Louisiana isn’t having one important conversation: What’s the appropriate role of state government in our lives? More specifically: Where and how should our tax dollars be spent—or not spent?
“This isn’t merely some philosophical exercise,” writes Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball in is recent column. “Considering what’s been happening—or not—at the State Capitol the past two-plus years, these are ‘they really kind of matter’ questions.
Clearly the governor and state legislators are nowhere near agreement on the answers. Instead, Gov. John Bel Edwards says he’s not a big government guy but keeps asking for more money to grow government, Ball writes. Meanwhile, House Republicans—and an increasing number of Senate Republicans—say they want smaller government but only shrink health care and higher education, complaining they’re not happy about it while casting votes to expand government elsewhere.
Further complicating matters Ball says, is we live in a time when our century-long love-affair with Huey Long’s populism is slamming headfirst into our more recent decade-plus passion for hating taxes.
“It’s a political paradox that’s creating quite the conundrum. In other words, far too many of us—Republicans included—want Huey Long services on a Bobby Jindal budget,” Ball writes.
At least in the past we were willing to fuel our habit not by taxing you or taxing me, but by sticking it to that “fella’ behind the tree.” Now, the most strident anti-taxers among us are declaring even the guy behind the tree is off limits—unless, of course, he’s living in poverty, Ball writes.
The time has come for all of us to get real before Louisiana slips any further into banana republic status, he says. At what point do we tire of being a national laughingstock? What are the state’s funding priorities?
“It’s a conversation we can no longer ignore,” Ball writes.
Read the full column. Send your comments to editor@businessreport.com.
