From state tax credits to feral hogs and bullying awareness, there’s a legislatively sanctioned task force to study just about anything in Louisiana, Jeremy Alford writes in his latest column.
“Lawmakers rarely meet a task force they don’t like, although it does happen on occasion,” Alford says. “That’s because the bills and resolutions that host these advisory commissions represent easy votes for representatives and senators.”
For example, when the Legislature approved a resolution last month forming the Task Force on Secure Care Standards and Auditing, lawmakers were not voting to take any specific stances on the matter, he writes. Rather, they took votes to seek information on everything from isolation cells to phone call privileges, as they relate to secure care facilities.
That’s how most state task forces operate, Alford says.
Some task force studies can lead to significant policy changes, the columnist acknowledges, like the criminal justice reform bills the Legislature passed this year. Others, however—like the Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy—the first high profile task force created this term—can be a waste of time for everyone involved.
Gov. John Bel Edwards and some lawmakers vowed to use the task force’s findings to craft an agenda for this year’s fiscal sessions, he says.
“That never happened, but fans are still hopeful that the Capitol’s elite might lean on the document in 2018, or during the next special session, whichever comes first,” he says. “With that in mind, has the time come to start questioning the value of these task forces? Are there too many of them?”
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
