Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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May 30
Ruston Daily Leader on gas prices in Louisiana:
The Ruston Daily Leader feels the pinch at the pump as much as you do.
But we try to focus on the fact that it could be worse, and is much more so across much of the nation right now.
Yes, gas prices in Louisiana are higher than they were a year ago on Memorial Day, but they are also among the lowest in the United States in 2018 according to AAA. The national average, according to AAA, was $2.97 on Monday. The average price in Louisiana on Monday was 30 cents lower - $2.67 per gallon.
The only other states with lower average prices than Louisiana are South Carolina, at $2.653 per gallon; Alabama at $2.664; and Mississippi at $2.659.
Louisiana, along with Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina all have had prices 20 to 30 cents per gallon below the national average the first two days of this week.
Last year on Memorial Day, the average price of gasoline in Louisiana was $2.144 per gallon according to AAA. The national average a year ago this week was $2.371.
The highest gas prices on Memorial Day 2018 in the United States, according to AAA, were in California ($3.736), Hawaii ($3.705), Washington state ($3.456), Alaska ($3.386) and Oregon ($3.349).
Keep in mind our personal pain at the pump could also mean good news for our state. But we’ll have to continue paying higher prices for our state to feel a benefit.
“For any states that are involved in producing petroleum, it’s always a mixed blessing,” said Don Redman, Louisiana spokesman for AAA. “I mean, nobody wants to be paying higher prices at the gas pump. But, on the other hand, in terms of tax revenue and in terms of employment, this is great news for Louisiana.”
Redman expects summertime gas prices in Louisiana to hover around $2.50-2.70 per gallon, significantly lower than the $3.31 per gallon we were paying at this time in 2014.
So when you wince at the cost at the pump this summer, grin and bear it. And remember it could benefit you in other ways down the line.
Online: https://www.rustonleader.com
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May 31
The Advocate says lawmakers also are tired of session:
While the discussions of budgets and procedures in the State Capitol continues, it’s important to remember that there is now a human element in play.
The legislators are also tired of this endless cycle of special sessions and budget wrangles.
If compromise seems elusive, maybe exhaustion will cause the legislators to stop these pointless debates.
We say pointless, not because the need to balance the budget is not pressing: Legislators have known for two solid years that a short-term patchwork of sales taxes and some other revenue-raisers were needed in the wake of the departure of the former administration. And inevitably, those short-term expedients have a short life.
Now, almost $1.4 billion in revenues roll off the statute books on June 30. That’s a crisis for any administration, but partisan wrangling over every penny, and seemingly endless internal debates about process and procedures, mean not only that time is pressing.
The internal dynamics of how the Legislature worked, after its own fashion anyway, are greatly changed in an era with Republicans of the most anti-tax stripe dominate key committees, the tax-raising Ways and Means panel and the budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
Now, the leaders of the House indulge themselves with arcane discussions of how to process the paperwork. And state institutions like universities and hospitals remain on the hook for a fiscal cliff that a more responsible House, not to mention the Senate, could resolve with $648 million. Not new taxes, but replacements for expiring taxes.
That’s the number that Gov. John Bel Edwards and his Republican budget chief, Jay Dardenne, said is needed after various other revenue bills and events have been wrapped into the calculations over 18 months. That also counts $120 million in general fund cuts that Dardenne will have to make even if the full $648 million in replacement taxes are passed.
Cuts beyond that level will inevitably mean reductions in either colleges, hard hit by the cuts in the years of former Gov. Bobby Jindal, or the partner hospitals who provide health care to the poor. Cutting those dollars, as is the almost inevitable consequence of the GOP plan, would leave millions of dollars in available federal funds unmatched, cutting into jobs at health care institutions as well as the care of patients.
So $648 million is a real number.
To call half of that, proposed by the GOP leadership in the House, is not really a compromise.
Accusations of bad faith fly around the State Capitol a lot these days, but the financial realities of avoiding deeper cuts to education and health care are most pressing.
We urge the Senate to push for a reasonable amount of money in the sales tax bill, about the only measure likely to help, and then the House members should vote to concur in something approaching financial reality.
