Displaying items by tag: Louisiana legislature

The Louisiana capitol is ready to start its Louisiana Legislature tax chicken dance.  On one side of the floor are Governor, John Bel Edwards and democrats. On another side are fiscal conservatives.  And, in the middle are a group of lawmakers who believe the state is reaching a moment of urgency.

The question is—who’s going to take the first step and blink as the music is quickly getting ready to start?

Winter is still here. The Louisiana days are getting a little longer. The threat of another special session to plug a massive hole in the budget is getting closer. 

The mantra of fiscal cliff still fills the air as it has now winter after winter, year after year.

As of now, what is the shape of the Louisiana political waterfront?

This was the gist of  a series of questions I asked political analyst and pollster Bernie Pinsonat during a Facebook and Twitter live video conference we held on Wednesday. 

The point isn’t so much that Democrats’ positions continue to deteriorate in Louisiana, or even why, but why Democrats continue to let it happen.
My Advocate colleague Tyler Bridges wrote a piece on how, despite enthusiasm stemming from Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ 2015 upset win, indicators keep showing the party’s fortunes declining.

by Stephen Waguespack, President and CEO of Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI)

Not sure if you have noticed or not, but there is something called the fiscal cliff looming in Louisiana. If you haven’t heard of it yet, sit tight, because you will hear a whole lot about it over the next few months.

The 2018 crisis will be filled with plenty of drama, finger pointing and inflammatory rhetoric. Every (former, current and future) politician will say it is the other (former, current and future) politician’s fault for the deficits and lack of agreement on the appropriate mixture of taxes and cuts to fill it.

ouisiana has one of the worst insurance regulatory environments in the nation. That is according to Washington-based conservative think tank R Street Institute in its 2017 Insurance Regulation Report Card just issued. And no, it’s not because of the trial lawyers or the big insurance companies. The blame is laid directly on the Louisiana legislature. In ranking states across the country, Louisiana was given an F.

Jim Brown, former State Senator, Louisiana Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner, knows a little bit about the term, “scrub the budget”. That was the term famously used by former Governor Buddy Roemer, who came from election nowhere in the final weeks of the gubernatorial campaign, to beat then-incumbent Edwin Edwards, Billy Tauzin, Bob Livingston and Speedy Long in 1987.

Today, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards released his $25.3 billion “doomsday” Louisiana operating budget outlining the worse case scenario for the upcoming budget year. The budget would devastate health services and sharply cut into the TOPS program.  After the budget was released, the Democrats released a statement concerned about what they call $2.4 billion dollars in cuts.

Edwards wants the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a replacement tax package.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.  At least the Louisiana fiscal sky is in a tailspin, or so says Governor John Bel Edwards and a number of legislative leaders.  The hue and cry is for one billion dollars in new taxes along with significant fee increases.  Even the local papers are chiming in with headlines like “The fiscal threat is real to colleges” and about to “get real.”  What a poor taxpayer to think?

In the 2015 gubernatorial campaign, John Bel Edwards pretended he was a conservative Democrat. He emphasized his military background and his support for the pro-life cause and the Second Amendment. Thus, when he was elected, Louisiana supporters expected a somewhat conservative Governor who would steer the state in the right direction. Instead, voters have witnessed a typical “tax and spend” liberal Governor who is a proponent of a large state government and is resistant to tax and fiscal reform.