JR Ball: Should dying Louisiana small towns be kept alive?

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Those of us in Baton Rouge who actually pay taxes to the state of Louisiana probably don’t realize it, but we have a growing problem on our hands. So, too, do the tax-paying residents of New Orleans, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Shreveport. With each passing month, more and more of the tax dollars coming from one of the state’s semi-thriving metropolises is going to the rather pointless effort of keeping some dying, rural town on life support.

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Sad, no doubt; tragic even—but the question is what should we do about it? Nothing. Let ’em die.

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Take Bogalusa, for instance. The paper mill town has seen its population drop by 50% since 1970, to roughly 12,300; yet the place still is financially maintaining as many streets, according to The Advocate, as Metairie and is on the hook for the salaries of 29 police officers and 31 firefighters. Seriously, why does a town of 12,000 need 29 cops? But what’s putting Bogalusa out of business is the place only has enough cash to fund 17% of its local pension obligations, and the money it does have to cover the retiree tab could run out by as early as 2021. As it stands now, Bogalusa’s problems—and those of 59 other dying towns across Louisiana—are quickly becoming the state’s problems. And the state’s problems are being bankrolled by those of us living in sorta solvent cities like Baton Rouge. Instead of the dollars we send to the state helping fund a new, much-needed bridge over the Mississippi River, it will, instead, cover some other place’s retirement bill, or build a new water system for a place that’s dying of natural causes.

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It’s amazing how the people of this state—who allegedly adore small government, abhor taxes, believe public dollars are generally wasted...can so easily embrace the glory days of Huey Long-style populism when it quenches some self-serving thirst.

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