The Council for A Better Louisiana this morning laid out its vision for the state, as well as broad goals it believes Louisiana needs to pursue over the next two decades and an election agenda for candidates seeking public office in this fall’s elections.
“The vision offers a direction for Louisiana to go, the goals give us something to shoot for and the election agenda represents some of the first and most immediate steps we can take to get there,” CABL President Barry Erwin says in a prepared statement.
The vision and goals are broken into three general areas: economy and innovation, education, and livability and quality of life. The 14 specific priority issues for this year’s elections all fall into one of the categories.
As for some of the economic issues on CABL’s election agenda, the organization calls on candidates to reform the state’s spending and tax structures to provide “budget stability, fairness for taxpayers and support for priority investments,” as well as target tax credits and incentives to fuel continued growth and prioritize investments in high-quality, university-based research.
On education, CABL wants Louisiana politicians to expand access to early care and education programs for all at-risk children from birth age to 4, protect the Louisiana School and District Accountability System and other school- and teacher-quality practices, and restructure the TOPS program to ensure its stability and place a greater emphasis on need-based aid.
CABL also calls on candidates to support Medicaid expansion in the state via the Affordable Care Act, support the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s master plan for a sustainable coast, and develop and support a strategic statewide water management plan for the state.
“The bottom line is that, from CABL’s perspective, this agenda represents the priorities we believe the state needs to focus on to move forward,” Erwin says. “Overall, it has both short-term and long-term ramifications, but at the heart of it are two questions: What do we want our state to be and how do we make that happen? These are CABL’s thoughts on how we might answer those questions.”
