After eight years of Bobby Jindal’s whiz-kid ALEC-backed policies of awarding tax incentives, exemptions, and inducements to the business and industry lobby and his constant boasting to Iowans and to Fox News of his smashing successes, Louisiana remains mired as the second-worst state in the nation for business.
So says the latest report of 24/7 Wall St., a financial news and opinion company headquartered in Delaware which publishes more than 30 articles per days on economics, health, and politics.
For its most recent survey, 24/7 compiled 47 measures into eight separate categories to determine the business climate for each state: business costs, cost of living, economy, infrastructure, labor and human capital, quality of life, regulation, and technology and innovation.
The U.S. has seen 71 consecutive months of private sector job growth through January, the report noted. Despite the consistent improvement, which dates back to February 2009 (the month after Jindal was first sworn in as governor), the recovery has been uneven and some states have experienced substantially less growth than others.
One of those is Louisiana, where the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.5 percent was 21st lowest in the nation and average wages and salaries of $46,136 was 24th lowest.
Both of those ratings put the state at about the middle of the pack but other indicators showed a much bleaker picture. But only one other state, Maine, has experienced an annualized GDP decline over the past five years.
The 434 patents issued to residents in 2014 was 14th lowest in the nation. The projected working-age population growth through the year 2020 of minus 3.2 percent was seventh lowest and the 22.9 percent of adults with bachelor’s degrees was fifth lowest.
A decreasing working-age population, combined with the relatively low educational attainment means trouble for employers to fill positions with qualified job candidates. That could explain the high number of tax incentives to industries with low-paying, unskilled workers such as chicken plants and Wal Marts.
Almost 20 percent of Louisiana’s population lives below the poverty line, a statistic Jindal refused to address during his entire eight years of running for president. Moreover, the state unemployment rate was 6.4 percent. Both figures are higher than the national rates.
So, if Louisiana was second worst for business, which state was worst? Well, this time it wasn’t Mississippi which traditionally holds down the anchor spot. In this case it was West Virginia with lower GDP growth, lower average salaries, lower percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree (actually the lowest), lower number of patents issued to residents and a lower projected working-age population growth than Louisiana.
The best state for business? That would be Utah. Where Louisiana and West Virginia each had a minus projected working-age population growth rate, Utah’s projected working-age population growth of 20.5 percent was second-highest. Despite the healthy projected population growth, Utah had an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, fourth lowest in the nation.
Just more evidence of how Jindal was perfectly willing to twist and distort numbers to fit his ambitious but hopeless agenda.
Does anyone still wonder whether he was simply clueless or callously committed to his own ambitions?
Louisiana Voice 
Now it seems Grover has sent a letter to our leges, I wonder how they will respond.
Lapolitics.com/2016/02/norquist-sends-letters-to-lawmakers
I have to wonder who actually wrote that letter. I think the Senate President and Speaker of the House should send Grover a letter telling him where to stick his letter and advising him they don’t need his help, advice, support or anything else. His letter is particularly galling because of his attack on the tax hikes last year that our beloved governor, in an effort to get Grover’s blessings on, created the most ridiculous and shameful piece of legislation to ever hit the law books. I guess Grover (or, whichever of his stooges actually wrote the letter) dismissed entirely the part of the letter to him from 11 Republican legislators about the corporate tax cuts made earlier in the Jindal administration.
In 3 words (one coded, and pardon even that): EFF GROVER NORQUIST
I’m sorry, Mr. Winham, next time I’ll say what I’m really thinking. 🙂
em
unable to open link. can you re-send to Louisianavoice@yahoo.com
Tom, Jeremy’s webpage is apparently either overloaded or otherwise not working at the moment, but I will attempt to accurately type the link so you can get to the letter it if it is still there when his site comes back up:
https://lapolitics.com/2016/02/norquist-sends-letter-to-lawmakers/:
It’s back up. The link I gave you worked for me, but I don’t know how that colon got on the end of it.
Dear Grover:
Jindal kissed your sorry butt and did it your way for eight years, and destroyed our state budget with lies and perverse mismanagement. Your evil advice is not wanted here. Go peddle your self-serving BS to the Islamic Free Market Institute that you created, and stay the hell out of Louisiana’s business.
We have paid dearly for your interference in our fiscal management: our financial house is a disaster waiting to collapse, and your slavish acolyte jindal lives in a mansion.
You are an economic hit man. Keep your “advice” to yourself – it is worth exactly what we paid for it.
Sincerely,
Every Louisiana citizen with a brain
Why are you holding back, earthmother? 🙂
As a public service, and because Jeremy Alford’s site is still overloaded, here is the ridiculous letter:
February 23, 2016
To: Members of the Louisiana Legislature
From: Americans for Tax Reform
Re: Governor John Bel Edwards’ Tax Proposals
Dear Members of the Louisiana Legislature,
On behalf of Americans for Tax Reform and our supporters across Louisiana, I write today to urge you to reject Gov. Edwards’ proposal to impose a host of tax increases that will damage the Louisiana economy.
