By Stephen Winham, guest columnist
Caveat: I worked closely with Buddy Roemer as state budget director. I have only the barest of acquaintances with John Bel Edwards. For this reason, I must question how fair my comparison of the two can be. I admit I am disappointed in John Bel Edwards’ performance as governor to date and have admired Roemer’s efforts even more with the passage of time.
As he assumed office as governor of Louisiana thirty years ago, Buddy Roemer faced a huge budget gap left by his predecessor. The solution was difficult and was complicated by a recalcitrant legislature. The gap was closed, and a surplus generated within the first year of Roemer’s administration. In addition, comprehensive budget reforms were enacted to limit the probability of a recurrence of such a gap.
A similar scenario confronted John Bel Edwards 28 years later, yet two years into his administration he has made no real progress on the budget front in terms of balance or reforms. Roemer and Edwards are very different people and the opposition to their administrations have different roots.
Roemer was, and continues to be a true reformer. He had little regard, until it was too late, for his gubernatorial re-election chances. Edwards seems to have been running for re-election from the first day of his administration. Roemer attempted to buck the system. Edwards tries to work within it. They were both elected as Democrats.
Roemer and JBE were improbable victors in their races for governor. Roemer came from last in the polls to the top (albeit by only 3 points) going into the 1987 primary election. He won the general election with only 33% of the vote. His closest competitor was fellow Democrat and three-term governor, Edwin Washington Edwards. EWE conceded the race rather than face Roemer in a run-off – and denied him an electoral mandate.
JBE was considered a dark horse candidate from the beginning. The only major Democrat in his gubernatorial race, John Bel Edwards finished first in the primary election with 39.9% of the vote. He was expected to lose to his Republican opponent, U. S. Senator David Vitter, in the general election. Despite Vitter’s 23% showing in the primary election, and his personal problems, he was considered a sure winner in the run-off. To the surprise of most political analysts, JBE won with 56.1% of the vote.
Roemer and JBE were each elected because people were looking for something dramatically different. Roemer promised to “slay the dragon” and end corruption and special interest control over government. JBE vowed to bring common sense, fiscal responsibility, and compassion for ordinary people to the office. Roemer was strident, JBE is calm.
Governors are not dictators. There is little they can do without action by the legislature and consent, when needed, of the judiciary. Despite his lack of an electoral mandate, Roemer was able to quickly get a lot of good legislation enacted, mainly because the need was abundantly and undeniably clear – and he was a convenient scapegoat if things went wrong later. A strong contingent of legislators were loyal to Edwin Edwards and bitter that he was not still governor. While they went along with the emergency measures Roemer proposed to address the fiscal emergency and reforms including the creation of an official revenue forecast by a new Revenue Estimating Conference, opposition intensified over time.
Historically, Louisiana’s governors were powerful enough to anoint legislative leaders – an obvious plus for enacting an agenda. The most powerful of those leaders are the house speaker and senate president. The senate is, by its size and nature, a more powerful and cohesive body than the house. In the middle of Roemer’s term, the senate dealt him a severe blow by replacing his chosen president and returning EWE’s powerful senate president, Sammy Nunez, to that office – an office he continued to hold until he left the legislature in 1996.
Roemer proposed several progressive tax increases that failed in the legislature and the electorate, including a decrease in the sacrosanct homestead exemption. It is no small irony that he eventually agreed with EWE’s earlier push to legalize gambling and supported an even broader entry into that sector – the lottery, riverboat casinos, and video poker.
Roemer steadily lost political power as his term went on. Despite pushing for and achieving hundreds of millions in teacher pay raises, he was vilified because he also pushed a teacher accountability program roundly criticized as unfair by teachers. His environmental reforms angered oil and gas, chemical, and other industries. He was increasingly perceived as arrogant and hard to work with.
Anxious for EWE’s return, his supporters became even harsher in their opposition to Roemer’s administration. In 1990, on the grounds it violated federal law, he vetoed a bill passed by the legislature that banned abortion even in cases of rape and incest. The legislature overrode his veto (a very rare event in Louisiana). The law was struck down by a U. S. District Court in 1991 for the very reason Roemer had vetoed it, but it didn’t matter politically.
