Lege Watch

Ask, and you shall receive. I wished that Governor Jindal would break out his veto pen, and he finally did:

He thusly axed 258 items to the tune of $16 million (and said indirect savings were $27 million more), over ten times what he excised from the supplemental bill and about double the number from the last 12 budget bills combined. This in and of itself perhaps tells us there hasn’t been a lot of good prioritizing in past budgets.

It’s amusing to watch leges flip out over the loss of their pet projects. Or it would be, if it weren’t sad that so many worthy projects are now unfunded. But the core problem here is not that Jindal has vetoed them. It’s that the legislature, and whoever runs these projects, did not see to it that they were appropriately funded to begin with.

While Mary Landrieu issues press releases bragging about picking Federal taxpayer pockets for an ethanol project which is obviously a state issue, the Louisiana lege does the exact same thing on a smaller scale. It’s not necessarily that projects are unworthy; it’s that rather than do these things at the appropriate local level, they go up a level in order to get credit for having scored some “free money” for their local constituents. They buy votes with taxpayer money. But none of it is “free” - it ALL comes out of OUR pockets.

I’m delighted for the people in Jennings, beneficiaries of Landrieu’s federal ethanol score, who will enjoy a boost in their economy. I’m delighted that ethanol will be available for purchase, and that this is not food-based ethanol, a bad idea which has greatly contributed to people going hungry world-wide. But why should anyone other than Louisianians pay for this excellent project? Answer: they shouldn’t. Nor should Louisianians pay for Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere” or West Virginia’s fabulously smooth roads or any of the billions of dollars worth of projects, worthy or unworthy.

Long time lege Yvonne Dorsey sent a foaming-at-the-mouth missive to Bayou Buzz whinging about the “Jindal Swindle” and the “blatant liars” in the Governor’s office. Well, perhaps they are. In that email, Ms. Dorsey asserted that the Baton Rouge Balloon Festival is NOT a local project. Is she a blatant liar, is she just that bad at geography, or is there some other explanation?

For example, he has the audacity to tell us that the Baton Rouge Balloon Festival, which generates hundreds of thousands of tourism dollars for the Greater Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area, is ‘local.’ Everyone for fifty miles in any direction has seen those balloons flying and knows better. The man’s an idiot if he thinks he can fool voters with this latest Jindal Swindle.”

If it generates hundreds of thousands of tourism dollars for the Greater Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area, I suggest that the Greater Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area pay for their own balloon festival. How does that festival benefit people in New Orleans, Monroe, Alexandria, or Lafayette? Why should one cent of my tax dollars go to pay for it?

Good projects are now going unfunded, like the Dryades YMCA. But whose responsibility is it to pay for that? Should people in Shreveport or Lake Charles be forced to contribute to a facility hundreds of miles away? Or should it be only New Orleans taxpayers, which that YMCA serves, and/or private donations?

Mike Michot makes it plain that this is not about what’s best for Louisiana taxpayers or even about doing the right thing. It’s a naked play for power.

Michot cited an administration-backed bill to create a $10 million private-school scholarship program for poor children in New Orleans, which drew heavy opposition from teachers unions, as the kind of measure that might have a tougher time passing in future years.

“They voted for this because it was the governor’s initiative and they wanted to do it to help the governor, ” Michot said. “That will not happen again.”

If Jindal cut a deal to get his vouchers and then went back on it, then that certainly speaks to his lack of character. But I’d like to remind Ms. Dryades and Mr. Michot of the classic movie line, “You can’t cheat an honest man.” If it’s true that Governor Jindal sprung a trap on you, that’s a shame - but why did you put your head into it? Whatever made you think it’s okay to wheel and deal with taxpayer money like your own personal carnival shell game? If you thought the vouchers were a bad idea, you had a moral obligation not to enact them. If the vouchers were a good idea, then they should have been enacted no matter who proposed them and without any payoffs to you.

One of those earmarks was intended for JPAS, and this will have a direct effect on my family since my daughter is a performer. But the bottom line is - tough. This is a local issue. It has nothing whatsoever to do with people in Natchitoches or Thibodeaux. Why should they pay? There will probably be fewer shows and higher ticket prices, and I deeply regret that, but this is NOT a state issue.

Ms. Dorsey complains -

The Constitution specifies that the line item veto is a last ditch defense to allow a Governor to keep spending within budget, yet HB1 already gave the state a $2.5 billion surplus using revenue projections with oil at just $88 per barrel. By now our true surplus is at least $3 billion. The line item veto was never meant for this kind of arrogant abuse.

Three billion? That’s taxpayer money and if the state has too much of it, it needs to give back the excess. So it looks like some refunds are due. According to the 2006 census, Louisiana’s population is 4,287,768. Three billion divided by 4,287,768 = 699.664721. So even accounting for population changes since then, we get back at least $600 per person. For my household, that makes $1,800 - which is enough for me to afford a nice donation to the Dryades YMCA and higher ticket prices at JPAS.

The swindle taking place is that legislators of all parties and at all levels keep shuffling money around to buy our votes. It’s time that voters stop being fooled by it, because when your tax dollar gets shuffled through government hands, at ANY level, you get less than a dollar back. And whatever you do manage to get back from the government is not a gift. It’s money that was forcibly confiscated from you, your neighbors, your fellow Louisianians and your fellow Americans. (If you think “forcibly confiscated” is too harsh a phrase, just try not paying taxes for a few years.)

Taxpayers should remember - you can’t cheat an honest man. And when you vote for people who brag about robbing your neighbors, you can rely on the fact that you, too, are being robbed. It’s high time we stop thanking them for using our own money to buy our votes and instead hold them to account for this taxpayer-funded three card monte scam they’ve got going. That’s the most deplorable swindle of all.

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