visit another NewsHorn site
State warns of lean year ahead
That the state may be looking at a shortfall of over $1 billion for 2009-10 is unfortunate. That to some degree this could have been mitigated is unquestioned. That it can be managed with a minimum of budgetary agony should not be doubted, if we start now.
It's not like we weren't warned, certainly often enough by this space. Under Gov. Kathleen Blanco, when it became apparent that federal disaster relief spending was going to fatten state coffers, the immediate impulse should have been to start bankrolling this bonanza in the Budget Stabilization Fund to the tune of $1 billion-plus a year. Instead, Blanco withdrew funds from it. At least Gov. Bobby Jindal didn't buckle so badly to legislative demands when he had a shot to infuse money into it in 2008, but that he only dumped in the minimum showed a lack of foresight in planning. And here we are again, with a chance to put the entire projected surplus for 2007-08 into the fund.
Had these suggestions been followed which would have pushed the fund to $4 billion, for this upcoming fiscal year the entire projected deficit could have been withdrawn from the fund (a third may be taken every two years). This would have bought time for the 2008 tax cuts to kick in that will add hundreds of millions from increased economic activity to come to fruition. Regardless, it's not too late to send the entire projected last year surplus to the fund where maybe it could support a third of this year's projected deficit.
Besides better revenue management, spending also must be addressed. Given the state's eccentric eligibility of funds reduction without extraordinary measures, health care is the single largest item by far where controls would have to be instituted. The looming crisis once again demonstrates that Louisiana must rid itself on a fixation for institutionalized solutions both for triage and long-term care. As regards the former, restructuring the health care system to move away from overwhelming dependence on state-owned facilities to provide indigent care will save funds. As regards the latter, putting more care into home- and community-based care by getting rid of the tremendous reliance on nursing homes to produce more efficient and effective solutions will save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Jindal Administration obviously is acting correctly to identify areas of savings now, but it needs to be more proactive in seeking out reduced expenses and banking money. That …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 6 days, 15 hours, 6 minutes ago
Demos cry foul as voter rolls cut
Louisiana Democrats are looking for a little election insurance by their complaints that there's some sort of discrimination going on in dropping voters off rolls for failure to verify their information, part of a longer-term plan launched months ago where the charges have only political, not factual, bases
In front of a Louisiana legislative committee, a party operative claimed something fishy was going on, alleging something was amiss with a disproportionate elimination of "non-Republicans" from eligible voter rolls. After the books close for an election date, registrars are empowered to identify questionable registrations and ask for confirmation. If none is received, the doubted registration is cancelled.
The numbers, however, tell a different story. Statewide, the proportion of Democrats struck from the rolls was about 3.5 percent higher than their statewide proportion of the electorate, for Republicans it was about the same lower, and it was about identical for other and no party registrants. Certainly the allegation that "non-Republicans" were disproportionately struck was false, but had to be made to hide the partisan overtones of the complaint.
Accounting for the small difference for the two major parties, besides the obvious fact that, socioeconomically speaking, Democrats typically are on the lower end of the scale and therefore more likely to be transient, this time out the higher rate may be due to activities such as special interests running registration drives that had a high degree of questionable registration requests in the first place. Months ago, Louisiana Democrats tacitly approved of the efforts of Project Vote, affiliated with the radical Association for Community Reform Now (ACORN, once associated with Sen. Barack Obama prior to and early in his political career), and of another group allied with them called Voting is Power, to turn in as many new registrations as possible. Containing as many as a third bogus requests, the strategy was to overwhelm registrars in the hopes that it would dull efforts to challenge the less obvious questionable information to allow those who otherwise might be ineligible to vote to be eligible for mobilization and voting on election day. Alert registrars may have snuffed this strategy since the drives were targeted at signing up people who demographically typically register as Democrats.
(Where registrars choose to be alert, that is, this happens. It would be interesting to know how many challenges were attempted in Orleans Parish, a Democrat stronghold, where recently as many other urban parishes would routinely remove thousands of names in this process its registrar would remove just a handful. …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 1 week, 15 hours, 58 minutes ago
Glover vetoes pay raise; proposal goes back to council
In August, Shreveport City Councilman Bryan Wooley announced he had an idea to increase police pay and address retention concerns. The plan that evolved would produce raises that would create a salary compression in the middle ranks of the department while giving smaller raises throughout all ranks except chief. The plan passed at the last council meeting by a 4-3 vote.
