Louisiana Voice

Well, that certainly didn’t take long.

Reporter Melinda Deslatte tells us that Jeff Landry, just six months into his 18 percent “mandate,” has asked the Louisiana Board of Regents to develop Scenarios for what cuts of $200 million to $250 million would do to higher education in case a .45 percent (that’s a little less than one-half of one percent, for the mathematically-challenged) state sales tax expires in June 2025 with no replacement revenue.

No replacement revenue?

How about not blowing $1,000 per hour to defend against an INVESTIGATION into Louisiana State Police by the U.S. Department of Justice when the Louisiana Attorney General’s office, Landry’s old job now held by his sock puppet Liz Murrill, should be assisting the probe? (by the way, it required two months and a lawsuit for The Lens, a New Orleans publication, to obtain a copy of that $1,000-an-hour contract which, I suppose, might be one of the reasons Landry wants to seal off public records from…the public.)

Of course, Landry has no problem pissing away a few million more for the PR purpose of sending Louisiana National Guard units to the TEXAS BORDER with Mexico. That’s for no reason other than to garner face time on television for Landry – at considerable cost to Louisiana taxpayers.

He’s also the single moving force behind SENATE BILL494 by Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton) which strips local governments of the authority to penalize companies of certain tax exemptions for not living up to deadlines or promised employment figures. That’s potentially going to cost the people of Louisiana untold millions of dollars. Not corporations, mind you, but every day Louisiana taxpayers who get in their pickup trucks and cars every morning, fight traffic congestion just so they can work to support CEOs who make on average 245-times their salaries. Oh, and just to make certain there are no hitches in catering to LABI, he’s also removed representation on the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) agency’s board of directors. Landry wasted no time, signing the bill into law on Tuesday of this week.

Along with all that, we now learn that the administration intends to pay the state’s 64 sheriffs to house juveniles caught up in the legal system. I know, juvenile crime is a problem and the state is woefully short on facilities to house them….but sheriffs? That’s a horrible idea of epic proportions.

Go back and read a few chapters of my book Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption to see what a mess jails operated under the guiding hands of sheriffs can be. (You can order a copy of the book by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the left of this column and paying $30 by credit card. Except it’s not a donation, but a purchase).

If you don’t want to order the book, go to HERE to read about an example of just one such jail.

Yet, I can fully understand Landry’s thinking here. It’s a payoff, plain and simple, to the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association for the organization’s ENDORSEMENT during last year’s gubernatorial election. And they’re acting like quid quo pro was something new up in Washington. How quaint.

The legislature, at Landry’s bidding voted to approve Senate Bill 313, which will funnel $260 million to $520 million (depending upon who’s figures you use: Landry’s – and you know politicians are consistently off by light years when it comes to spending your money – or the Public Affairs Research Council’s) for Landry’s much ballyhooed education savings account (ESA) through the state’s Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program. Designed to help parents pay tuition for private schools. Of course, once they reach college, they’ll be on their own.

And finally, there’s the one issue that no governor, Democrat or Republican, seems willing to fight for. Louisiana continues to lag near the bottom in teacher pay. You may or may not have kids in school but if you can read this, you went to school at some point in your life and because of a teacher – not a politician, a preacher or a rock or sports star – you have become a functional human being in society (or at least had the opportunity to do so).

Some of us were less than ideal students but because some teacher took an interest and helped to steer you in the proper direction, we emerged better persons. Yet, we continue to refuse to pay teachers a competitive salary. In 2021, we ranked 46^th in the nation in TEACHER PAY. Two years later, we still ranked 46^th. Arkansas is a notch ahead of Louisiana at 45^th. Who’s below us? Well, there’s Missouri (47^th), Florida (48^th), South Dakota (49^th), West Virginia (50^th) and Mississippi (51^st).

The median salary for Louisiana teachers (about $56,250 is well shy of the $69,500 national median. The bottom ten states in teacher pay all have Republican governors.

So, using the Bobby Jindal playbook, it looks early on as if Landry is going to give all the tax breaks to his corporate friends, spend lavishly on pet projects, cut higher education (forcing even higher tuitions onto students to make up for shortfalls), and continue to starve public school teachers.

This is what Jindal 2.0 is going to look like, folks, so get ready to bend over.