Happy Too Many Elections Day

Hey look Stephanie Grace is on her soap box again.

Having two separate elections doubles the cost, creates confusion and possibly fatigue among voters, and very likely pushes turnout for each one lower than it might otherwise be.

Louisiana, simply put, allows for too many elections. Consider this silly scenario just one more example of why.

Are you guys fatigued?  Frankly, I think it's been far too long since we've voted on something.  I was starting to get bored.  Mardi Gras ended weeks ago. LSU just got knocked out of the NCAA tournament. The Pelicans have been out of contention for a while now. Sure, Jazzfest is coming. But every year it gets harder and harder to pretend that Jazzfest doesn't suck.  We need something to do.  Let's go "make our voices heard" or whatever.

I have no idea why Grace hates democracy as much as she does. But it's almost every election day that we find her complaining about how confused or fatigued we poor plebeian voters must be trying to get our heads around all this weighty policy stuff.  She's probably just trying to help but it does come off as a little condescending after a while. In Orleans Parish, there's only one item on the ballot this weekend. I'm pretty sure we can figure this out.

Voters on Saturday will have the chance to approve or reject a 2 mil property tax that should generate a little over $6 million a year for senior services in New Orleans.  Primarily this would benefit the Council On Aging's capacity to provide at home care for seniors through the Meals on Wheels and Homemaker programs. Funding for these services typically relies on state money as well as private and federal grants. But those sources have become less consistent as budgets have been shifted around in Baton Rouge and in Washington in recent years leading to an emergency situation described here by Councilman Williams' communications director.

Every night there are seniors in New Orleans going to bed hungry. Though hundreds of older adults are fed each week by the New Orleans Council on Aging, 1,300 are on the waiting list to receive a delivered meal. In a city of rising costs, many homebound seniors, already on a fixed income, have described how they ration their plate of food from Meals on Wheels to make it last for the whole day. Hundreds more are on the waiting list for the Homemaker Program, which provides housekeeping and chore assistance, a service that for some is the difference between aging in place and leaving their beloved home.

Mayor Cantrell would prefer we hold off on helping, though. She has spent the last few weeks waving around a report from the Bureau of Governmental Research which calls into question the "accountability" process for disbursing dedicated funds to private non-profits like the Council On Aging as well as the churches, and community groups it contracts with.

I have some sympathy for this argument.  Complaining about the web of private clubs, NGOs, fundraisers, and business jerks who function as an informal quasi-government in New Orleans has long been a hobby horse here at the Yellow Blog.  Another thing we've noticed, though, has been the way the fundraisers, club members, and business jerks who comprise the membership at BGR like to pick and choose which of these grifts to criticize and which to sanction. Thanks to the fact that we have "too many elections" in Louisiana, a perfect example of this selective criticism arrives in a little over a month.

On May 4, voters will be asked to continue Audubon's entitlement to dedicated tax revenue for 20 years. To most people, subsidizing Ron Forman's six figure salary might seem like a worse use of public funds than propping up Meals On Wheels. Voters rejected Audubon's proposed 50 year extension only a few years ago. So this time, Audubon is asking to share our wealth with the club members and fundraisers who operate City Park, as well as the club members and fundraisers who operate the semi-privatized NORD. A fourth slice of the pie is being offered to the city's Parks and Parkways department.

As the only fully public agency in the group, Parks and Parkways is the only entity here that should pass BGR's "accountability" test for dedicated revenue. City Park is a state entity but it is mostly operated by private non-profiteers and will continue that way. NORD is operated as a series of public-private partnerships. BGR hasn't criticized the Audubon proposal the way it has gone after the Council on Aging, though.

Meanwhile, the mayor has publicly campaigned for the Audubon millage while her PAC has spent $20,000 trying to defeat the Council On Aging. She's definitely made a choice. And since Cantrell never seems to disagree with BGR about anything (what's up with that, by the way) we can assume no critical report about Audubon is forthcoming from them.

The same sorts of structural critiques could apply to either millage but Cantrell is backing one and not the other. The key difference probably has something to do with whose hands the questionably "accountable" money passes through before it reaches its intended purpose.  Some of those hands are friendlier to LaToya/BGR than others. Anyway they're choosing to feed Boysie Bollinger's lions before they feed needy seniors. I'm sure they have their reasons.

Voters may feel differently, though.  Luckily we have "too many elections" so they can let us know about that.