Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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March 15
The Advocate on the state legislature’s opening session:
A play that bombed off-Broadway would not likely get the chance for the big time, but the Louisiana Legislature’s poorly received opening act of 2016 still has some legs. That’s because, by law, there’s the regular session that began Monday.
Because the first special session did not resolve the budget crises facing the state, yet another special session is almost impossible to avoid come June. And unlike a bad play, you can’t change the actors until the next election. The state of Louisiana needs to get better performances out of its current cast of legislative characters. Meanwhile, the opening reviews were just terrible.
“After seven years of legislators complaining about the previous governor ’kicking the can down the road,’ they themselves kicked it again,” said the Council for a Better Louisiana. “After many complained that the governor and the administration didn’t start with enough budget cuts, they looked under the hood and couldn’t find many either.”
The council’s criticisms were among the many unfavorable assessments of the short-term thinking in a special session that descended to farce at the end, with bills being passed amid hullabaloo at the last moments. The best that could be said of the performance was, as the Baton Rouge Area Chamber noted, “temporary patches (passed) that will hopefully prevent immediate governmental collapse.”
Immediate, defined as the June 30 end of the current fiscal year. Beyond that, though, the three-week session failed to agree on significant long-term improvements. The principal money-raiser was another penny of sales tax, with some adjustment of existing sales tax pennies to cover more items than they do now.
Come April Fool’s Day, the taxpayers will see significantly higher costs at the register. That probably was inevitable, given the need to quickly raise large amounts of money. But the increased business taxes - including businesses paying sales taxes, as many do, and a curtailment of other tax exemptions - as well as the general tax on merchandise will expire on June 30, 2018.
The Public Affairs Research Council commented that the “fiscal cliff” for about $1.5 billion in state revenue creates a deadline that may force legislators to enact long-term solutions. But like a poorly matched ensemble of director (Gov. John Bel Edwards) and difficult actors (the balky House GOP caucus), we do not see how this production will be ready for prime time for a while. In the meantime, damaging cuts are on the table for colleges and health care, as well as other parts of the far-flung state enterprises.
What is a credible show? It should be a production based on restructuring the state’s tax code so that the taxpayers know the score and the state’s agencies can pay their bills.
That will require a great deal of work, but the good news is that there were significant improvements proposed in the state’s corporate tax system. One bill would eliminate corporate deductions but lower the top rate from 8 percent to 6.5 percent. Voters will have to approve that change in a constitutional amendment in the fall.
That is the kind of trade-off that should be made with the income tax for families and most local businesses, as well, but that bill stalled in the last days of the special session.
In the chaos of the special session’s final days, the problems for the new show were revealed. In the regular session, under the Louisiana Constitution, taxes cannot be raised, so the main problems facing the budget could be put on ice for that time.
Instead, we hope that the director and his cast will come together in rehearsal for a second special session to better serve today’s disappointed audience.
We know from history that the oil industry’s downturns are followed by recoveries.
That might not be an immediate help to those who are suffering through the current downturn, but it is reason for hope and confidence.
The world’s oil market is not permanently down; it is temporarily down.
And when it returns to its normal health, our local workers and companies will take advantage by returning to the hard work they are used to doing.
They will once again man the economic engine that keeps south Louisiana running.
And they will help the industry return to the health that is more the rule than the exception.
The experts who predict boom or gloom will continue to do so. But the real-world effects of the oil market’s ups and downs are best known by the men and women who live through them. And they are the ones who will know when it is back.
Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper, not of any individual.
Online:
https://theadvocate.com/
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March 16
The Courier on the state’s job numbers:
There is little doubt that the downturn in the global oil market has had a strong effect on the local job market.
We know of numerous layoffs at employers throughout our region, and the collective numbers are staggering.
Now, the state’s official job numbers bear out the same familiar tale.
In the whole state, private-sector employers lost 15,300 jobs in 2015.
And there is one major culprit: weak oil prices and the industry slowdown they have caused.
“The benchmarked data show that the decline in oil prices has had tremendous effects on the employment situation in our state,” said Ava Dejoie with the Louisiana Workforce Commission. “Job losses in oil-dependent (areas) and in secondary job sectors are a concern.”
That is an understatement.
The people who work in the oil industry, in any of its subsidiary industries or in the many areas of the economy that depend on its workers are worried about the situation and concerned about what could happen if it doesn’t get better soon.
