Publisher: Today’s rewards are yesterday’s risks

The estimated $425 to $450 million economic impact that New Orleans and Louisiana are enjoying as its reward for hosting yet another successful Super Bowl can be directly linked to the risk that visionaries like Dave Dixon and former Gov. John McKeithen took decades ago to get the Superdome built, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister says in his latest column. “These two spent much time and political capital, but persevered in building the Superdome. Like all new ideas, it wasn’t easy—but bold ideas can pay off big and change the game for years to come,” McCollister writes. Real leaders and visionaries recognize potential where others don’t, McCollister says, and they’re bold enough to take risks to actualize it. “And it’s happening” in Louisiana, he observes. “Gov. Bobby Jindal’s ‘Superdome’ in 2012 was education reform, and he committed his political capital to get it done. But he didn’t see the reforms as the ‘risk’—he saw leaving children in failing schools as the real risk to their future and ours. Our state has leaped ahead of many states in the area of school choice. Our reward will be an educated workforce and a strong economic future.” This year’s political Superdome in Louisiana, McCollister says, is tax reform. “The status quo has failed our state too many times. As with all change and new ideas, the screaming has begun and the naysayers have surfaced—but that didn’t stop McKeithen and Dixon in 1965 and it didn’t stop Jindal in 2012 in pursuing what they believed would benefit our state’s future. And both won. So did Louisiana. It can happen again with tax reform,” he says. “No risk, no reward.” Read the full column here. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.