But Mayor Cedric Glover vetoed the ordinance last week, meaning the Council's meeting Tuesday provides an opportunity to override the veto. That would require a 5-2 margin. Glover and through his appointee Chief Henry Whitehorn have at various times have raised three objections to it.
One, that it is not a comprehensive effort including boosts in pay for firemen as well, doesn't really matter. Wooley's argument is that a crisis exists among police ranks in that once officers gain experience other jurisdictions with higher pay attract away these officers. Whitehorn disputes that this is much of a factor which is perhaps why he has said he will at some future point present his own plan for the police department without any rush, and perhaps this would be allied with a larger effort to cover all public safety personnel. But if retention is a problem, it's better to address it sooner rather than later.
Another objection comes from the vetoed ordinance's pay grade structure which causes the compression. That is, with little monetary reward for being promoted, upward personnel movement may be delayed or unsought in order for officers to retain benefits (such as increased flexibility in work schedules, both with the city and any contracting they do) realized by being senior officers in lower ranks. This could be solved by apportioning more equally the raises either by adding more to the upper ranks or shifting some from lower to higher ranks. However, the first approach would increase the amount of money committed, and the second to some extent would defeat the retention purpose of the raise.
There is some validity to this argument, although while it might slow progression within Shreveport ranks, it would not stop it and it could attract more experienced officers from outside the department. Adding money would solve for it but seems out as an option because it is based upon being financed from a shade under $2 million existing in budgted longevity pay that would be rolled into the new pay matrix and, most crucially, about $1.3 million left over from unfilled positions. Any additions would require cuts from other areas of the budget.
This is what Glover has argued, while Wooley insisted this pot of …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 1 week, 1 day, 23 hours, 22 minutes ago
Shreveport plans to cut 33 jobs
Bossier City should take Shreveport's cue and release its executive budget online prior to legislative consideration. Then again, if the news is as bad financially as it is for Shreveport that might discourage it.
The unambiguous message from Mayor Cedric Glover's budget was Shreveport is ailing financially, encumbered by mistakes made in the past by some still with positions of power and authority in the city. Glover himself must shoulder some of the blame despite not being a city official from 1995 to 2006, as he often was point man in the Legislature for his predecessor Keith Hightower's decisions, aided and abetted by some current members on the City Council, who have caused this condition.
Reading between the lines (which is what this space is all about) of the commentary provided by Glover in the document, one finds the indicators of the deterioration:
- The budget is smaller in recognition of revenues failing to meet expectations in some areas, and some higher costs than previously budgeted. Most dangerously, in order to compensate for trend some reserve funds were drawn to low points, and Glover admits replenishing may be difficult unless a bonus like leasing of mineral rights of city property comes through. (As this column went to press, Shreveport had not yet leased anything while the environment for that is becoming increasingly difficult.)
- Speaking of falling revenues, at several junctures when fee increases are noted they are followed by statements saying despite the increases, revenues hardly changed. Ever heard of the real-world Laffer Curve? Applying a derivation of it to fees, past a certain point government increasing fees raises scarcely the total revenue from them, because too many people no longer avail themselves enough of the service because they are priced out of the market.
- So, Glover's plan is to make selective fee hikes in various compulsory areas where the purpose of the hike has nothing to do the activity it is associated with. For example, Glover proposes a $10 "fuel surcharge" on traffic tickets. What on Earth does fuel consumption have to do with writing a ticket? Maybe if it's a serious offense it costs a little in gas to transport somebody to the city jail, and it may take a little extra to speed up and pull over an offender, but that's about it.
- While the city may get a break on fuel costs compared to last year, one big reason this may be the case is an economic slowdown which, given the city's economic base is overweighed in big-ticket manufacturers and leisure activities (gambling), sales tax revenues may not even hit this past year's levels much less …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 1 week, 1 day, 23 hours, 27 minutes ago
I suppose it was inevitable ever since Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy running for the Senate asserted that incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu was the most liberal senator in the state's history, given his attempts to tie Landrieu to her party's presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, that somebody in the media would make a comparison between Obama and the senator Kennedy thinks was even more conservative than Landrieu, Huey Long. The acts reviewed in the article were good, but the conclusion missed the point.
