KEYSTONE PIPELINE: LOUISIANA’S ECONOMIC SAVIOR?

Thursday, January 26^th, 2017

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

KEYSTONE PIPELINE: LOUISIANA’S ECONOMIC SAVIOR?

One of the new President’s first actions announced this week is to support the building of the Keystone XL pipeline that the Obama administration had disapproved. Both Louisiana senators hailed the decision and talked about all the new jobs that will come to the Bayou State. But is building the pipeline such a huge job creator and economic bonanza for Louisiana?

For those readers who have been out of the loop as to what Keystone is all about, here’s a short summary. Canada is proposing the building of a pipeline some 875 miles from Western Canada down to Nebraska, where it would then tie in to other U.S. pipelines. More than 830,000 barrels of oil a day would then flow down to the Gulf Coast for refining and exportation. But the U.S. has to give approval, since the pipeline crosses international borders.

Those opposing the project fear major environmental damage, as the pipeline is being built and maintained. Not so, I say. Remember, Louisiana is crisscrossed by over 10,000 miles of pipeline with only minor environmental problems. I’m not talking about damages that have destroyed large portions of marshlands by drilling for oil and gas. These are the buried pipelines that take refined petroleum up to the east coast.

Right now, a large number of petroleum products are transported to the Midwest and West Coast by rail and truck. There is probably more ecological risk with land transportation than with pipelines. Environmentally, I just don’t see that great a risk.  

For the past several years, the Louisiana congressional delegation has proclaimed that 50,000 jobs or more will be created, and adds assertions that gasoline prices will drop at the pump with more oil that can be refined on the Gulf Coast. But is there any validity to the claims of all the benefits that will come to Louisiana?  Absolutely not.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported recently that an eleven-volume report prepared by the State Department concludes the Keystone Pipeline would create (are you ready) 35 permanent jobs. Thirty-Five jobs and not a single one in Louisiana. So the claims of thousands of jobs flooding into the Bayou State, as both candidates contend, are nothing more than a pipe dream.

How about their claims that all this new Canadian oil will actually lower the price of a gallon of gas? Again, not true. What few realize is that Canadian oil, called tar sands crude, is already being imported into the United States, primarily by rail in tank cars, at a rate of more than 3 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This Canadian oil is being processed in Midwestern refineries, the largest being the Flint Hills refinery in Pine Bend, Minnesota, owned by the Koch Brothers. Numerous other refineries are spread from Minnesota across the west to Montana.

Most of this Midwestern oil is presently sold to U.S. consumers. So the more oil we keep here in the U.S., the lower the price at the pump. Where will the Keystone oil go? To Texas, to be refined and shipped overseas. That means less oil in the U.S., and a higher price to U.S. consumers.

The bottom line is this. The Keystone pipeline, if approved, will have no bearing on jobs or economic development in Louisiana. It might even cause the price Louisiana consumers pay at the pump to go up. Telling those of us living down here in the Bayou State any differently is just more political smoke and mirrors. If congress wants to approve the project to land a few more jobs in Texas, so be it. But in Louisiana, how about more straight talk and less political distortions and gibberish?

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Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs. ~Proverb

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

STRAIGHTENING OUT LOUISIANA’S FINANCIAL WOES!

Thursday, January 19^th, 2017

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 STRAIGHTENING OUT LOUISIANA’S FINANCIAL WOES!

We hear from the national news that the country has become polarized over the election of Donald Trump.  But if you want to see real division in government, just take a gander down South to the Bayou State.  Republicans have been trying to pull the political rug out from Governor John Bel Edwards at every turn from day one.  And efforts to undermine the new governor do not show any sign of slowing down soon.

Edwards got a hint of the rough waters ahead when his handpicked candidate for speaker of the house was soundly rejected in favor of a Republican alternative.  Then, facing huge deficits left over from the Jindal administration, the legislature only gave the Governor half a loaf of the new revenue needed to fill the state’s financial gap.  The state is facing a $320 million shortfall for this fiscal year, but there is little legislative interest in raising new taxes.

Cut, cut, cut is the Republican rallying cry.  And cuts in many programs will no doubt take place.  The state is certainly not at any bare-bones spending level. After all, the budget just two years ago was $22.6 billion. This fiscal year, the same budget has jumped up to $26.9 billion. And I can tell you first hand that there is always room for cutting back.