In 1991, Roemer switched parties. While the national Republican Party sent in big guns to help him get re-elected, emphasizing his scandal-free administration and his budgetary, campaign finance and environmental reforms, he never had the support of the state Republican Party, very many legislators, or the special interests he had disdained. Quite the contrary. The state party endorsed another candidate and legislators and special interests actively attacked Roemer. It didn’t help that Roemer did not really focus on the campaign but rather continued his zeal for reform to the end. He finished 3rd in the primary and endorsed EWE in the runoff with David Duke – an embarrassing race. He ran again in 1995 as a conservative Republican but ran 4th in the primary.
His high school’s class valedictorian, like Roemer, and a West Point graduate, versus Roemer’s Harvard education, John Bel Edwards was a conventional, but conservative Democrat. He is the son of a southeast Louisiana sheriff, Roemer the son of a northwest Louisiana plantation owner. Like Roemer, his biggest obstacle has been the legislature, but for somewhat different reasons.
Louisiana now has a strong Republican Party that believes we should have a Republican governor. Partisanship was not a big issue when Roemer was governor, but it certainly is now and has gotten more so since JBE became governor in 2016. Although he had a solid record as a Democratic state representative, what seems to matter most is that he is a Democrat. Not only do Republicans now control both houses of the legislature, but all statewide elected officials except the governor are now Republicans. Regaining the governor’s office is a number one priority of the party and since John Bel Edwards has been running for re-election from day one he presents an easy target.
The state house of representatives openly rejected JBE’s choice for speaker. Rather than elect one of his harshest critics (Cameron Henry who withdrew from consideration), they chose a compromise candidate, the low-key Taylor Barras – who had not even been mentioned as a contender before he was elected. Not since Huey Long’s administration had the state house elected a speaker not endorsed by the governor, though as noted above, the state senate did unseat Roemer’s chosen president.
Nobody doubted we had a severe fiscal problem when Roemer was elected, but many would argue that we simply spend too much money today – end of story. JBE’s Republican opposition relishes reports of waste and abuse in the media and remains unconvinced he has done enough to address them. The governor has not specifically answered the charge he does not do enough to hold his appointees accountable for fiscal irresponsibility unless the media is relentless in reporting it. This has not helped his case for more revenue.
JBE has proposed both revenue measures and cuts. However, his proposals are often open to widespread criticism. When he recommends cuts, they are dramatic and are not presented in such a way that the legislature or public believes they are the only, or the best, ways to cut the budget. They do not seem to explicitly address the waste and abuse people read about on LouisianaVoice, in the newspapers, and see reported on television.
On the revenue side, JBE did not initially focus on proposals by the task force specifically created to present options for dealing with the “fiscal Cliff.” That cliff has been forestalled by two years of temporary taxes. The centerpiece of JBE’s revenue proposal last year was the previously unheard of and dead on arrival Commercial Activity Tax. The CAT constituted over 60 percent of his original package and was so watered down by the time it was actually introduced, it lost what little value it had and was quickly withdrawn.
Another year has passed, and the governor has proposed revenues more in line with what the task force recommended. The cuts he has recommended are devastating. His critics in the legislature don’t really like anything he puts forth and as the next election gets closer the criticism is sure to get harsher.
The governor has asked the legislature to present and enact its own proposals if it doesn’t like his. The legislature has responded by recommending an accountability system and little else. The proposed system seems to have been presented as a distraction from the need for immediate, concrete, and sustainable solutions.
Let’s face it. There is nothing new under the sun. Our fiscal status and options have been studied dozens of times over dozens of years. The governor can recommend things all day every day, but only the legislature has the power to enact measures to authorize them. Whether the governor has made truly responsible proposals or not, it is ultimately the legislature’s responsibility to act. They can blame the governor ad infinitum, but the final responsibility is theirs and the excuse they don’t know enough to come up with solutions is a patently empty claim.
