Council Democrats, knowing the two Republicans on the Council can be counted upon usually to back Ellis and thus vetoes stand, may see this amendment as a method to impose their agenda. But Ellis won’t be in office forever. What if one of them becomes mayor at some point and finds himself hampered with just a suspensory veto?

Structure of government and personality conflicts aside, changing mayoral veto power this way, as proposed by the Democrats and if considered by the public, is a bad idea simply for this reason: the qualified veto provides for greater separation of power and checks and balances that improves governing. If people put into office occupants of branches that have the power to check each other and do, through the ballot box the people wanted sufficient harmony within and between branches before making policy, and not a concentration of power. Democrats should respect that and drop the proposed ordinance.