There will be no meaningful budget or tax reforms in Louisiana as long as a Democrat is living in the governor’s mansion while House Republicans claim the state Capitol as their domain, says Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball in his latest column.
“One ruling side believes more revenue is needed—or at least as much as last fiscal year—to balance a state budget where the general fund creeps ever-closer to $10 billion,” Ball writes. “The other is adamant the budget is riddled with waste and is demanding spending cuts. Never mind the fact no living human has yet to propose enough cuts to plug what’s expected to be a $994 million shortfall next fiscal year.”
Given that reality, Ball wonders if there’s any possible outcome other than gridlock and stopgap solutions.
“Gov. John Bel Edwards can preach all he wants about the need for compromise—as he did on President’s Day to open a scheduled 17-day special session—but in today’s political climate that’s like asking a pair of screaming two-year-olds to work out amongst themselves who owns the binky,” Ball writes. “It ain’t gonna’ happen.”
Ball says this refusal to do the right thing—or really, anything— comes despite numerous studies telling the governor and state legislators exactly how to make sense of Louisiana’s nonsensical tax code while at the same time keeping the state’s corporate rates competitive.
“Our so-called elected leaders won’t do what they all know needs to be done,” Ball writes, “because every ridiculous exemption, tax credit and entitlement has a constituency that ardently believes self-interest trumps the greater good each and every time.”
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