Roemer was able to get a lot done through the legislature in his first year when he had his best chance to do so. JBE’s chances of significant accomplishments will apparently continue to diminish with time. Even with the help of the most powerful and long-serving member of the legislature, Senate President John Alario, he has been unable to succeed. A bloc of opposition in the house stymies him repeatedly.
I am of the considered opinion that we could all save a lot of time, grief, and money by simply agreeing, right now, to make permanent the temporary sales taxes currently in effect, cut as necessary for the difference, and hope for a better, more responsible future under new leadership. A fool’s hope, perhaps, but at least everybody would be able to make plans for more than a year or two into the future – individuals and businesses.
LABI and other business interests are hypercritical of JBE and, of course, any business taxation. In the absence of sustainable solutions how can they possibly expect vigorous business expansion and prosperity? Future taxes are unpredictable, regardless of temporary incentives. How can they, or we, have hope our mediocre infrastructure, educational system, and other public services will not continue to decline?
Trying to ruffle as few feathers as possible in hope of re-election has not worked for JBE. Ruffling as many feathers as possible may not have worked over time for Roemer, but we are still profiting from major accomplishments in his first few years. He wasn’t a good politician and maybe that’s why he never got the credit he deserved.
Whether JBE is a good politician remains to be seen.
What do you want, another slash and burn Jindal administration? I suggest you compare Roemer to JBE to higher education funding and the safeguards for state workers. I think the answer is to get a Democratic house and senate!
I will take John Bel Edwards over ANY of the abysmal Republican contenders I have heard of planning to seek the Governor’s office in 2020!
Agreed!
^^^ Same here!
Agree with Ken 100%. Get LABI out of the Louisiana Legislature!
Isn’t it Bel, with one l?
I submitted it with one l. Tom’s spell-check must have “corrected” it when he posted it.
Nope, it wasn’t Tom’s spellll-check; it was Tom. I went to sllleep at the wheell and held the llllllllllll key down too lllllong.
Stephen, I do remember those days. Remember, his first session was a special session. You are right, there were things the legislature went along with early on because of the mess we were in. But, I seem to remember that he had a very tough time in his first 2 years. Not counting the emergency measures he got passed. Though he did get his speaker, the Alario/EWE group were still in control, in my opinion.
I cannot disagree, Clifford. It was a rough ride from the beginning. Alario can be a governor’s best friend or worst enemy. I can remember sitting in front of house committees during the Roemer administration being blasted mercilessly by EWE loyalists – many of whom later became powerful allies.
No matter what we may think of him otherwise, Alario is the most effective leader in the legislature if not state government, itself But the Gang of No and others in the house have proven the senate can’t do much, particularly fiscally, unless the house sends them something and then works with them to reach a compromise.
Stephen, you write “I am of the considered opinion that we could all save a lot of time, grief, and money by simply agreeing, right now, to make permanent the temporary sales taxes currently in effect, cut as necessary for the difference, and hope for a better, more responsible future under new leadership.”
Stephen, you better than almost anyone know the unfairness of the Sales Tax. It’s simply picking the low fruit and kicking the can down the road rather than addressing the deep rooted revenue problems that over the years the legislature’s have made for the State. $ Billions in tax revenues are lost to “Business Incentive” programs that are so unnecessary. Is all the oil and gas under the State and off of its coast going to be moved by the chamber of commerce to Iowa if we don’t have tax incentives to drill for, produce, and refine it? Do we need Movie Industry Tax credits so huge that the movie industry is selling the credits? Are profitable businesses not going to expand just because they don’t get tax incentives? No! They are all here because the resources and markets are here.
So get off this “Sales Tax Is The Only Answer” kick and demand true fiscal responsibility from everyone engaged in the process.
You make a lot of really good points, starting with the one about sales taxes. I have always believed the “Stelly Plan” was the best fiscal legislation in my lifetime. It was destroyed for no good reason and totally misrepresented as simply an income tax increase by those who wanted to destroy it.
My considered opinion is based on the premise that neither the governor nor the legislative leadership have it in them to come together and adopt the kind of reform we actually need and that you suggest. I believe they will enter a special session, bicker about the same things they currently bicker about, accuse each other of lying about our true status, misrepresent things on both sides of the argument and ultimately simply renew the existing sales tax on a temporary basis.
