[StBernard] EDITORIAL: Don't revive bad practices

[Westley Annis]

Periodically, the press office will share editorials about Governor Blanco's
work in various areas.

EDITORIAL: Don't revive bad practices 


Published: Thursday, March 16, 2006
By: The Times-Picayune

Even after two devastating hurricanes pounded Louisiana last fall, lawmakers
fought to hold onto their individual slush funds. 

Ultimately, the dire post-storm budget situation forced them to go along
with Gov. Kathleen Blanco and cut out the urban and rural grant funds. But
this issue, like Freddy Krueger in "Nightmare on Elm Street," simply will
not die. 

Some lawmakers are gearing up for a push during the upcoming session to
restore the $16 million doled out annually by individual legislators. 

That is an awful idea, and the Blanco administration is right to resist it.
Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc had a good answer to
lawmakers' concerns about rural governments they say depend on the money for
fire trucks, sewage projects and such. Rural communities can seek money for
those needs through an existing block grant program that the administration
wants to increase by $10 million, he said. 

That program has an! established set of criteria and a grading system, which
is the smart way to dole out the public's money. 

That didn't satisfy Rep. Jack Smith of Patterson. He said larger cities
couldn't tap into that pool of money and predicted that lawmakers will try
to restore both the rural and urban funds. 

The truth is, lawmakers like the power of handing out pots of money to
projects they favor. That way, they get credit for the largesse. But buying
good will for individual lawmakers is not the proper way to make spending
decisions. 

There are many competing needs for money, especially in post-Katrina
Louisiana. The state must set rational spending priorities and judge every
request for money in those terms. 

Slush funds are no way to achieve that. 

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The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation Louisiana's Fund for Louisiana's
People www.louisianahelp.org