[StBernard] 2007 Legislative Session: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Jun 29 19:50:44 EDT 2007


The Good: Then vs. Now

The last time that the legislature had such an embarassment of riches, it
was at the height of the oil boom and Edwin Edwards was Governor. The
spending bandwagon was in full throttle and there were few fiscal
conservatives in sight. If someone had even suggested fiscal restraint,
they would have gotten laughed out of the Capitol.

Today, fiscal conservatives were able to totally derail an ill-conceived
special session in December and even force some sanity into the spending
madness this past session. The administration's spending bonanza was
defeated three separate times on the House floor and the sale of the tobacco
settlement (for still even more money) was forced to be jettisoned.

In addition, the legislature passed more tax breaks than the administration
wanted, including a substantial repeal of Stelly (reinstating the excess ite
mized deductions), the repeal of the gift tax, 7% tax credit for insurance
premiums, and a private school tuition deduction of up to $5,000. However,
it still remains to be seen how much tax relief survives the veto pen.

Fiscal conservatives are on the rise and the upcoming elections could mark
an historic shift away from Louisiana's entitlement mentality.

The Bad: Spending Everything that Wasn't Nailed Down

Although an overwhelming number of voters wanted a fiscally prudent
approach, the administration did what it wanted and spent every penny and
then some. Louisiana has the fourth highest spending per capita in the
nation and now has the highest debt per capita at any time in its history.
Despite pleas to the contrary, the "Old Guard" in the legislature, many of
them Edwin Edwards holdovers, just could not resist the urge to spend.
Their fiscal insanity could cripple the e conomy in the years to come. And
of course spending was based on politics rather than policy and progressive
ideas such as transferring vehicle sales taxes into a construction fund for
the state's infrastructure were shot down because, of course, that would
leave less money to spend.

The Ugly: The Edwin Edwards Holdovers

Why is it that the Edwin Edwards Good Old Boy holdovers still think they own
this state? Times have changed and I have a message for you: Your Governor
is in jail, the voters are sick of you, and your time has come and gone. So
go away! Have you actually thought of doing something productive in the
private sector? Lucky for you, the New Guard actually wants to help the
private sector that you worked so hard against.



Tim

Related:

The Dead Pelican <http://www.thedeadpelican.com/>






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