So why will our “leaders” not go ahead and admit they are failures and do as I suggest? Well, I guess one reason is That it is not human or political nature to admit you are a loser and, for my money, they’ve proven they are. I have contacted everybody who will listen pointing out the same things you are saying to no avail and I frankly have given up on expecting these people to behave responsibly or, in most cases, even respond to me.
I am not on the “Sales Tax Is the Only Answer” kick, I simply accept that for now it is the best answer by default.
Although I was personally around Gov. Roemer on a number of different occasions, and was even his personal bodyguard a few times while working as a Louisiana State Trooper, he came across as a spoiled brat. He may have been a fine Governor, but he had no concept as to winning friends, and influencing people. In the State of Louisiana, it’s next to impossible to get elected, and harder than that to stay in office if your not a people person.
Edwin Edwards may have been a crook in the eyes of many, but he was the sharpest when it came to making everyone he met feel special. Of all the Governor’s I escorted over the course of my career as a state trooper, EwE was heads, and shoulders beyond them when it came to knowing how to treat people.
Your point was the number one complaint by Gov. Roemer’s appointees. I do not think he is, or was, a spoiled brat, but he was definitely not a glad-hander. He was around people with good social skills his whole life, but never really seemed to have acquired them. This is part of what I meant by his perceived arrogance. That said, I never considered him to be mean. He was preoccupied with the state’s problems and it was my take that he didn’t realize the way people perceived him – he could be alone in a crowd, lost in his own thoughts. He expected 110% from the people who worked for him and he didn’t mind showing his disappointment in stern ways when he thought he wasn’t getting it. He was a perfectionist and, if you’ve never worked for one, it’s hard to know what it means. I think he and his people did a much better job of holding his appointees accountable for their actions than any other governor I have known or studied.
EWE is the consummate politician with unparalleled people skills. He was the kind of governor nobody who worked for him wanted to let down, but, make no mistake about it, he would let them know if they did. From personal experience, I can tell you he could come across as every bit as cold as Roemer in private, and some of that showed after he was out of office.
I admire your post Stephen but I have to add that as you well know, there’s a vast difference in who and what the Republican party is now compared to back in the 1980s/early 90s.
The Republican party as a whole has become more and more obstreperous when they are not the party in power. There is no sense of compromise with the executive when they don’t control that office. Just look at what McConnell said when Obama was elected: he was going to ensure that Obama was a one-term President. There are probably similar feelings in the lege about JBE. Edwards can’t get a lot accomplished when he has a recalcitrant lege.
And of course the other thing is we need to remove some of the constitutional protections on programs that protect them from cuts. That simply puts too harsh a burden on health and education.
Just my opinion of course.
So I found it rather bizarre that the Business Report had editorials on this very subject matter that were completely in conflict with one another in their Jan 31st edition. I can only imagine that this was intentional on their part – but comical none the less. I guess they chose the he said and she said route to try and appeal to their readership on both sides of this coin?
This is directly from Chairman Rolfe McCollister’s editorial on the inside of the front cover:
Edwards told the Legislature, “This is what falling off the cliff looks like.” No, governor, it’s the fall that you have designed and chosen. Just one plan from our Democratic governor trying to force the hand of others to comply. Why else would one make the ridiculous proposal of cutting the popular TOPS program by 80%, resulting in many of our best and brightest going out of state or not going to college at all—when we need a trained workforce? We know there are other options for the governor, but they wouldn’t generate pressure and phone calls or emails to legislators.
So, has Edwards done all he could? Let me repeat from my column last August, “Are we not spending enough in Louisiana per capita?” The Kaiser Family Foundation said Louisiana spent $5,944 per person in 2015. (That would be higher today because our budget has increased and we lost population in 2016.) That compares to Alabama ($5,210), Georgia ($4,413), Texas ($4,350) and Florida ($3,509). Mississippi tops us at $6,569.
Are we trying to be like Mississippi—or do we see that more doesn’t always make it better?
