Gov. John Bel Edwards, while presenting his doomsday budget, claimed he had cut $600 million since taking office. It was a statement, as Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister notes, that didn’t seem accurate to state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, who questioned the governor on the savings as well as his definition of “cut.”
McCollister, in his latest column, also questions whether Edwards understands the term.
“Edwards told the Legislature, ‘This is what falling off the cliff looks like,’” he writes. “No, governor, it’s the fall that you have designed and chosen. Just one plan from our Democratic governor trying to force the hand of others to comply.”
The governor’s proposal to cut TOPS by 80%—which will result in the state’s best and brightest leaving at a time when Louisiana needs a trained workforce—is ridiculous, he adds.
There are other options, he says. Has Edwards done all he could?
For instance, Louisiana spent more money per person ($5,944) than in other Gulf Coast state in 2015, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation. That number would be more today, McCollister writes, because the state lost population in 2016 and its budget has increased.
And though many would claim that there are no more areas to cut, data from Governing magazine shows that in 2014 Louisiana had more state employees per capita (97 per 10,000 residents) than its neighbors.
And while Edwards touts Louisiana’s falling unemployment rate, McCollister notes the number of employed workers in the state increased by 11,104, or about a half-percent, in the two years since the governor took office.
“I wouldn’t advise the governor or legislators do anything to impede our job growth,” he says. “They should realize we are on this fiscal cliff because we created it by digging for decades.”
The digging was done by a failed education system and too many dropouts, too many state workers, a bank-breaking pension plan, 14 four-year universities and not enough support for the state’s flagship—the only one with a graduation rate above 60%.
“And we dig by dedicating funds—some with excess-—making the cliff steeper. So the war is on, and it may get bloody,” he says. “New state Treasurer John Schroder said, ‘This is a broken system, and we can’t possibly in good conscience give it more money until it’s fixed.’
I predict the truce in the end with the penny sale tax renewed—to fight another day.”
McCollister also writes about the impact of tax policy when it comes to corporations deciding where to expand or locate (it matters), celebrates LSU’s push to expand its online education program and celebrates the opening of a new charter school in Baton Rouge.
Read the full column. Send your comments to editor@businessreport.com. Also, check out Editor Stephanie Riegel’s column as she has a different take on the budget situation.