Pelican State taxpayers have been hit with more than 20 federal tax hikes over the last six years and state legislators enacted over $600 million in tax hikes just last year that reduced the job-creating capacity of Louisiana businesses. The last thing Louisiana taxpayers need, especially amid tepid economic growth and uncertainty, is to be hit with another round of tax increases at the state level.
Keeping the tax burden as low as possible promotes economic growth. Over the last decade,the ten states with the lowest tax burden saw average GDP growth that was 24 percent greater than the ten states with the highest tax burden. John Hood, chairman of the John Locke Foundation, analyzed over 680 peer-reviewed academic journal articles going back to 1990. Most of the studies Hood analyzed found that lower levels of taxes and spending correlate with stronger economic performance. When Tax Foundation economist William McBride reviewed academic literature going back three decades, he discovered “all but three of those studies, and every study in the last 15 years, find a negative effect of taxes on growth.”
The tax hikes proposed by Gov. Edwards would make state revenue more volatile and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable populations: small businesses that fuel job creation and low-income families. The proposal to raise the cigarette tax is a prime example. Tobacco taxes single out low-income residents, as the average income of smokers is considerably below that of the median income. Tobacco taxes are an unstable and rapidly declining source of revenue. In fact, only three out of the 32 state tobacco tax increases enacted between 2009 and 2013 have met initial revenue estimates. Increasing the state’s dependence on tobacco taxes will only make budgeting more difficult and less predictable.
In addition to stripping Louisiana residents of more of their hard-earned income, Gov. Edwards and others have proposed several tax hikes that seek to “export” the tax burden to those that cannot vote them out of office: tourists, travelers, and online retailers. Despite what Gov. Edwards and others claim, efforts to export the tax burden will still hit Louisiana residents. The proposed rental car tax hike, for example, would be paid not just by out-of-state visitors, but by Louisiana residents as well. Given the rental car industry’s primary business deals with replacement vehicles, any rental car tax increase would be borne by Louisianans, not just tourists and travelers. Studies also indicate that rental car tax hikes negatively impact local economies and downstream businesses. A study commissioned by the National Business Travel Association found that a rise in rental car taxes is associated with a reduction in the number of rental car patrons and the average number of days rented, and tourists tend to offset the increased cost of rental cars by walking, using public transportation, or by choosing to dine out less.
Though there is a big push for job-killing tax hikes this special session, some lawmakers have commendably offered pro-growth reform ideas, such as legislative proposals to reduce the corporate tax. Other states in the region that already have more attractive business tax climates – such as Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina – are increasing their advantage by cutting personal and corporate income taxes. With states across the country enacting rate-reducing tax reform, Louisiana lawmakers need to both avoid higher taxes and reform the state tax code to be more competitive. Step one is rejecting Gov. Edwards’ tax hikes.
After being hit with over 20 federal tax increases in recent years, the last thing your constituents need is for lawmakers in Baton Rouge to continue piling on with tax hikes at the state level. Americans for Tax Reform will be educating your constituents as to how you vote on these important matters.
If you have any questions or if ATR can be of assistance, don’t hesitate to contact me or Miriam Roff, ATR’s State Affairs Coordinator, at the office, 202-785-0266.
Sincerely,
ggn-signature
Grover G. Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
Well, since we’re in the mood for providing links to LAPolitics, how about this one wherein Edwards isn’t seeming willing to agree to a 5-YEAR sunset on the penny sales tax?:
https://lapolitics.com/2016/02/bittersweet-deal-coming-together-in-house/
Therein lies the problem. Once the easy approach of slapping more taxes, especially regressive ones like sales taxes, is deployed, the tax bites to those struggling never go away. Very disappointed in Gov. Edwards for going down this path. That penny should stay on the books one year, max!!
The most significant way we got into this mess was using temporary fixes.
I personally don’t think we should increase our sales tax by any amount for many reasons. There are plenty of other ways to go. If it is the only to make it to June 30, 2016, it should be immediately replaced July 1, 2016 – not next year, not 5 years from now. Shoving the problem 1 year into the future is stupid enough, 5 is outrageous.
No matter when the 1 cent comes off the books, BOOM, about a billion in annual revenue disappears. The chances a billion in expenditures has disappeared are slim an none. We have to start over with repetition of what we went through for the past 8 years, projected annual deficits of a billion dollars. This number sounds familiar because it is. And, the number doubled this year and could in the future..
Temporary fixes of any kind for any length of time, with no firm replacements with permanent ones, are STUPID.
.
Are we going to continue to be STUPID?
Even if we need the sales tax to make it through this year, we need something to replace it immediately when it expires and we need to know what it is NOW, not next year, not 5 years from now. NOW.
If we go down this path again, we will validate our utter STUPIDITY. For what do stupid people do? They make the same mistakes over and over and over and over….