And many claim, “We have cut to the bone and can cut no more.” Let’s look at more data from Governing magazine, this time about state employees per capita. This report was from the 2014 census after many thousands of state jobs had been eliminated. Louisiana had 97 state employees per 10,000 residents. Compare that to Alabama (91), Georgia (68), Texas (65) and Florida (56). Mississippi was higher with 120. So, has Edwards reduced our state workforce to save labor costs—just like businesses do?
Then Editor Stephanie Riegel’s editorial, Realities of the Louisiana budget situation on the inside back cover:
“The state’s current budget situation—as much as a $1 billion revenue shortfall come July 1—is troubling, not in the least because lawmakers have known it was coming for two years but didn’t take any meaningful steps to avert it through fiscal reform.
Equally troubling, however, is the disinformation campaign being waged by critics of Gov. John Bel Edwards—namely Republicans determined to thwart a Democrat at all costs—who are peddling the fiction that hundreds of millions of dollars in wasteful spending could be cut from the budget to help mitigate the crisis if only the governor would exercise some fiscal restraint.
It’s a problem of spending, not revenue, they keep saying. In an era where Fox & Friends passes as a trusted source of daily news by an alarming percentage of the so-called educated public, it’s really not surprising that mantra would stick.
The problem is it’s not true.
What is true is the hyper-partisan political culture that has come to define the way business is done in Washington now poisons Louisiana’s swampy backwaters, rendering it impossible to forge any sort of a compromise at a time when compromises are badly needed.”
And here we are again, all of us, waiting for tribalistic kumquats to decide the future of our state.
Excellent article. JBE’s re-election chances took a serious blow the day he was sworn in and seriously miscalculated the leadership elections. Honestly, his chosen advisors and staff who had/have little institutional knowledge of LA Legislature. As you stated correctly in your article, JBE lacks the courage and resolve to address the corruption and spending problems he inherited from the Jindal Administration, making these reforms does ruffle many feathers and for some reason JBE finds it necessary to pander to those who will NEVER support him on the failed and flawed assumption of his staff that any negative media reports must be stopped at all cost. And when his appointees have uncovered corruption and wrongdoing and vowed to make fundamental changes to a state agency with systemic corruption and spending problems, JBE tossed Charlie Melancon out at LDWF to avoid any criticism and negative press from the same individuals who palms are being greased with taxpayer dollars. JBE was very well aware of the criminal and unethical activity going on at LDWF, but tossed Melancon aside and let things go right back to the way they were. It was easier for JBE to ignore what the citizens elected him to do all to avoid short-term criticism.
Change is not easy, it takes courage and resolve which JBE has shown none.
While we all love to damn temporary taxes and the weak leadership that produces them, we should not.forget that temporary taxes serve politicians well on both sides of the aisle. In fact temporary taxes have been around for much of the past three-plus decades. Those who want more spending have to compromise on an uncertain future for their spending and those who want to spend less regularly albeit reluctantly rely on them as an “out” when cuts are too difficult.
When politicians cannot or will not find enough common ground to forge a permanent compromise, temporary taxes are not in reality a temporary solution, they are a permanent way of maintaining the unhappy status quo.
Bill and Stephen, how long did we keep the Recovery District in place?
8 years
Well written article Stephen and while I do remember well the days of the Roemer Revolution and still believe he made some fatal mistakes early on in his administration, he did show more leadership than the current governor. Another odd irony to this is, Roemer had his circle of advisors , Dennis Stine, Brian Kendricks and last but not least, one John Kennedy! The distinct possibility is that JBE could very well face what’s left of the Roemer Revolution in the next election.
A very good article written by Clancy Dubos I n January 2016 about JBE’s legislative leadership debacle. Interesting read in retrospect.
https://m.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2016/01/15/edwards-bridge-too-far-selecting-a-new-louisiana-house-speaker
Roemer had no shortage of unprecedented issues with the Legislature, but JBE’s challenge started on day one. In the first few months of JBE’s administration, a very direct and aggressive campaign for a coup in the House was eventually scrapped. Like the first speakers election, he couldn’t get the votes.
