Lanny Keller: In governor's race, candidates would rather tell you who to vote against than for

BY LANNY KELLER | STAFF COLUMNIST | OCT 31, 2019 - 6:00 PM

The staid precincts of Louisiana Public Broadcasting took on a Jerry Springer air with the debate in a governor’s race that spread more heat than light.

Three unfortunate journalists were at a table between John Bel Edwards and Eddie Rispone, the candidates caterwauling at each other with only occasional nods to answering the questions posed to them.

Forget about policy. This was pure politics, and probably not a big help to undecided voters seeking to discern which candidate is the best to vote for.

Vote “for,” in fact, is itself a quaint notion. The Nov. 16 race is within weeks of being over; early voting begins Saturday. The candidates want to tell you whom to vote against, not for.

But the choice of which sneers and jeers to deploy as questions does tell us something about the race.

For Edwards, there was a curious choice of questioning about Common Core. The battle over higher academic standards in schools is over, but the governor’s question was apparently intended to suggest Rispone is a flip-flopper on an issue.

The issue is a bit of an embarrassment to Rispone: He lavishly funded for years the education reformers who backed Common Core, including Gov. Bobby Jindal; when it became a hot issue for right-wingers, Jindal flipped to opposition. In the governor’s race, as a newbie candidate, Rispone was told by consultants that he had to be opposed to it in the primary.

But the irony in Edwards raising the issue is that the governor as an ally of teacher unions was also against Common Core, although somewhat more consistently than Rispone. On that issue, the governor felt it was better to be consistent and wrong than, like Rispone, inconsistent and wrong.

What does that question tell us? Because it is likely that few voters even knew what the two were talking about, it suggests the governor’s strategy was to portray Rispone as unreliable, but it might also show a sense of desperation. For whatever small subset of voters who care, and they cannot be numerous on Common Core, each campaign is anxious to get them.

For Rispone, his strategy was clearer across a range of questions, trying to “nationalize” the governor’s race by talking about issues that agitate regular viewers of Fox News. Edwards may have been a good governor for those folks, but Rispone wants them to vote on the basis of Trump vs. Edwards.

Example: sanctuary cities. There’s no real definition of what these are, and Edwards immediately rejoined that President Donald Trump’s own Justice Department said there are none in Louisiana. But by engaging in that discussion, Rispone advances what is a reasonable strategy of trying to make the D behind Edwards’ name unattractive to Republican voters.

That these questions are not dreadfully relevant to what a governor does every day in the fourth-floor office at the State Capitol, is neither here nor there for Rispone. But the side benefit of “sanctuary cities” is that if Edwards is defending himself by invoking Trump, he may turn off some loyal Democrats who are as unhappy with the president as Republican loyalists are the other way.

The close results in recent public polls suggest a turnout race. If either candidate can get his partisans to the polls in sufficient numbers, he’ll win — and the questions in the debate showed that, as with Common Core, even small segments of the electorate are scrapped over. But it is the intensity of support among voters, many of them already telling pollsters they have decided on the governor’s race, that will determine if they show up at the polls.

So the debate’s obscurities reveal something about the governor’s race, although very little about what Edwards would tackle in a second term, or how ill-prepared is Rispone for the job if he wins.

Email Lanny Keller at lkeller@theadvocate.com.

Saying 'trust me' isn't enough

Jim Beam

Three respected non-partisan organizations in Louisiana have created a great program called RESET that is designed to make changes in this state that have been neglected much too long. The Committee of 100, the Council for A Better Louisiana (CABL) and the Public Affairs Research Council are focused on state finances, education, transportation infrastructure and criminal justice/public safety.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican businessman Eddie Rispone are in the Nov. 16 gubernatorial runoff. Edwards has a positive record in two of those areas — education and criminal justice reform — and has had some success in the transportation arena.

Edwards and U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-Alto, who failed the make the runoff, responded to a CABL survey on 17 major campaign issues. Rispone has never responded, which is typical of the way he has run his campaign.

