Continuing with the quality work up there

There's so little to say about the Legislature at this point. We know who they are and what they're about.

The Republican majority in the House Labor committee voted Thursday – four times – against establishing a minimum wage and setting the rate above $7.25 per hour.

They keep complaining about a "labor shortage."  I don't actually think that is real and I plan to talk about that in a different post soon. But if it were real, if the bellyaching bosses who own and operate this state really were in desperate need of help but unable to find anyone willing to work, I wonder what could be the reason.

In any case, no one is asking the bosses to give up their subsidies. 

Facing stiff opposition from Louisiana’s business and oil and gas industry lobbies, a state senator on Wednesday shelved a bid to enshrine in the state constitution local government’s newly won authority over the state’s most generous corporate tax incentive.  

This week we also learned that Folgers is suing to keep hold of tax money it has owed the city of New Orleans after having had its ITEP denied.

In its suit, Folgers, which is owned by The J.M. Smucker Co., does not contest that it will owe taxes going forward. However, the company argues there is a conflict in the procedures outlined in the state law allowing assessors to adjust prior years’ assessments and requirements laid out by the state Constitution and says because of that, the bills for years’ past should be thrown out.

Of course, if this Legislature refuses to make local discretion permanent and future Governor Jeff Landry changes the rules, then companies like Folgers will again be off the hook. 

So, once again, brilliant work up there.  Can't wait to find out what else they've been up to... oh. Oh no. 

It's John's money club, after all

John gets to make the rules, I guess. 

A change shrouded in secrecy will exempt Treasury Secretary John Schroder from key rules governing how he can disburse a huge pot of federal money to small businesses.

The change for the $300 million program was included Monday in an amendment to a spending bill sponsored by state Sen. Bodi White, R-Central. The amendment would exempt Schroder from procurement rules and regulations regarding the program to distribute the federal money to help small businesses remain afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

Maybe not even worth mentioning at this point.  The $300 million fund is already money the legislature stole from the state's CARES Act allocation so that they could pass out money to friends.  The deed is done there.  How fastidious they are about appearing to follow best practices now is kind of pointless.

Suspicious Legislation

On Wednesday, a Louisiana State House committee killed a bill (originally by Sen Bodi White) that would have shielded from the public information about which firms were receiving tax breaks and other "economic incentives" from the state. At the very least, passing the bill would have represented a remarkable about-face by a Republican Party who spent much time and money in recent years promoting a "budget transparency" website. 

We know senses of shame are in short supply in Baton Rouge so it's hard to believe such a thing is possible, but maybe this would have been a step too far, even for them.

But after the bill cruised through the Senate with little opposition, lawmakers on the House and Governmental Affairs Committee questioned whether the legislation was really about protecting workers from having their information disclosed. The Public Affairs Research Council, a good government group, and the Louisiana Press Association both slammed the legislation as overly broad and argued it would hide important information about who is receiving tax money through the state’s myriad incentive programs.

“I don’t know what the real motive is here,” said Democratic Rep. Wilford Carter, calling it “suspicious legislation.” “My instinct is that it’s something other than what we’re hearing today.”

On the other hand, when you control the legislature with supermajorities when the public is distracted (or excluded) from your activities thanks to a global pandemic, why even bother going to the trouble to hide the looting in the first place. Nobody is paying attention. And even if they are, what are they gonna do? Go ahead and pass all the suspicious legislation you want. Nobody is going to stop you.

Oil and gas companies won another round in the Louisiana Legislature on Wednesday when a House committee approved a measure that would kill lawsuits filed by seven coastal parishes against the companies over the loss of wetlands and marshes.

The 9-3 vote by the Natural Resources Committee advances Senate Bill 440 to the full House. Its chances of winning passage there appear solid since most Republicans favor it, and the GOP has almost two-thirds of the seats in the House.