Edwards is weak and nothing short of a controlled puppet. That trait is what has enabled Jeff Landry to shame and humiliate him without even having to break a sweat:
http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=1346
Stephen, your predicted scenario of the way the special session will play out matches what I stated in the video announcing the rollout of No Penny Renewal to the proverbial “T.”:
http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=1316
That renewal is NOT going to happen because the Legislative Black Caucus is staunchly opposed to it as are fiscal conservatives. JBE better get ready to slash the budget. I can assure you with 100% certainty that BIG-TIME money will be shelled out to ensure the defeat of legislators supporting taxes of any nature in this upcoming special session, and anyone voting to renew that sales tax may as well kiss their political future goodbye.
Finally, JBE’s biggest imminent threat to re-election is actually not any Republican being mentioned. There’s at least a possibility that a prominent Democrat may well challenge him next year, and this gentleman would be a major force to be reckoned with who would have no trouble whatsoever raising BIG-TIME money.
Can anyone name that Democrat is two tries or less?
Er, ah, Jim Bernhard?
I am basing that guess on your clues.
You’re good, Stephen!! You got it on your first shot!!
Roemer was too stubborn for his own good. The school teachers kept telling him that his evaluation system was a farce, but he knew better than them. They proved him otherwise.
John Bel has some of the same traits. He is stubborn to a fault. He keeps threatening to cancel LSU football and undo TOPS. Not exactly the most popular or reasonable things to say. I believe John Bel is a fraud. His stripper bus fiasco and re-appointment of Edmonson proved that he just another political whore.
JBE a fraud!! Perish the thought!
http://www.jbefraud.com.
Speaking of which, I need to update it for several occurrences within the last several weeks. Thanks for reminding me!
I remember those first years very well. My husband and I were both state employees and had the state’s budget balanced on our backs. Imagine two paychecks being delayed, until we were missing two whole checks. I’ll never forget Buddy Roemer the Republican governor. Also, I will never forget Jindal who again used state employees to balance his budget. Our pay is at least 32% or more less than what we should currently be making. Not to mention our insurance rates by Blue Cross (who has the monopoly on the industry in Louisiana) while giving their employees raises and bonuses on our dime. This is what I remember about Buddy and Bobby!
Although I didn’t make it clearer, we were actually in much worse shape when Roemer took office than when JBE became governor. The reason for the paycheck delay was that we literally could not pay our bills – not only was our budget busted, but so was the state treasury. We managed this extreme cash flow problem by delaying all kinds of payments.
If you can believe this, we had to do what too many families still have to do – stack the bills up and try to pay the most urgent ones with the money we had. You remember the paycheck delay, but do you remember you got your money back the next fiscal year? As noted in Melinda Deslatte’s AP story today, we created the unprecedented Louisiana Recovery District as an extreme measure (for which Roemer took no end of grief) to get the money to catch up on our bills, including salaries.
Gov. Jindal did things no governor has done before or since. Note the report in today’s paper of the court’s ruling yesterday that his “fund sweeps” were unconstitutional. His approach to state employee reductions was to turn as much of government as possible over to the private sector despite the lack of evidence it actually saved any money or made services any better.
I see absolutely NO similarities between Roemer as a person and what little I know of Bobby Jindal (I only briefly worked with him during the Foster administration when he was the governor’s wunderkind). Roemer would not win a congeniality award, but I never knew him to be other than honest and I cannot say the same for Jindal.
As far as giving their own appointees big money, I would ask you to compare, as just one example and because it is easy to find, the salary for the commissioner of administration under Roemer and in EWE’s last term of office with that salary today. And, don’t stop there. Also, note the ratio of unclassified to classified employees and how it has changed since the mid-nineties.
I appreciate you pointing that out as to the comparison of salaries in the different administrations. Those that disagree can go further and check the salary difference of the cabinet and sub cabinet appointees of then and now. You are totally correct on the number of unclassified employees of them and now and I can’t even get a response from my lege when I point this out to him. However I will say this started under the “Wonderboy Jindal ” but JBE has done nothing to curtail the abuse. Again, great article. If only the what we have as news media would spell it as well but I’m not looking for that to happen.