Rispone is playing it safe, avoiding details about how he would handle the tough issues. Instead, he has spent millions trying to convince voters he is a true disciple of President Donald Trump.

In Rispone’s first runoff campaign commercial, President Trump calls Rispone pro-life, pro-family, proworker and pro-jobs, four descriptions that fit Edwards extremely well.

Rispone said he wants to make Louisiana great again, but hasn’t said how he is going to do it. He has consistently told voters he wants to call a constitutional convention, but reporters who have asked him for details never get any answers.

Edwards on RESET’s state finance issue said he would like to get rid of the federal income tax deduction on state income tax returns that created higher taxes for Louisiana taxpayers because of the federal tax cut. He said doing away with the exemption would make it possible to lower the income tax rate on 90 percent of taxpayers.

The governor said he would like to see the Legislature make the budget and tax reforms it promised to do in 2017, but didn’t get done.

Rispone hasn’t addressed the state finance issue except to say he would cut taxes and reduce spending, but has given voters no details about what taxes and state services he would cut.

The RESET program wants to know what the candidates are going to do about childhood (birth to age 3) education, K-12 education and building Louisiana’s talent pool. Edwards has been involved in those areas.

Edwards asked and the Legislature responded by appropriating $20 million for early childhood education, the first infusion of state funds for that program. Edwards has said he will work toward funding the $86 million needed annually.

Teachers also got their first raise in 10 years. The MFP formula that funds K-12 education got its first increase in years. Higher education saw its funding stabilized for two years and increased this year for the first time in nearly a decade.

Rispone hasn’t addressed the education issue, except to say more non-public schools are needed.

Edwards has been involved with the criminal justice/public safety issue by supporting the Legislature’s 2017, 10-bill package of criminal justice reforms that have lowered the state’s prison population and saved millions of dollars for rehabilitation.

President Trump also supports criminal justice changes and has met with Edwards on the issue. Rispone hasn’t responded, except to criticize Edwards’ handling of the reforms.

Everyone knows the state’s roads and bridges are in disrepair, and Edwards has indicated he would support an increase in the gas tax that hasn’t been raised in nearly 30 years. However, the decision rests with the Legislature.

RESET said since the last gas tax increase much in the world of transportation has changed. The purchasing power of the 16-per-gallon state gas tax available for roads and bridges has deteriorated significantly, fuel efficiency has increased and there is greater use of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Edwards has already pledged to put $85 million in next year’s capital outlay bill for the state’s 10 percent share of funding for a new Interstate 10 bridge at Lake Charles. President Trump has also said the federal government’s 90-percent share will be no problem if he is re-elected in 2020.

Legislators did pass a $700 million transportation bill earlier this year, and the Edwards administration used borrowed federal funds to complete three major highway construction projects.

The three organizations sponsoring the RESET program have proved they know how to get things done. Legislators who will take office next January haven’t said much about the RESET program during their campaigns. We hope they will have the courage to work for change in RESET’s major reform areas.

Edwards has demonstrated over the last four years that he is in tune with what RESET wants to accomplish. Rispone has only said, “Trust me. I’m a businessman and an outsider, and I can get it done.”

Don’t voters deserve to know exactly how Rispone plans to do that? As that famous hamburger commercial asked, “Where’s the beef?”

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Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than five decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jbeam@americanpress.com.

Our Views: The bad roads get worse in Louisiana

STAFF EDITORIAL | Oct 20, 2019 - 6:00 am

It’s not news that our roads are bumpy and bad. Just how bad?

The latest national analysis shows us. The national transportation nonprofit TRIP said that drivers in Louisiana pay and pay for the problem, directly or indirectly.

The cost of having poor infrastructure in the state is estimated at almost $7 billion a year. That includes not only lost time and wasted gas sitting in traffic jams but the huge costs connected to traffic crashes and automobile repairs.

New struts, anyone? Louisiana drivers pay a hidden tax — not so hidden sometimes at repair shops — because the roads and bridges around here are so deplorable.

The new TRIP report included dim reviews of roads in New Orleans, Lafayette and Baton Rouge. In Lafayette, for example, a majority of roads are in “poor” condition. In New Orleans, it’s 59 percent.

