TOPS Payments Stopped Immediately

So you think what he said last night hurt the football team? Or hurt the school? Did you actually listen to what he said?

 

jim....I recognize that as a non-resident, my opinion is clearly as an outsider and perhaps not the most informed. Here's the deal with me.....when I read something that is unfamiliar, but interesting to me, I take the time to learn. I spent quite a bit of time last night reading several different articles, etc. I read bits by both sides. I finally settled on the article in this link.

http://www.parlouisiana.org/dynaeng...oc=PAR Guide to Budget Research Brief pdf.pdf

"The boom continued the following year, with hurricane recovery expenses making a big impact on the budget. The general fund approached $10.4 billion, its highest point in history, even unto today. The total budget was $28.6 billion, also still a record amount. That was the last budget during the term of Gov. Kathleen Blanco. She approved a significant income tax cut by restoring excess itemized deductions as a personal income tax exemption. This change was a partial repeal of the 2002 Stelly Plan, which raised income taxes for many people while cutting sales taxes on food and home utilities. Blanco and the Legislature gave across-the-board state employee and teacher pay raises, among other budget enhancements, and spent surplus dollars on infrastructure."

^^^^^This was on page 2 of a 27-page document! Maybe it's full of shit or partisan, I don't know but it was certainly informative and seems to be based in fact. I never said that what Blanco did "sunk" the economy. I did say she got the ball rolling and I think that is the truth. Once she took the first step at what was basically a repeal, Jindal simply continued the process.

As an outsider, it's clear that this issue falls squarely on the backs of POLITICIANS. It's not partisan in toto. And sadly, I think the voters have at least a small hand-in considering they have voted in favor of constitutional protection for certain budget items but failed to protect either education or health care.

@tirk had it right. "Louisiana fucked up politics. Some things never change."

 

I have a hard time believing he would stop it permanently too. He needs the Republican Legislature to push it through and I don't see it. If if would there will be a lot of freshmen legislators in the upcoming elections.

He's fucking up crying wolf, imo.

 

LMAO. You think it's one of us to come up with a plan? That's funny.

Let me share this though, there is a 1.34 billion pot of money that dickhead is not talking about, that the state treasury will realize in the coming year for one thing.

The OMV has a program to extract cash from lapses in automobile insurance and license plated not turned in that the state treasury expects to collect some $400 million from.


You might recall the crisis lawmakers faced last year when trying to cobble together a balanced budget for 2015-2016 fiscal year. Perhaps you remember the conniption fit the Louisiana Association of Business & Industry pitched in response to the Legislature tinkering with a host of tax credits and rebates the business community in Louisiana has been granted for years.

Remember?

It seems scores of businesses applied for those credits and rebates before they were officially declared suspended, meaning the state was on the hook to honor them for one more year. In other words, that gravy train — or however you care to describe it — will come to an end to some degree at the end of the current fiscal year.

You following so far?

Further, a cynic might conclude after conducting a little research into the state of the state’s finances that all of the ballyhoo about raising taxes in Louisiana by as much as $2 billion represents nothing but a money grab to expand the social welfare state and give more to those pieces of shit walking around with their pants down to their knees and purposefully walking in the street to disrupt traffic or try to get bumped so they can have a case.


Did you read that link Kyle provided?

 

A cynic or your basic tax payer? It seems that the budget has been nothing more than a money grab for years. I don't even begin to understand what all has happened and how it got to this point. The simpleton in me is reminded of one of the many things my mom taught me....in the kitchen....that not only stands true to the teaching but also extrapolates to issues beyond cooking and baking...."the more your try to 'fix' the frosting on the cake, the worse it will get".

 

Yes, I read it. Still leave us nearly a billion short in four months. I don't disagree there are things we can do long term to solve this. With good governance, long term solutions are very feasible. Short term solutions are harder to find and that's what his speech was about last night. Where's the 940 million by June?

 

I agree completely. I lifted that term from the link.

 

Agree. Let it begin now. There are things that can be cut. I can comfortably say that without specific knowledge just knowing how bureaucracies work. He wants more money to give handouts.

 

Louisiana is 49th or 50th every year in education nationally. How is continuing to cut cut cut education going to ever change that? Why did state employees get raises? Why was the work requirement for social programs taken out? Government waste being eliminated would balance the budget.