re: Louisiana, it's time for a new constitution l Small towns are dead

I think it depends on how one wants to proceed. Each of those cities supports one or two thriving (relatively speaking) suburb parish that is dependent upon the urban "mismanaged" parish for its economy. Caddo has Bossier, East Baton Rouge has Ascension and Livingston, and New Orleans has Jefferson, St. Tammany, and arguably St. Bernard and St. Charles.

So, we can ask ourselves, what is it that cities are doing wrong that these outlying parishes are not? Where is the state money going verses where is it generated? Is the issue for these cities a lack of taxing base? Is it bad retirement contracts that are insolvent? Is it unnecessary duplication of services? Is it high salaries? Where is the money going?

I am of the opinion that we have both a revenue and a corruption problem. I do not believe that under the current funding framework that many of these towns could survive even with zero corruption. There's simply no revenues being generated because there's no people and no economic activity happening outside of maybe a dollar general and a gas station. That's not enough sales tax to actually pay for anything. The way our tax system is set up, there are basically three ways parishes can generate revenue:
1. sales taxes (which they can't make too high because the state already levies substantial sales taxes)
2. property taxes (which are severely limited by homestead exemption for residential property, by ITEP and similar developer giveaway taxation shenanigans for industrial and commercial property, and our weird tax assessed valuations for agriculture)
3. Ticket revenues.

Farms and small houses basically generate no sales tax or property tax revenues. So, unless you have a lot of retail and some industrial property that isn't currently getting ITEP exemptions, your community has almost no revenue.

In my opinion, the issues in the state are multi-faceted. I think we need fewer parishes and fewer courthouses. At the same time, those parishes need to have a lot more power. They need more responsibilities and more ability to generate revenue. That means fewer state highways, and turning over control of lots of unelected boards and commissions which manage purely local responsibilities back to local governments. If the local governments fail, let them fail. Let people vote with their feet.

At the same time, the State government should have far less responsibility and tax individuals less so that parishes can make up the difference. The closer to the action the money is, the more accountable the public servants are to the voters. If my parish counsel person does something I don't like, they have to tell me why at church, in the grocery store, and at the football game on friday night. Some random bureaucrat in a state agency can never be found to be held accountable for anything.

We need to get rid of the inventory tax and inventory tax credit system. We need to abolish the state income and corporate taxes. At the same time, we probably need to increase the gas taxes. We need to legalize marijuana, sports gambling, and expand gaming. We need to drastically overhaul our licensing and permitting requirements for many classes of businesses. There is zero reason why florists need to have a license to operate. That's just silly. The biggest overhauls need to come in education. So much of the revenue is taxed at the state level and distributed back to the parishes with strings, yet little oversight. I think we need to take a hard look at what Mississippi is doing with regards to its focus on literacy in primary schools. If we can start improving those inner-city schools, it will do wonders for attracting outside investment. That will increase the tax base of these cities. Better schools will encourage more people to live in the city limits rather than live out in suburbs. That will encourage more in-fill development and less sprawl. Greater urban population density means less strain on interstates as well as improves metrics national chains and developers use to evaluate sites for expansion. Better schools will inevitably result in less crime down the road as fewer students will go on to drop out and resort to crime.

Improving those schools will turn revenue takers into revenue makers. It will improve traffic and improve crime without substantial increases in government spending. The model is already in place and working just one state over. Let's f&%king roll and get this shite done! Louisiana is in bad shape, but these problems are very fixable. We just have to want to actually fix them rather than allow the people who profit from the status quo to keep it that way while we throw our hands up and assume we can't have anything better.

I can certainly appreciate most of what you dutifully laid out there. I think the best thing I can say for now regarding the specific issue of such a momentous program as essentially overhauling the map is that it is so drastic in its potential unintended consequences that it seems best reserved as a nuclear plan. It's just hard to envision basically what would be a new state by the same name. And I can't even begin to fathom the battle lines that would be drawn and resulting angst. But I acknowledge that it's at least worthy of discussion, in doing so perhaps alternative proposals would arise that would also be worthy of consideration.

Gives new meaning to "spread em".

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But as far as state money

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this is about all money extracted from individuals to run these governments, primarily the administrative costs of that endeavor

if state money funded these towns and villages, then they wouldn't need their own tax structure and wouldn't be in such dire straights

then if you move to a parish level, you see the same issue. why does Tensas Parish or Cameron Parish needs its own government? their populations combined are about the same as the metropolis of Jennings. we are talking about police juries, parish admin employees, courts (and their staffs), etc.

How many of these local municipalities are run by democrats?

Democrats can’t comprehend only spending what’s in budget and won’t fire government workers?

Democrat leaders are cancer combined with poison in leadership qualities

We don’t need politicians giving away the house, leading our government positions anymore! They’re leading us off a cliff! We need businessmen like Trump

Do what the rest of us do, cut spending until the budget balances.

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St. Gabriel and SG should probably be in Ascension Parish.

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Fixed it

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No state has ever done this. No chance we could pull this off.

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Few states have such a big budget per capita.
It goes back to our populist roots under Huey Long and continued under EWE and his constitutional convention. The state dominates and required mucho dinero.

Hmm. Good idea. I'm sending an email to my representative to get that done next legislative session.



ETA....Im also suggesting we do away with Mardi Gras in the State of Louisiana to maybe avert any maybe future virus spread. I don't think anyone will mind doing this.

Nope. The state needs a new constitution but the current legislature is full of the most low IQ retards on the planet. I do not want them writing one goddamn thing. It WILL be worse

There is no realistic solution. Leave the state.