I was a statewide elected official in Louisiana for twenty years, and every year, just like all the other state agencies, I pleaded for more tax dollars.  But you know what?  If my budget was ever cut by five to ten percent, I could find ways to slash and the public services wouldn’t drop a bit.  Every agency in government has a press secretary and an assistant press secretary. Are they really needed?  How about the legislature insisting on performance audits on every agency in government to be sure the taxpayer is really getting their money’s worth.

And a little cooperation among the state’s elected officials would help.  Our new U.S. Senator, John Kennedy, continued his attacks on the Governor for not spending federal dollars for flood recovery soon enough.  This knock is a bit lame since the feds have only given Louisiana a small part of the recovery funds it needs, and the holdup, as is usually the case, looks to be out of Washington.

Attorney General Jeff Landry seems to have a daily spasm eager to confront Edwards on a number of issues.  Landry, by the way, has strapped on his six-gun and is trolling the state making arrests for any number of crimes, even though the constitution gives no arrest power to the AG.  But what’s a little thing like a constitutional prohibition?

The Governor has some options, particularly considering that the state gives away over a billion dollars a year in special tax breaks.  But how many are really that necessary, and is the state getting its money’s worth?

So, as I wrote a few years ago, why not just go back to square one? The legislature, without any direction from the new governor, could go into a special session, either with the governor’s support or on their own, and re-build a financial plan for taxing and spending from scratch. Why have a knockdown, drag-out fight over what funding to cut or what exemption to preserve? Just let the legislature do its job with a clean slate and no “locked in” spending requirements.

Back in 1973, I was an elected delegate to the constitutional convention and served as co-chairman, along with former governor Buddy Roemer, of the revenue and finance committee of the convention. After months of discussion, we directed that the legislature assume the constitutional responsibility of determining year in and year out just how state funds were to be spent. No special exemptions. No advantages or money protection for any one group.

But little by little, the legislature bowed to the whims of special interest groups and allowed constitutional amendments that limited the legislature’s ability to prioritize spending. So here is what needs to happen. The legislature in its coming spring session, should deal just with Article 7 of the constitution. Eliminate all dedicated funding for any special interest. It would take just one constitutional amendment to be considered by the voters next year.

The Governor this week took a break from dealing with Louisiana’s financial crisis and is visiting with the Pope in Rome. Unfortunately, it will take more than a papal blessing to get the state’s fiscal house in order.  A prayer would help, but amending the constitution would be a good beginning.

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“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”

― P.J. O’Rourke

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

NEW GIMMICK TO RAISE TAXES IN LOUISIANA!

Thursday, January 12^th, 2017

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NEW GIMMICK TO RAISE TAXES IN LOUISIANA!

You would think that in the New Year, following a year when the Louisiana legislature raised taxes by over one billion dollars, lawmakers would sense the public’s anti-tax fervor and be averse to mining every nook and cranny for more taxes.  But now Governor John Bel Edwards, with full legislative support and in a desperate attempt to send more revenue to state coffers, is quite willing to stick purchasers with sales taxes for whatever they buy online.

Taxing online purchases undermines the fairness of why sales taxes, or any taxes for that matter, are collected in the first place. These taxes are put into law for the purpose of funding a wide variety of government programs and services. The benefits accrue to the local taxpayer. A storeowner who collects a sales tax gets something in return. There is police and fire protection, roads and other governmental services that benefit both buyer and seller.  Not so when a purchase is made online. The Internet seller derives no benefit from state and local government when such seller lives in another state.

It’s not that the Internet seller is free from paying a variety of taxes. In their home state, they are assessed with income, property, sales, user fees, permit fees, and a variety of other taxes. And they get local and state governmental services in return. Yet Democrats and Republicans alike now want to impose an additional burden of making a company selling over the Internet figure out the tax rate, not just in every state, but in every county, parish, city and local taxing district in the country.

This writer has a small Louisiana based publishing company, which takes orders from states across the country. Under this new bipartisan taxing plan, my small business will now be forced to figure up the specific sales tax in every locality from wherever we might receive an order. Figuring out and applying this myriad of tax rates, in itself, is an additional unwarranted cost to the seller, which ultimately comes out of the consumer’s pocket as well. Never mind the lack of fairness or how smart is it to add another stress to small businesses in our already over-stressed economy.

There will be no such burden on in-state businesses.  Do you think your local laundry or gift shop, located just a few blocks away, but in a different taxing district, will agree to obtain your address, determine the applicable tax for each customer, then collect the tax and send it into the state? Good luck!