The bright spot is Baton Rouge, with just over a third of streets reported as “poor.” But that doesn’t mean that the capital city is a drivers’ paradise, since the congestion that is choking the city daily — both on the Interstate highways and local roads — is considered an economic development crisis by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.

Countless problems are caused for farmers and loggers in rural areas when the state Department of Transportation and Development is compelled to close a bridge somewhere, almost weekly.

Both New Orleans and Baton Rouge area drivers lose 58 hours of their lives in traffic congestion, the new report said.

If all this is not exactly news, what can be done about it? There the story is mixed. Baton Rouge city taxpayers have invested more heavily in roads, passing taxes to fund big bond issues during the administrations of former Mayor-President Kip Holden and his successor, Sharon Weston Broome.

In metropolitan New Orleans and Lafayette, though, road and bridge taxes have been a harder sell. Significant conversations are now going on among politicians and community leaders in the city of New Orleans about new investments in road repairs.

In every city and parish, the overarching problem is the gasoline tax, a state revenue source that is vital to transportation across the board. And politicians at the State Capitol have refused to listen to the evidence, or even acknowledge their own experiences with substandard roads, by raising fuel taxes.

Those are at levels of 30 years ago. Purchasing power of the gasoline tax, the main source of infrastructure funding in every state, is now half of what it was in Louisiana before political paralysis set in.

Louisiana drivers will pay significantly more in repair costs than any increase in the gasoline tax will cost them. An adjustment in the tax is long past due.

Baton Rouge ranks third worst for traffic congestion

Daily Report Staff | October 18, 2019

It should come as no shock, but Baton Rouge is ranked third-worst among mid-sized cities on the impact traffic congestions has on commuters, according to the latest Urban Mobility Report from Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

The 2019 Urban Mobility Report found that the average commuter in Baton Rouge spends 55 extra hours in traffic due to congestion annually, showing a substantial rise from 47 hours in 2015. TTI’s travel time index shows that a 20-minute trip during peak traffic times in the Baton Rouge area takes over 27 minutes. Baton Rouge also ranks third-worst among mid-sized cities for both excess fuel consumed per commuter, at 25 gallons per year, as well as for the amount of money that congestion costs the average commuter, $1,010 annually. For cities its size, Baton Rouge ranks sixth for freeway travel reliability with an added 28,362 hours in travel delays and 12,679 gallons in excess fuel.

“Congestion costs are continuing to increase, wasting massive amounts of fuel and time—$525 million in the Baton Rouge area to be exact,” says Hugh Raetzsch, president & CEO of Lyons Specialty Company in Port Allen and CRISIS vice chair, in a news release from CRISIS.

The report predicts a nationwide increase in congestion costs, delayed travel time, and excess fuel consumption, so Louisiana is not alone. However, while more than 30 states across the country have recently increased fuel or other taxes for expanded infrastructure investments that will mitigate these increases. 

“This report only confirms the urgency for building a bypass around Baton Rouge,” says CRISIS Executive Director Scott Kirkpatrick. “We need a big, impactful project to attack these dismal rankings and a new south bridge is the right project .”

McComack: River Region Chamber of Commerce joins effort to RESET Louisiana

By Special to Email the author

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 16, 2019

RESET Louisiana is a collaboration of three non-partisan statewide organizations of Louisiana citizens dedicated to the state’s future. River Region Chamber of Commerce has partnered in this effort and shares RESET’s commitment to a brighter future for our state and for future generations.

The Committee of 100 for Economic Development, the Council for A Better Louisiana and the Public Affairs Research Council have been at the center of research and analysis that have led to policies that have improved Louisiana. For decades, their research findings have led to improvements in state government providing a better climate for commerce and jobs.

C-100, CABL and PAR know the value that local and regional organizations play in the bigger picture to bring positive change to all of Louisiana. That’s why RESET is a truly statewide effort, partnering with chambers of commerce and economic development organizations in every area of the state.

