Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
April 15
The Advocate on bidding wars for economic development projects:
Now that Louisiana lawmakers have convened for another session, we’d suggest that they tackle a recent Wall Street Journal piece by Barton Swaim as required reading.
Swaim, once on the staff of former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, took to WSJ’s oped page to outline the dubious practice of rent-seeking. It’s the tactic through which corporate giants get states and localities to out-do each other in doling out big incentive packages for an economic development project.
There’s nothing wrong with competition, of course, but as Swaim points out, this is “not a proper bidding war. Officials are competing against offers they can’t see. But they want the deal and attendant publicity, and their own money isn’t at stake, so they give the companies just about everything they want.”
The problem is that these deals are usually cooked up out of public view, even though millions - or billions - of tax dollars are committed once the ink is signed. The deal is often fast-tracked for approval before local residents get a decent look at it.
Louisiana’s public records law carves out exceptions that shield information about prospective economic development projects from widespread view. It’s a challenge across the country, as Swaim makes clear.
“One reason incentive deals haven’t stirred more public opposition,” he writes, “is that … they usually take place in secret. Hundreds of comparable deals are shaping up around the country from month to month, but the public knows little about them.”
In many cases, adds Swaim, the downsides of these deals don’t emerge until later. “Companies don’t always bring the promised number of jobs,” he notes, “and the incentive agreements are secretly renegotiated to reflect more modest targets. Even if the jobs targets are met, the benefits aren’t necessarily what they appear.”
The European Union has tackled rent-seeking by acting as a referee, placing a cap on incentive packages offered by member countries to keep bidding wars from going through the roof. Swaim suggests that Congress could invoke its constitutional power to regulate commerce among the states to do something similar.
We won’t hold our breath for that. In the meantime, the public has a right to be skeptical about whether the Next Big Deal in regional economic development is really all it’s cracked up to be.
Online: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge
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April 12
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune on church burnings in St. Landry Parish:
The charges so far against 21-year-old Holden Matthews - three counts of simple arson on religious buildings - don’t convey the damage he’s accused of doing.
Matthews, who is white, is suspected of torching three predominantly black churches in St. Landry Parish between March 26 and April 4. These churches had nurtured generations of families for more than 100 years. They had been the scene of countless baptisms, weddings and funerals.
“Seeing the church in the condition it is now, it’s almost like losing a family member,” Monica Harris, a member of Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas, told The New York Times. Greater Union was 129 years old.
Mount Pleasant Baptist, a 145-year-old church in Opelousas, and St. Mary Missionary Baptist in Port Barre also were burned.
These are sanctified spaces. Authorities haven’t said what Matthews’ motive might have been, but the FBI is looking into whether the fires were “bias motivated.” One of his friends told The Associated Press that Matthews was a “sweet guy” and another said he wasn’t racist or violent.
Yet police say he set fire to three black churches.
How is it possible to view that as anything but an act of hate? “These were evil acts,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday (April 11) at a press conference at the St. Landry Parish sheriff’s office.
Matthews was arrested Wednesday after investigators found a portion of a gasoline can, surveillance video showing what appears to be his parents’ truck near the churches and debit card records of suspicious purchases.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies will have to build a case before charging him with a hate crime. Leaders for the churches said they are waiting to see what that investigation shows.
“I don’t know why this happened, and we don’t need to jump to conclusions,” Earnest Hines, a deacon and longtime member at Mount Pleasant Baptist, said to the Associated Press.
Still, targeting three black congregations doesn’t seem like happenstance. There is a long history of racist attacks on black churches in the South. “It’s like the ’60s again,” Mr. Hines said after the St. Landry fires.
Race-based attacks on churches didn’t end in the civil rights era, though. On Feb. 1, 1996, four Baton Rouge area churches were set on fire. A year later, one of the young white men from Livingston Parish who attacked the churches admitted in federal court they were driven by racism.
Frankie New, then 24, told U.S. District Judge John Parker that he and his friends set the churches on fire to intimidate black people. New pleaded guilty to a single charge of violating the civil rights of African Americans.
The fires in St. Landry Parish are “especially painful” because they were a reminder “of a very dark past of intimidation and fear,” Gov. Edwards said.
They are that. But they also are a sign of continuing intolerance that we should all condemn.
Whatever the motivation in these fires, you can see them as an attempt to intimidate these congregations.
It didn’t work. “They burned down a building,” the Rev. Harry J. Richard of Greater Union said during a gathering April 7 in Opelousas. “They didn’t burn down our spirit.”
Online: https://www.nola.com/opinions
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April 11
The American Press on raising teacher pay, minimum wage:
A pay raise proposal for Louisiana’s teachers and an overall increase in minimum wage is drawing overwhelming support statewide, according to a new survey.
Researchers in the Public Policy Research Lab at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication found the majority of Louisianans - 88 percent - support raising teacher salaries, and the majority - 81 percent - also support an increased minimum wage of $8.50 an hour.
“These results show very strong, nearly unanimous, support for public school teachers and an appetite for pay increases - an issue that will likely be raised during the legislative session,” Michael Henderson, director of the Public Policy Research Lab, said in a news release to the American Press.
Henderson said the survey, conducted by PPRL interviewers between Feb. 15 and March 7, polled 917 Louisianans age 18 or older from across the state.
On raising teacher pay, the poll found a “broad consensus across political parties.”
State teachers were paid an average of $50,000 annually in 2016-17, which is $1,498 below the average of the 16 states of the Southern Regional Education Board. The U.S. average at that time was $9,660 higher than the Louisiana average.
“More than 90 percent of Democrats and independents support boosting teacher salaries, as do 80 percent of Republicans,” the poll results read.
As far as raising taxes to fund the raises, there is less support with just 63 percent.
The poll also found there is more support for uniform pay raises across the board than for proposals to give larger raises to teachers who work in schools or subjects with teacher shortages.?”Only 25 percent of participants prefer giving larger salary increases to teachers who work in schools with teacher shortages and smaller increases to teachers in other schools,” the poll found. “Just 26 percent prefer larger pay raises for teachers in subjects with teacher shortages and smaller raises for teachers in other subjects.”
On minimum wage, an $8.50 an hour proposal is popular among Democrats (94 percent), independents (78 percent) and Republicans (72 percent). When asked if they would support a $15 an hour proposal, support dropped to 59 percent.
The people of Louisiana have spoken, now we must wait to see how the Legislature reacts.
Online: https://www.americanpress.com
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