It’s worth mentioning that Utah is also a conservative state, but one that has invested in education and infrastructure, especially public transportation. They’ve also taken innovative steps for reducing chronic homelessness by providing those in that category with permanent housing and medical health services.
A recent article in the Ruston Daily Leader noted an inordinate number of patents are issued to a relatively few “Super Inventors.” Those “Super Inventors/Creators” are, not surprisingly concentrated on College faculties. The article went on to conclude that as states (with Louisiana leading the pack) lowered their funding of state colleges and universities, those “Super Inventors” are seeking more friendly campuses.
So, even though Louisiana is already behind the field in patent awards, the situation is sure to get worse–if it already hasn’t happened.
So keep this is mind Mr. and Ms. Legislator, as you argue the “Economic Value” of funding higher education. As Mr. Aswell stated, the state only needs so many chicken pluckers and underpaid/welfare recipient Wal-Mart associates. There is an undeniable correlation between high academic funding and achievement and a vibrant State GDP.
Therefore, if as you say you want to run the State like a business, then build a strong base of qualified employees via a strong education system.
Amen, John.
Jindal gave Norquist an entree into politics. It still seems as if this level of interference is unusual.
What was once a respectable party, the GOP, has become a force of evil. It has been hijacked by morons, hateful racists, villainous billionaires and other assorted demonic characters. In this horrible era of politics, the only fun has been watching Republicans Jindal, Vitter, and the 2016 clown-car clowns bite the dust one by one.
Veritas, it has indeed been satisfactory to watch a few dastardly Republicans go down…however, we will be living with their evil legacy for a long, long time unless we can convince those die hard fundamentalist, conservative Republicans to put Louisiana first and quit listening to their insane leaders. What are the odds of that happening, when so many of our friends and neighbors sit glued to talk radio and FOX news and never ever question what they see and hear and think their battle cry is anything “Democrat”? Depressing.
Tom Aswell’s Louisiana Voice exposing Graft, Lies and Politics calling it a monument to corruption has convinced me we should have NO MORE TAXES. He gives reports on public funds being diverted for personal use, excessive public payroll for unqualified persons, attempts at excessive retirement benefits for certain state police personnel, gift cards to troopers making ticket quota , millions of taxpayers dollars spent on security for Jindal that had nothing to do with his job as governor of Louisiana, and on and on, too numerous to list here.
Corruption swallows millions of tax dollars. Too often there is no punishment for wrongdoing and no repayment to the state. (Same things happen at the local level with taxpayers money). Increase in taxes will only punish the working people and the ones barely making ends meet on a small fixed retirement income.
The time has come where we as a state must actually pay for the disaster we allowed jindal to wreak on our state finances. The bill must be paid and the only way is to raise revenue – taxes. We allowed the mess by electing jindal and the legislators who followed his lead, and not screaming loudly enough when there were severe cutbacks in state services, massive layoffs, closure of hospitals and mental health facilities, lack of support for education at all levels, not addressing the privatization folly, the ridiculously huge contracts to out of state companies to do what state employees had done well……
We allowed the corruption by not contacting our elected representatives with our outrage when we read these posts. Now we have to literally pay the past due bills.
If we don’t like the corruption that has been going on, it’s time to raise our voices and demand good government. If we don’t like allowing big business to use our infrastructure and not pay its fair share through reasonable taxes, as we ordinary, working people do, it’s time to demand the pre-jindal tax rates be restored so business and the wealthy are taxed at least at the rates we pay. (Does anyone really think the oil and gas industry will leave because they have to pay reasonable taxes? Think they are going to go elsewhere to extract resources in a state with no severance tax – because there is no oil???)
And anyone who voted for and supported jindal, and who objects to raising taxes, look in the mirror for the culprit.
And speaking of that small fixed retirement income, many state retirees, who were paid far less than private sector employees, are receiving as much as 25 percent less than they would have if jindal had not withheld merit raises for seven years. They paid a heavy tax by being denied pay increases while working, and now will pay for the rest of their lives with reduced retirement income. No amount of taxes will ever help those retired public servants.
“(Does anyone really think the oil and gas industry will leave because they have to pay reasonable taxes? Think they are going to go elsewhere to extract resources in a state with no severance tax – because there is no oil???)” Exactly, earthmother. Call their bluff. You think Exxon will shutter what is, I believe, the second largest refinery in the country? They would lose more money than they would pay in more taxes. Also, earthmother, I am one of those state retirees. I am not bitter about that, as the House(my former employer) followed the lead and held up our merit raises, also. As we were supposed to. I am bitter at the fact that some of those knuckleheads who are now complaining sat there for eight years and watched piyush dismantle state government. In some instances, they helped him do it.
Clifford, I, too, am one of those retirees….but I try to accept that monthly check as a blessing because there are others with so much less. I know active employees who are paid so little they can’t afford the state’s health insurance, and retirees who had thought they would be comfortable, but who are again working to make ends meet.
Like you, I am angry with the “leges” who enabled the jindal destruction and now talk bout “pension reform” as if that will balance the books.