Granted that kill-the-lawsuit bill still has a long way to go, but it's amazing that we're even wasting any time on this right now. Most of this has been going on during a statewide stay at home order. The legislators should be meeting as little as possible right now. Since we already know we're going into at least one special session this year, the only thing they really even needed to convene this session for at all was to pass a perfunctory budget bill.  But even that simple task has proceeded in a somewhat suspicious manner. The COVID crisis has cratered revenues for this year. There are workarounds in place to get us through the emergency period.  And yet, some lawmakers seem like they don't really want to do that. For example, Lance Harris here.

State economists revised the revenue outlook for the state downward by nearly $1 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, largely because of cratering oil prices and sales tax collections that are expected to be sluggish as businesses contend with a virus that has made many people wary of going out.

But state leaders are using broad flexibility granted by the U.S. Treasury Department in crafting the budget. For instance, the plans use $290 million in federal dollars to fund the state’s corrections department, because the feds told state officials they can assume payroll expenses for public safety qualify as coronavirus-related spending.

Economists are currently projecting revenues will rebound by about $700 million next year, but not all are convinced. State Rep. Lance Harris, an Alexandria Republican, asked the governor’s administration to plan for possible cuts in case the budget outlook worsens in the middle of this fiscal year.

And hey maybe that's right.  Maybe there won't be a $700 million rebound next year.  But if that's what you're worried about, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be slashing taxes on oil companies right now.  Or, at least, it's a bit suspect.

Super Polluters

Louisiana based chemical facilities are charting well.

The "Breath to the People" report analyzed the latest batch of self-reported industrial pollution emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2018 Toxics Release Inventory. The report ranked the worst emitters by giving extra weight to the most toxic chemicals released. The analysis focused on plants within a mile of populations of at least 250 people.

In Louisiana, the Sasol Chemicals complex in Lake Charles ranked No. 2 nationally in the listing of the top 100 so-called “super polluters,” while the BASF Corp. and Shell Chemical complexes in Geismar were also in the top six.

Ranked third and sixth, respectively, the BASF and Shell facilities are located in Ascension Parish, a few miles from Dutchtown High School, the state's largest high school by student population, and the parish government-owned multiuse complex Lamar-Dixon Expo Center.

It will probably come as no surprise that each of these "super polluters" receives a generous subsidy via the state's Industrial Tax Exemption Program. Those subsidies are expected to keep rolling on in.   The ITE for BASF's recently announced expansion will cost Ascension Parish schools $43 million over the next 10 years. Shell's Geismar expansion will cost the same parish over $100 million.  Sasol was approved for an additional $10.1 million exemption last year.

Also not terribly surprising, but at least disappointing, is the Governor's decision to roll back some of the discretion he recently granted local government taxing authorities  to reject ITEs that fall under their jurisdiction.

The move tilts the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, or ITEP, back toward the state, four years after Edwards overhauled the program to give locals a vote for the first time. The Board of Commerce and Industry, which for decades approved nearly every exemption request that it voted on, can override the vote of locals if the locals reject an exemption for reasons that “conflict” with the state board’s rules.

The board voted to pass the resolution despite fierce opposition from activists and over the objection of three of 24 board members. Together Louisiana, a grassroots group that has pushed for more stringent standards for ITEP, inundated board members with emails and spoke out against the change at Friday’s meeting.

“This is a move backwards in the reform efforts that we have worked on together,” said Together Louisiana organizer Edgar Cage. “We urge you not to approve this resolution.”

Edwards’ administration said the move would only apply to instances where local officials have “rules” or standards that are at odds with the state’s rules. But virtually all standards adopted locally are different from the state’s rules, and the resolution doesn’t spell out which ones are being targeted.

Basically this means that a local city council or school board can still reject an ITE. But the state can step back in and void the rejection. John Bel isn't taking away their right to say no, he's just ensuring that it won't mean anything.

Meanwhile the new legislature is going into session in a couple of weeks. Baton Rouge State Senator Bodi White has filed a bill that would amend the state constitution to remove John Bel's or any future Governor's authority to interpret the ITEP rules one way or the other.  Presumably this would allow the legislature to void local control over these exemptions altogether thereby clearing the way for Louisiana's "super polluters" to benefit from our support indefinitely. So, you know, big things to look forward to.