Louisiana Voice

A couple of weeks ago, KNOE-TV in Monroe aired a fluff piece about the creation of a special fund to reimburse local utility systems for damages caused by the state’s broadband expansion in the parishes of LaSalle, Caldwell, Franklin and Catahoula.

State creates fund to reimburse water systems damaged during broadband expansion

The story by Shahid Evans noted that State Sen. Glenn Womack has been working with the Louisiana Department of Health “to establish the local infrastructure fund.”

His Senate District 32 just happens to encompass the parishes of LaSalle, Caldwell, Franklin and Catahoula (along with all or part of Avoyelles, Concordia, Ouachita, Rapides, Richland and West Feliciana).

Senate District 32 (in red)

Womack also is the owner of WOMACK AND SONS CONSTRUCTION GROUP,  along with several other entities, in Harrisonburg whose Utility Division “consists of underground water, sewer and gas piping,” according to the company’s WEBSITE, though Womack told KNOE his company is not involved with the projects.

The story quoted LDH as saying as many as 300 city and parish government water systems may be eligible to apply for reimbursement for damages to their systems during the broadband expansion from 2022 through June of this year.

Womack said broadband had committed no wrongdoing but rather damages occurred “at such a pace that our locals wasn’t (sic) able to stay ahead of them.”

To apply, each eligible utility system or political subdivision must provide certain damage documentation in order to receive reimbursement for the cost of materials, equipment, labor and professional support provided for eligible repairs the systems made to their public underground utility infrastructure.

Under the program guidelines approved last month, the local system may be reimbursed up to 100% of supported damage cost (or $50,000) when it serves 10,000 people or fewer, or 100% of supported damage cost (or $30,000) when it serves more than 10,000 people.

LDH’s Broadband Damage Reimbursement Program application portal opened yesterday (Nov. 1) and will close on January 1, 2027.  The LDH Bureau of Engineering Services will make funding recommendations by January 31, 2027.

Funding for the program was provided by HOUSE BILL 700 of 2024 by State Rep. Daryl Deshotel (R-Marksville). THAT BILL passed the House unanimously, 101-0 and the Senate, also unanimously, by a 34-0 vote.

While Womack says his company is not involved in the Broadband project, a review of Louisiana Checkbook, the state web page that lists all state contractors, shows that Womack and Sons Construction Group currently holds FIVE SEPARATE CONTRACTS with the state totaling more than $29 million.

They include $11.74 million for the Agriculture and Forestry Wood Products Education and Research Center at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston; $11.557 million for the Athletic Academic Center at Louisiana Tech; $5.2 million for Phase II of Drainage Outfall Project  and Infrastructure Improvements at LSU-Alexandria; $1.9 million for Pond Improvements to the Booker Fowler Fish Hatchery in Forest Hill, and $757,000 for Flood Damage Repairs to the Main Building of Northwest Louisiana Technical College in Natchitoches.

These are scenes from Jamie Davis’s appearance Sunday night in Baton Rouge. Davis, a Democrat, is opposing Rep. Julia Letlow, Republican, for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bill Cassidy, whom Letlow defeated in the Republican priumary earlier this year. Davis is a successful farmer from Louisiana’s Delta who has personally felt the economic hardships caused by Donald Trump tariffs and his war with Iran. Letlow has pledged her loyalty to Trump while Davis, in contrast, has committed his campaign to working class Louisianans.

A sharp-eyed reader has reminded me of a LouisianaVoice post of three years and one month ago, on Oct. 1, 2023, in which it was noted that two members of the Louisiana congressional delegation voted to deprive about 2 million active-duty members of our armed forces their paychecks and to halt certain law enforcement activity altogether.

Come November 2024, remember that Mike Johnson and Clay Higgins wanted to paralyze government operations | Louisiana Voice

That was the occasion in which four members voted in favor of the last-minute bill to avert a government shutdown—but two didn’t.

Even Julia Letlow and Steve Scalise voted in favor of the bill, along with Garret Graves and Troy Carter but Speaker Mike Johnson and law and order bigot Clay Higgins voted no.

We should not need to be reminded that a lot of military personnel live in Johnson’s 4th District (Barksdale AFB and Ft. Polk) and Higgins is a former law enforcement communications officer who once boasted incorrectly—a-la Donald Trump—of the “thousands of arrests” he’d made. With that in mind, it’s a little puzzling why they would vote for a shutdown that could inflict serious economic harm on military personnel and law enforcement officers.

This was less than four weeks before Johnson was elected Speaker of the House and despite the passage of temporary funding until Nov. 17—despite the votes of Johnson and Higgins—there remained the possibility of a full shutdown which would have seen mail delivery come to a screeching halt, a slowdown in Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid complaint resolutions, cessation of SNAP meals for women, infants and children, a run on food pantries and food banks as federal employees would have found themselves without paychecks.

So, as you go to the polls Tuesday, keep in mind that these two court jesters do not care for their constituents. They only concern is keeping one other bloated, orange-tinted clown happy.

And lest one mistakenly get the impression I was heaping praise on Letlow, here is a reminder for you:

Letlow said she would have joined the majority of Republican representatives in OBJECTING TO THE RESULTS of the 2020 presidential election in Congress had she been in office at the time.

And let’s not forget one other little factoid about Letlow, who INVESTED IN META STOCK, according to the Louisiana Illuminator, after signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with a Meta shell company that provided her with insider information about a $50 billion data center project in Richland Parish.

So, basically, it’s going to come down to you voting for those who put their self-interests first or who will actually represent their constituents if elected. It’s a simple choice, folks—really simple.

Social Security is intended to be a non-political, non-partisan program, designed to provide financial support to retirees and disabled individuals regardless of political affiliation. However, it often becomes a focal point in political debates, especially regarding funding and reforms, which can politicize its administration and perception.

Social Security was controversial when originally proposed, with one point of opposition being that it would reduce the labor force, but supporters argued instead that retiring older workers would free up employment for young men, which during the Depression was a vital point of concern.

Opponents also decried the proposal as socialism.

So, if Social Security is non-political, non-partisan, why is the administration of Cadet Bone Spurs trying to hard in the closing days of the mid-term campaign to convince voters that it’s his administration that doing such a wonderful job with the program which has been around since the Great Depression?

And if Republikkkans were so determine to label FDR’s Social Security proposal as socialistic when it was first introduced in 1935, what has changed over the past 91 years that would convince the Pedo-President to use it as a tool to promote his agenda?

In other words, why in the world would Loaded Dirty Diaper Don send out those unsolicited messages touting the wonderful job his administration is doing with all those wonderful SS benefits?

On Oct. 15, just a couple of weeks before the critical midterm elections, American households began receiving a second mass mailout from the Social Security Administration “bombarding” voters with “blatantly partisan emails” promoting what passes for a Trump administration, according to YAHOO NEWS.

That the second time such messaging had gone out to voters from the Social Security Administration. THE FIRST WAS SENT IN JULY and just this past week, a third message was sent, raising concern over the administration’s willingness to politicize agencies into being used as partisan tools by the White House:

One can only surmise if Obama or Biden had done something similar, Republikkkans would’ve been all over it like a monkey on a cupcake.

But isn’t it peculiar how the GOP (Guardians of Pedophiles) can ignore Trump’s lifting of sanctions on Russia, the Russian diesel deal, the use of federal agencies as a shill for the party, the Epstein files, runaway inflation, the war with Iran and the TUNGSTEN MINING DEAL with Kazakhstan that will enrich the Trump family and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—with their only response being, “…but Hunter Biden’s laptop!”?