The big guys like Amazon and Apple can handle these additional costs. In fact, Amazon is proposing charging a fee of 2.9% on its third-party vendors just to figure up what taxes need to be collected. So this would be even more costs piled on small businesses and their customers.

Some Republicans are even suggesting that the taxes be collected and remitted by the federal government. So much for states being the “laboratories of democracy” and protecting “states rights.”

Let me tell you just how far this new bipartisan tax mania has gone. The state of Illinois is now proposing that its own citizens will be taxed when they buy from out-of-state sellers.  So let’s suppose an Illinois resident decides that he or she wants to send their own money out of state.  Under the proposed plan, they must pay a tax. No, let’s call it what it is – this is not a tax — this is outright confiscation.

States across the country are facing major financial crisis. But governors and legislatures have irresponsibly piled on unsustainable pension and other borrowing obligations. A tax on Internet spending is simply a gimmick for the purpose of filling state and local coffers with no benefit to those paying and collecting such taxes.  Republicans and Democrats, alike, are caving in to the allure of new revenue. And we taxpayers are the big losers.

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“Read my lips: no new taxes.”   George H.W. Bush

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

IT’S CRUNCH TIME FOR JOHN BEL EDWARDS!

Thursday, January 5^th, 2017

Linville, North Carolina

IT’S CRUNCH TIME FOR JOHN BEL EDWARDS!

The honeymoon may be just beginning for President-Elect Donald Trump, but any such love fest has come to an abrupt end for Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.  2016 was a year the new governor would like to forget, but things don’t look a lot better for 2017.  In fact, it could become a lot worse.

Edwards had barely been sworn into office when the downhill slide began.  He was the first Louisiana governor in memory who was not able to name his Speaker of the House, as Republican legislators firmly rejected the governor’s handpicked choice.  Then Edwards was faced with a budget deficit, created by overspending by the previous Jindal administration, of over one billion dollars.  A massive tax increase was not the way he wanted to begin his new administration.

His problems continued to mount in his first year with catastrophes over shootings by the police and of the police in the Baton Rouge area, followed by massive flooding in 20 parishes throughout central and south Louisiana.  The new governor just couldn’t get a break.  And he now enters a new year facing an additional $313 million budget hole.

Besides the mounting problems at home, John Bel faced the difficulty of being the only Democratic governor in the deep South, and leading a state made up of an overwhelming number of Republican elected officials.  And he received scant support from the national Democratic Party. Clinton went down in defeat for President. The Governor had to all but deny his democratic lineage, as he tried not to be tagged by a national party that appeared to be more concerned as to where some people go to the bathroom than in offering solutions to the economic crisis faced by millions of blue collar Americans.

The Governor is being naive if he thinks he will not face strong and well-financed Republican opposition in 2019.  The state Republican Party chairman began the new year by blasting Edwards for failing to offer a plan required by the federal government as to how some one billion dollars in federal flood aid will be spent by the state.  And these Republican attacks will continue.

Edwards is aggressively raising campaign dollars, which is certainly important.  But so far, he has failed to show any interest in building a campaign organization through the present Democratic Party.  The current Democratic leadership seems almost in slumber mold, showing virtually no presence outside of New Orleans, and rarely challenging actions by Republicans working against the Governor. After the governor was attacked on the flood relief issue a few days ago, there was nary a peep from the state Democratic Party.

Perhaps you can’t blame the Governor from being a bit leery of the state party leadership.  After all, stare party chairman Karen Petersen and former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu tried their best to talk Edwards out of running in the first place.  Their clandestine efforts are all outlined in the new book, “Long Shot,” published by The Lisburn Press.

The Governor is stuck with being a Democrat, so he ought to maximize what could be an opportunity.  Yes, the party is stagnant and has done little grassroots organization throughout the state.  But he still is the top dog in the party and could quickly take it over, make some heads roll, raise campaign dollars to support his efforts, and have a coordinate backup machine for both his legislative and political agendas.

Past governors have shied away from asserting control over their respective party apparatus.  But 2019 will present a different scenario.  Edwards will not have numerous Republican candidates beating each other up and scandals he can point to as he did to get elected.  He will have to run on what he will have accomplished facing an obstinate Republican opposition, and probably one well-financed Republican opponent.

If the governor waits until 2018, he will be too late.  It takes time to put together a viable grassroots organization.  The coming year will be crunch time for John Bel Edwards. It’s anybody’s guess as to how he will respond.

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When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.