Sounds good. Look forward to it. Hope you get to feeling better soon.
Toby
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks, and answering my own question about the commissioner of administration:
Raymond Laborde, EWE’s last commissioner of administration made about $68,000 per year. In 2016 Jay Dardenne’s salary as JBE’s commissioner of administration was $237,000. Inflation? Nope. $68,000 in 1996 dollars was $104,018 in 2016 – an average rate of 2.15% per year – inflation has been very low for many years.
The average by which this salary has grown over 20 years is about 7.6% per year. Let’s say it had kept pace with an average increase of 4% (more than most classified state employees got). Then it would have grown to $143,266.
I’m not picking on the commissioner of administration, just using that salary as an example. Other examples abound. Here’s one place you can meander around to get an idea of what has happened:
http://www.louisianasunshine.org/
It’s not completely up to date, but, as I say you can certainly get a feel for things. You have to register to use it, but I have gone in several times and have noted no spam or anything else as a result.
By the way, I visited the state of Oregon budget office in 1980 to look at their automated budget system – we didn’t have one – I was on a team trying to develop one. Thirty-eight years ago Oregon’s personnel system directly tied to their budget system so that each personnel transaction rolled into the budget projection for the year. Do we have anything like that today? No. I wonder what I would find if I visited Oregon today? The mind boggles at our backwardness and our contentment with it. We treat things like this as if they are novel ideas. They aren’t. If we implemented the Ohio Checkbook system being touted as our salvation by house Republicans and others, could we make it work? At what cost? If we made it work, how many people actually making decisions about how to spend our money would actually use it – particularly if the data conflicted with their political agendas? How many citizens would trust the state of Louisiana enough to believe the data was accurate? I heard too many promises that remained unmet during my tenure. Did it make me cynical? Yes.
Roemer was a pompous arse who waved his silver spoon at you when he spoke. I fear his son is the same. The comparisons of he and Bel Edwards will continue, hopefully, if they are both one term governors. Reform does not necessarily mean more taxes. Stelly was part of a package of reform taxation that was never fully implemented, it was only the first part of what I recall was two or three packages that were to be implemented by the lege’s. As long as Alario and his minions are around, we’ll never have true reform.
Stelly was fully implemented. Then, when we got flush with disaster money, Kathleen Blanco, yielding to pressure, did away with the first part of the income tax piece. Jindal, also yielding to pressure, did away with the second part of the income tax piece. The sales tax decrease implemented to offset the income tax increase was and is still in effect – though its effect has become clouded or eliminated by the current “temporary” sales tax base.
The fact is Stelly was totally misrepresented by those who opposed it – as simply an income tax increase. Conveniently forgotten was the sales tax decrease that was its opposite number. It was presented, and was, a progressive tax plan more responsive to the economy and more fair to the poor until it was destroyed by the kind of short-range thinking that always gets us in trouble – because we, as a state, apparently suffer from selective memory loss and sometimes an inaccurate memory, to boot.
I, for one, am extremely gratified to see such involvement on the part of the readers of Mr. Winham’s post. While there is much variance in philosophy and some disagreement among the writers, the intelligent discussion encourages me to believe there are still some intelligent people out there with divergent ideas and the ability to articulate same.
I look forward to future installments from Mr. Winham. Whether or not I happen to agree with him is immaterial; the dialog is refreshing.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it and the discussion has been a healthy one.
Buck, refreshing and civil.
I seldom agree with Mr. Winham, but respect his experience, service, and opinions. This is a fantastic piece and I hope it gets picked up by other sites to increase circulation. I enjoyed his comparison of the two Governors and agree completely with his conclusion about the 5th penny and exemptions being made “permanent,” although I lean toward only a portion (1/2 maybe?) of the penny being carried over, with minimal spending reductions added to stave off the “cliff.” Again, a great piece with lots of insight and considered opinion, and zero name calling and rhetoric.
Good article, Stephen, followed by a good discussion, of varying opinions which is always positive, maybe there is hope…..
John BEL Edwards
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-ft Sent from my iPad Mini
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Have you seen this? https://edtalents.org BESE Member and consulting? Hmmm.
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