The Appropriations Committee ought to pass out a budget bill that jibes with the revenue-raisers, to avoid yet another special session when this one expires on June 4.
The deadline is tight, but it should be met.
And if a balanced state budget is not reason enough, perhaps the chance to flee Baton Rouge for a time will persuade legislators to move this train wreck off the tracks.
Online: http://www.theadvocate.com
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May 27
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune says levees and pumps aren’t enough to keep New Orleans dry:
The start of hurricane season always raises our collective anxiety level a bit. South Louisianians have to be on guard between June 1 and Nov. 30 - it’s a fact of life this close to the Gulf of Mexico.
As a reminder, the first tropical depression started forming more than a week before the season actually begins. But there are deeper causes for concern.
The region’s levee system is rated “minimally acceptable” and at “high risk” in two reviews by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - even with the 350 miles of levees, floodwalls, storm surge gates and pumps the corps built post-Katrina to help shield the New Orleans area. That integrated flood protection system cost federal, state and local governments $20 billion to create.
It isn’t enough. The hurricane protection system was built to withstand so-called 100-year floods, which have a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. But storms that are stronger - 200-year storms or greater - could swamp parts of the metro area, the corps reviews show.
To put that in perspective, the surge in Lake Borgne that overwhelmed levees in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans during Katrina was a 200- to 250-year event, scientists have said. Congress ordered the corps post-Katrina to look at safeguarding New Orleans from Category 5 storms, which would have meant 500-year protection. But that ultimately wasn’t the level of protection we got. We know that.
Even so, it is disconcerting to see arguably the strongest levee system we’ve ever had described in corps reports as “minimally acceptable.”
The corps reviews also raise concerns about the ability of local governments and levee authorities to pay for maintenance to keep the new system from eroding.
In April, West Jefferson voters approved a tax to raise $42.5 million over the next decade to raise and armor levees and do pump station maintenance. That was an encouraging sign, although the tax was less than levee authorities think they need. Voters had turned down a higher tax in 2015, so the authority lowered the amount and length of the tax this time. That strategy worked.
Twice in St. Bernard Parish, though, voters have rejected property tax increases to pay for maintenance on the $1.4 billion in levee improvements made around Lake Borgne post-Katrina. Opponents don’t think it is fair that St. Bernard is being asked to pay the full cost to maintain levees that also protect New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. They have a point, and leaders in those parishes need to come up with an equitable solution.
Ignoring levee maintenance isn’t an option. And if we are going to have a chance to get the federal government to invest more in our protection, we have to do our part.
The durability of the levee system isn’t the only concern going into the 2018 hurricane season. Although the Sewerage & Water Board has shored up its power supply and has more drainage pumps online, flooding last week during heavy rains caused widespread street flooding and turned underpasses into rivers.
The flooding wasn’t as bad as last August, when a downpour pushed water into homes and cars in Mid-City, Gentilly and Lakeview. But it is a reminder that the drainage system’s capacity can be quickly overwhelmed.
New Mayor LaToya Cantrell is putting a priority on getting stalled drainage projects completed and finding resources to upgrade the drainage system and implement the city’s water management plan to more smartly handle rainwater.
That will be costly. The Bureau of Governmental Research found in a 2017 report that the city will need $54.5 million by 2026 just to meet existing obligations and maintenance costs for drainage. That does not include money for new infrastructure.
The city has some funding from FEMA, but - as with levee maintenance - New Orleanians will need to pay to upgrade the system and minimize flooding.
Mayor Cantrell, as the board president, also must work to end the dysfunction at the Sewerage & Water Board. The latest example is a report released last week by the Civil Service Department showing that the S&WB has been cleared to hire 223 job candidates but hasn’t done it. These are applicants who are part of a pilot project to speed up hiring for the agency, which has been depleted by retirements and resignations.
This storm season, New Orleanians will have to be extra vigilant: Be prepared for street flooding and be ready to leave if a hurricane threatens.
For the long-term, we must push Congress to give us stronger hurricane protection and demand that the Sewerage & Water Board clean up its act. And we must be willing to help pay for our own safety.
Online: http://www.nola.com
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