The time is right for a new reset in Louisiana. C-100, CABL and PAR, along with local and regional organizations, have formally joined together for the first time to initiate an agenda for positive change for Louisiana.

RESET Louisiana’s Future is a targeted, non-partisan effort focused on four essential issue areas:

1. State Finances

2. Education

3. Transportation Infrastructure

4. Criminal Justice/Public Safety

Targeting these four critical issues, RESET is a renewed vision and a well-researched effort to make Louisiana everything it can be. We make progress when we work together. RESET Louisiana partners include:

Baton Rouge Area Chamber

Central Louisiana Regional Chamber of Commerce

Chamber Southwest Louisiana

GNO, Inc.

Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce

Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce

Jefferson Business Council

Monroe Chamber of Commerce

New Orleans Chamber

North Louisiana Economic Partnership

One Acadiana

Regional Economic Alliance of Louisiana

River Region Chamber of Commerce

Southwest LA Economic Development Alliance

About RESET: 

RESET is a targeted, nonpartisan effort led by The Committee of 100 (C100), the Council for A Better Louisiana (CABL) and the Public Affairs Research Council (PAR). Visit reset-louisiana.com.

About the River Region Chamber of Commerce: 

The mission of the River Region Chamber of Commerce is to grow, strengthen and unify businesses in the River Region. Since 2004, the Chamber has helped build relationships that impact and improve the quality of life through strong leadership that advocates a pro-business environment in St. Charles, St. James and St. John the Baptist Parishes. It focuses on serving as the voice of River Region businesses, providing business support and value to members and building coalitions. Visit the Chamber online at riverregionchamber.org.

Chassity McComack is the Executive Director of the RRCC and can be reached at chassity@riverregionchamber.org

Pew: Louisiana among seven states that receive more federal dollars than state tax revenue

The Center Square | October 14, 2019

Home / News / Money / Pew: Louisiana among seven states that receive more federal dollars than state tax revenue

Nearly one-third of the $1.97 trillion collected by state governments in fiscal year 2017 came from the federal government, the second-largest source of states’ revenue, according to an updated fiscal analysis of all 50 states by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Federal dollars accounted for about $639 billion, the fourth-highest level in more than 50 years as a percentage of 50-state revenue, based on data going back to 1961, Pew reports.

The latest data shows that the U.S. government provided 32.4 percent of all the revenue collected by states in fiscal year 2017, down slightly from 32.6 percent in the previous year.

Federal funds accounted for the largest revenue source – more than state tax dollars – in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.

In fiscal 2017, five states received their highest share of revenue from federal funds on record: Montana (46.1 percent), Indiana (38.0), Arkansas (37.2), Pennsylvania (35.0), and Delaware (28.1). Only one state received its lowest share: Utah (24.2).

The analysis also shows the percentage of state revenue from federal funds was roughly twice as great in Montana (46.1 percent), Wyoming (44.5), Louisiana (43.7), Mississippi (43.3), and Arizona (43.1) – the states where federal shares were highest – than in Hawaii (20.7 percent), Virginia (21.1) and Kansas (23.3), the states where the shares were lowest.

Thirty-six states received a greater portion of their revenue from the federal government in 2017 than their 20-year average. Among them, Alaska had the largest increase of 14 percent, followed by Nevada (9.4 percent), Arizona (8.7 percent) and Indiana (8 percent).

Historically, the federal share of 50-state revenue has ranged from about one-quarter to one-third, Pew notes.

“The highest shares occurred just after the Great Recession, when a temporary influx of federal economic stimulus dollars and falling state tax revenue caused the federal share of states’ revenue to reach 35.5 percent in fiscal 2010 and 34.7 percent in fiscal 2011,” the report states. The third-highest share in fiscal 2016 was largely due to increased expenses in Medicaid grants to states, which account for about two-thirds of federal grants to states.

The analysis also highlights how the role of federal dollars in state finances has expanded. The fiscal 2017 share of 32.4 percent was 2.2 percent higher than the 20-year average of 30.2 percent since 1998, and more than 7 percent greater than the 25 percent average from 1978 to 1997, based on rounded data, the report notes.