Ironically, the slowdown in our economy is happening as the reverse is happening on the national level.
The unemployment numbers show that our jobless rates increased slightly from December to January, but in both cases, they remained higher than the national rates.
So the damage of low oil prices has been done.
The question now is whether prices will recover relatively quickly and let our workers get back to business as usual.
The experts who follow the global oil industry differ on their outlooks, and those outlooks seem to differ from one week to the next.
In the end, while experienced observers have many good reasons to think one way or the other, we won’t know for sure what’s going to happen until it happens.
We do, however, know this: The oil industry historically has been marked by cycles of decline and recovery. Fortunately, over time, there are many more healthy periods that periods of decline.
In fact, our generally robust economy owes much of its health to the oil industry. And even in slowdowns such as the current one, the local industry continues to employ thousands of our friends and neighbors.
Just about everyone in south Louisiana is eager to see the boom times return. And they will - if history is any indication.
Our challenge is to remain optimistic about an industry that has given us more reason for optimism than for pessimism.
We will see the industry that keeps our economy humming return, and with any luck it will be sooner rather than later.
Let’s get back to work.
Online:
https://www.houmatoday.com/
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March 15
The Times-Picayune on flood recovery:
Neighbors came together Sunday (March 13) to clean out 79-year-old Norma Jones’ flooded home in the Covington Point subdivision. Lori Lewis texted friends from her Covington Baptist Church Bible study group, and they showed up to pull out soggy carpet and put ruined furniture on the curb for Ms. Jones.
Similar acts of kindness are being repeated across St. Tammany and Washington parishes and in north Louisiana, where thousands of residents have suffered devastating flood damage in the past week.
Sadly, this sort of disaster is familiar to many of us in Louisiana. But that also means that there should be no shortage of volunteers to help clean up.
President Barack Obama declared the flooding in Louisiana a major disaster Sunday. His order included Bossier, Claiborne, Grant, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland and Webster parishes. At the request of Gov. John Bel Edwards, St. Tammany and Washington parishes were among 16 parishes receiving the designation Tuesday.
Gov. Edwards addressed that in his speech to the Legislature Monday. “I want to reassure folks who were not in the initial declaration; we are working with FEMA to add new parishes every day,” he said.
The federal aid triggered by the disaster declaration will help flood victims with temporary housing, home repairs, low-cost loans for uninsured losses and other needs.
But that won’t cover every expense, and it will take a while to sort out who qualifies for what assistance. Meanwhile, nonprofits need our help to respond to the disaster.
“Mother Nature has hit our area with a one-two-punch. Just two weeks ago deadly tornadoes roared through and now we’re fighting flooding. Our residents are resilient, but they need help to recover,” United Way of Southeast Louisiana President and CEO Michael Williamson said.
Long-term recovery and rebuilding involves “more than just brick and mortar,” United Way said in a news release. The agency said it would use donations to support area agencies in providing food, clothing, counseling and other services to make people whole.
You can donate online at https://www.unitedwaysela.org/flood or by texting LAFlood to 313-131. Or you can contribute by mail. Make checks payable to United Way of Southeast Louisiana, write Flood Relief in the memo line and send them to: United Way of Southeast Louisiana, ATTN: Flood Relief, 2515 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70119.
Second Harvest food bank is also providing relief to flood victims. To donate to that effort, go to no-hunger.org.
Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany is collecting food, clothing and cleaning supplies at two locations: Northshore Mini Storage, c/o CCST Disaster Assistance, 4466 Ponchartrain Drive in Slidell. The contact for that site is Paul Borne, 504-858-9293. Century 21 SELA, c/o CCST Disaster Assistance, 4700 Louisiana 22, Suite 5, Mandeville. The contact there is Cindy Rester, 985-630-3925.
The group is expecting a truckload of food and cleaning supplies from a restaurant in New Orleans Wednesday. A cleaning crew also is available, mainly for elderly residents and single parents.
There are no doubt other good-hearted people pitching in to help their neighbors. That is what we do.
“Even in the midst of this destruction, the resilience of our people stands strongest. From every corner of this state, we cease to be individuals and unite together as neighbors to rebuild.” Gov. Edwards told legislators Monday.
He’s right. Together we can face devastation and start to recover.
Online:
https://www.nola.com
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