The author argued that the "spread the wealth" concept that underlies Obama's philosophy as he articulated to a potential voter now known as "Joe the plumber" differs from Long's "Share Our Wealth" platform, insofar as Obama wants to raise direct taxes on upper-income individuals (while refusing to admit these would be passed in large part indirectly to all individuals) whereas Long not only supported those kinds policies but also wanted caps on personal wealth. Different verbiage also drew another observer to mistakenly proclaim that the two philosophies differed.
But a proper understanding of human beings, their behavior, and the genuine purposes of government shows the ideologies of Obama and Long are one and the same. Recall that any time government works to subvert the open and fair processes of a truly free market - one shielded from government interference that would distort the voluntary exchanges going on among households - inefficiencies are introduced that negatively impact every member of society by destroying potential productive wealth that would accrue to society as a whole. Further, the interference is a confiscation of property that has accrued to households through a moral process whereby resources go to those in proportion to their contributions to the overall wealth of society. Thus, to introduce this artificiality that in isolation itself is an immoral act, a moral justification must be found.
In general, there is widespread agreement that for some kinds of government activity there inherent purposes provide benefits that may justify the taking of the people's resources - national defense being the most compelling. Even redistribution of wealth, as implied by both Long and Obama, can be justified as a moral activity when it is to those who through no fault of their own are unable to enjoy a minimal standard of living.
The problem is, the likes of Obama want government to do far more than these tasks because either they intellectually misunderstand the moral purpose of government or they disregard it in the pursuit of power and privilege. The "spread the wealth" idea is a classic example of such an error. To believe it is government's job to spread …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 1 week, 3 days, 18 hours, 2 minutes ago
Landrieu, Kennedy spar in final debate
It's very hard for a political candidate to "win" a debate, to stand out so demonstrably better than opponents by their own volition. It is much easier for them to "lose" a debate because by their responses candidates can set themselves up to look inconsistent, hypocritical, uniformed, belligerent, or just plain un-statesmanlike. Nobody is impressed when candidates avoid these things, but it makes a negative impression when they can't. Tonight, Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu lost her debate with Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy to retain her seat, and lost it badly.
(But before explaining why, applause must go to the six television reporters from five outlets across the state who posed the questions and moderated. The questions mostly were tough and these journalists were fair but firm in trying to get the candidates to actually answer them instead of them answering unasked questions that candidates typically prefer to do. It was the most informative and entertaining debate I have ever witnessed.)
Both candidates held up decently well, although perhaps coming off as too keen to score points on each other, until Landrieu was questioned on the extremely fishy timing of her championing legislation for a certain interest at about the same time that interest held a fundraiser for her. She lost her composure through little more than lecturing the questioning reporter in a self-righteous fashion that never addressed his question about whether the timing looked bad, as if she were frantically trying to cover something up.
It got worse for her on the next question concerning privatization of Social Security funds. After Landrieu said she had never considered supporting that because it was too risky, Kennedy explained competently his position that he would allow it voluntarily for new system entrants and then coolly produced a 1999 article where Landrieu said she thought it was time to consider this "risky" alternative (he could also have used this more recent article). Flustered, she claimed she didn't remember saying that, thus destroying the main theme lying behind many of her previous comments that her effectiveness and competence made her the better choice; anyone who claimed she could not remember or even doubted she had said a direct quote from a news story on an important issue that contradicted her supposedly rock-solid issue preference would raise doubts about her suitability in any objective observer.
For the rest of the debate, Landrieu came across as combative and more interested in tearing down Kennedy than presenting solutions, and her assertions about her past achievements framed by these previous incidents made her look more like a self-aggrandizer …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 2 weeks, 11 hours, 36 minutes ago
Depression could help Louisiana
Maybe it's just a case of wanting to be clever - where a columnist was looking for something to write about and decided to marry a local concern with a highly-publicized national issue and to make the two fit had to create some contortions. Or maybe he actually believes it. Regardless, the idea that national economic troubles could create the conditions where grandiose solutions to flood control around New Orleans become more likely to be implemented as articulated by Lolis Elie is faulty on so many different levels.