Nationwide, states collected an additional $17 billion, or 2.8 percent more, in federal dollars than in 2016, reflecting a slowdown in funding of health care grants.

However, in fiscal 2017, 31 states that opted to expand Medicaid coverage had to pay five percent of the costs for the first time due to Affordable Care Act (ACA) guidelines. Under the Medicaid provisions in the ACA, the federal government reimbursed states 100 percent from January 2014 to December 2016 for all Medicaid expansion costs. By Jan. 1, 2020, states are responsible for 10 percent of those costs.

While federal dollars account for roughly one-third of state income, Pew notes that tax collections are states’ leading revenue generators. Tax collections reached $943 billion in fiscal 2017, or nearly half of state revenue.

Total state tax collections in Louisiana reach $10.9 billion, Census Bureau reports

The Center Square | Oct 10, 2019

State tax revenues in Louisiana amount to $10.9 billion, the 26th highest tally among the 50 states, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau reported that property tax revenues in the state totaled $70.4 million; sales and gross receipts taxes, $6.8 billion; license fees, $368 million; and income taxes, $3.2 billion.

The numbers do not include taxes levied by local governments, which in some cases determine property tax levels, according to the study.

Under the Census Bureau’s definitions, the phrase “state government” means the executive, legislative and judicial branches, as well as agencies, panels and public bodies that are somewhat autonomous from the state.

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2018 State Government Tax Collections

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Louisiana rewrites master plan, goals for public colleges

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s top higher education board adopted a new roadmap for the state’s public colleges and universities on Wednesday, seeking to boost educational attainment for black students and get more adults back into the classroom to learn new skills.

The master plan approved unanimously by the Board of Regents strives for a high achievement goal, for six in 10 working-age adults to hold a college degree or other employment credential beyond a high school diploma by 2030. Fewer than half of Louisiana’s adults aged 25 to 64 currently have achieved that benchmark.

A year of work went into rewriting the statewide plan governing public higher education, the first wholesale revamp since the master plan was developed nearly 20 years ago.

“This is so critically important to the future of our state and to the future of our families,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards, who attended the meeting to praise the updated master plan.

The new version doesn’t tally up the costs of its recommendations, such as expanding the number of dual-enrollment, college credit courses available to high school students, expanding financial aid opportunities and increasing work-based learning programs that widen skills training availability.

The Regents will need to sell those suggestions to lawmakers.

But that wasn’t the focus of Wednesday’s adoption of the new master plan, where the Democratic governor and leaders of the four public college systems applauded the setting of new priorities and achievement targets.

“We know the hard work happens after we approve this plan,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed. “But we are ready.”

Louisiana adopted its first statewide higher education master plan in 2001, creating statewide college admissions standards and including a funding formula to divvy up dollars from the state. A state law required an updated document by Sept. 1.

The admissions standards remain intact in the new version. The priorities of the funding formula have shifted slightly, to reward schools that meet the priorities of the plan, such as completion of a degree or other employment credential by low-income students, minority students and adults who are 25 and older.

But more broadly, the plan charts a vision that the state and its higher education campuses should be working to achieve. The document estimates that if Louisiana reached the 2030 goal, it would see a $1.9 billion increase in tax collections, while also saving money on the Medicaid program and corrections system.

The plan looks for ways to eliminate equity gaps between white and minority students and help adults who long ago left school to get a skills-based credential or other educational training. It says Louisiana must find ways to advance educational attainment for nontraditional students, youth in foster care and inmates who will eventually leave prison and need to find work.

An estimated 56% of jobs will require education beyond a high school diploma in 2020, but only 44% of Louisiana adults aged 25 to 64 have a skills-based certificate or college degree, according to Regents data.

To reach the 2030 goal will require producing 45,000 more credentials annually in 11 years — whether a skills certificate, associate degree or university degree — than students received in 2018. That would more than double the 40,000 credentials produced in 2018. Significant growth will be needed in the credentials obtained by African-American residents.

The Board of Regents intends to publish annual reports about how efforts to reach the 2030 goals are progressing.

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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte