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The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) board will vote this Thursday on whether to approve a $300 million request to partially fund the rebuilding of charity hospital in New Orleans. The LRA should recommend that the Legislature only grant the Office of Facility Planning and Control enough for land acquisition and planning fees – roughly $70 […]
Calling a special legislative session immediately after additional and surplus revenues are officially recognized next week is a bad idea. There is no compelling reason to hastily spend the nearly $2 billion expected to be estimated – except to generate political support with promises of pay raises, rebate checks and tax cuts. The governor should […]
Plans are currently being developed to spend a large state budget surplus from last year. Some estimates predict the surplus amount, which will be finalized in December, will reach $800 million. Elected officials are circulating proposals to spend some of the surplus to issue property insurance rebate checks. That would circumvent current constitutional limitations on […]
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not just devastate isolated communities; they irrevocably changed an entire region. There are degrees of damage and recovery, and what this study reveals most clearly is a natural separation of the affected communities into three distinct categories:
Missed opportunity characterizes the 2006 Regular Legislative Session. At the outset, hopes were high that the state might finally be forced to reinvent and redesign some of its outmoded and inefficient policies and institutions. But, in nearly every function of state government, the legislature passed over the rare chance for meaningful debate and successful reform. […]
Consolidation of New Orleans’ seven assessors into a single office ranks high among the meaningful reforms that the legislature must pass this session. New Orleans stands alone in having seven constitutionally-protected assessors, while all other parishes operate with only one. Consolidation of these offices is a good first step toward achieving more uniform assessments, streamlining […]
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the failure of the levee system in Katrina’s wake, left a swath of devastation unprecedented in modern U.S. history: 200,000 homes badly damaged or destroyed, 18,000 businesses ruined, 422,000 residents displaced and still unable to return home, and critical infrastructure destroyed. In Louisiana, the damage was particularly severe in Cameron, […]