Elie commences by writing the consequences of the credit crunch could rival those of the Great Depression. This is a projection of fabulous ignorance. As I have written elsewhere, the root causes of the two are different, and to reach those same lows the current unemployment rate would have to quadruple and the economy would have to contract over a tenth. So if Elie sets as a precondition these kinds of conditions to put his thesis in play, he has wasted an entire column on something that is not going to happen. (Even in the worse case scenario where there is something else added on, like the economic policies of Sen. Barack Obama as president, it's unlikely that conditions would get worse than the worst period since the Depression, the Pres. Jimmy Carter years of the 1970s.)
The column also makes this isn't the only history Elie does not know, as he labors under the misconception that Pres. Franklin Roosevelt's failed New Deal policies did anything to get the U.S. out of the Depression. Charitably, they didn't hurt, but they clearly did not help and in fact likely prolonged it as the economy barely budged from 1933 to 1939 in terms of output and stubbornly high unemployment. It was World War II that finally got America going, nothing that Roosevelt did. So when Elie argues big public works spending as an "untested stimulus" could work, it merely shows he is unaware of the fact that it was found wanting as a stratagem seven decades ago.
Incredulously, Elie also argues there is a disinvestment deficit of a kind (except for "war"), which he appears to define as government spending on things. One wonders whether Elie has been conscious these past several years as federal government spending has mushroomed almost 40 percent in constant dollars in the 21st Century through the projected latest budget where domestic spending has increased at only a slightly slower rate than on defense.
e even gets the impact of wartime spending all wrong. He writes that the wars in …
Read More...
posted by Jeff Sadow, 2 months, 2 weeks, 17 hours, 27 minutes ago
Sponsors
 |
 |
 |
|
Member Blogs
State faces $1.3 Billion Shortfall
I. B. Freeman, 12/12/2008
Doc Fleming’s immigrant busing service
HeartlessJoe, 08/20/2008
cleslie, 07/23/2008
laboruniontruth, 06/16/2008
laboruniontruth, 06/06/2008
Site design by Gatorworks Web Design
Reversal on DHH cuts irks lawmakers
First there was, then there wasn't, and now one must wonder whether there's more than meets the eye to spending decisions made concerning Louisiana's Medicaid program.
In September, Secretary of Health and Hospitals Alan Levine asked permission from the Legislature (through its Joint Committee on the Budget) to cut some spending as a result of a projected deficit. Most of his requests were acceded to after criticism about how perhaps the action was premature or accounting practices weren't painting an accurate picture.
Then, Levine announced days after this was granted that, rather than a deficit, there was an even larger surplus. This appeared because of fewer demands on services as a result of delayed entry of people into the health care system as a result of the hurricanes blowing over the state in September. Levine specifically mentioned some 400 waiver slots for home- and community-based care programs going unfilled that did not make claim on resources. He also pointed out that these expenses were going to happen, they just had been postponed.
The timing seemed curious, as some observed that the 2005 hurricane experiences could have been used to make better projections, while others thought the predictive historical data being used were too sparse, and still others thought the projected deficit of $81 million could be worked through internally with a $7 billion annual Medicaid budget without budgetary intervention. However, state Rep. Jim Fannin ascribed political motives when he wondered whether Levine already had known the number might come in better before arguing for the fixes.
Fannin's musings certainly seem credible. And Levine's numbers don't quite add up: if there was $181 million swing in resources, for 400 waiver slots on an annual basis the typical recipient might cost about $70,000 annually, that's only $28 million of concern.
It's possible that Levine's actions are accounted for by larger policy and budgetary concerns. With the state looking more certain to encounter future difficult budgetary times and a major component to reduce those being restructuring of health care, the Gov. Bobby Jindal Administration may have seen this projected deficit at the time as being a persuasive element to start implementing a move from the less efficient institutional-cased health care system to a more cost-effective home- and community-based system.
The changes accepted by the committee for the most part addressed money going to institutions. The one change that was not sanctioned, which essentially would have lowered payments going to rural hospitals, also did. It is possible that the Jindal Administration thought these kinds of changes - many in fact which appeared to be …
Read More...